EscoltarJosep Pla
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Biographical note
Josep Pla i Casadevall (Palafrugell, 1897–Llofriu, 1981) is one of the most important figures in Catalan literature. He is regarded by many as the best prose writer in the Catalan language and he is the most prolific contemporary Catalan author.
Pla took his baccalaureate in Girona and then studied law in Barcelona. His immediate environment and the periods he spent outside Palafrugell started to awaken in him an acute sense of observation and a fascination with writing that he later channelled, as a novice reporter at Las Noticias and La Publicitat, a daily paper where he started his long career as a correspondent, chronicler and columnist in titles like La Veu de Catalunya and Destino.
His work
Pla was a tireless writer and cultivated various narrative genres: journalism, diaries, biography, chronicles, letters, travel writing, etc. For much of his life, he travelled around various European and American capitals, making him a privileged witness to the changes and major conflicts of the 20th century. These stays, along with the times he spent at the Pla de Llofriu farmhouse and in various towns of the Costa Brava, form the raw material of his very extensive work. In total, Pla’s complete works have over 30,000 pages, condensing his particular style of describing the world: clear, detailed and with precise descriptions. Pla’s great lexical richness combines with his sense of humour, his scepticism and his expressive purity to create an inimitable narrative style.
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Photo: Foto: Josep Pla a la platja del Port bo. Calella de Palafrugell, 1972. Autor Carlos Pérez de Rozas. Fundació Josep Pla, col·l. Josep Vergés
Pla and the Baix Empordà
The Baix Empordà, with its landscape and its people, was a decisive influence on Pla and his work. As a result of his observations and writing, he coined the term Empordanet to refer to the physical and symbolic space between the Montgrí, Gavarres, Vall d’Aro and the sea. Pla described in detail the appearance of the coves, beaches, towns and villages of the Baix Empordà’s Costa Brava, as well as the little villages inland. This writer from Palafrugell filled pages with precise portraits of the most beautiful parts of the coast where the charm and harshness of a landscape that has one of its strongest champions in Pla can be appreciated. As well as these locations, Pla also focussed on the people who worked the land and the sea, two worlds where work, climate, nature and life make up an indivisible whole.
Josep Pla Foundation
The Josep Pla Foundation is the institution in charge of conserving, publicising and studying the writer’s literary heritage. The foundation’s headquarters on Carrer Nou in Palafrugell – in the house where Pla was born – houses his personal library, which the author left in 1973, a bibliographic collection specialising in Pla, a documentation centre and exhibition spaces where you can visit the permanent “Josep Pla (1897–1981)” exhibition and a temporary exhibition that changes annually. The institution promotes the Josep Pla Route, a collection of literary itineraries that explore the municipality of Palafrugell and other places such as Ullastret and Barcelona, with close links to the writer. The foundation also organises a great variety of informative and academic activities relating to this author from Palafrugell.
