Una disputa de cos present. Controvèrsies en la mort de Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894–1961)

Abstract

This article analyzes the different reactions that followed the death of the writer Josep Maria de Sagarra in 1961, one of the most popular authors in 20th-century Catalan culture, for his poetic and narrative work, journalism, and especially theater. In the context of the Franco dictatorship, Sagarra’s funeral became a large-scale political act, organized and used by the authorities to show their capacity to integrate an author who had written all of his significant work in the Catalan language. Sagarra lived between two worlds, with some links to the cultural resistance, but publicly signified by his willingness to adapt to the official sphere. For this reason, the Francoist authorities took a great interest in capitalizing on the funeral, which in turn left clandestine Catalanism without a civic-political reference. The article details the clear awareness of the official initiative, widely disseminated through the press, as well as the reactions of the opposition sectors, in restricted-circulation publications and on exile platforms. These controversies about Sagarra’s civic and political role were only on a few occasions translated to the evaluation of his work.