Schreiben in schwierigen Zeiten: Poetik, Wahrheit und List in Víctor Moras Roman "Els plàtans de Barcelona"

Abstract

Víctor Mora's novel, published in French during his exile in Paris in 1966, appears in a censored version in 1972, and again in an "edició integra" four years later. A comparison of both editions raises the question of the mechanisms of censorship in the late Franco state, especially against the background of the poetics of the prevailing "realisme històric" and the regulations which had been changed in 1971. Four criteria of Francoist censorship become clear. Deletion applies to every little anti-Catholic statement, detailed or anecdotally embellished references to Francoist atrocities during the civil war, comments that deviate from the Francoist ideology of the narration and finally any sympathy for the Catalan resistance. The erased passages prove that Mora was too careless about the censorship at such passages. However, it seems that the book's success was promoted precisely by the densification imposed by censorship.