FRANCESC PARCERISAS
(To those people who think that the “Institució de les Lletres Catalanes” (Institution of Catalan Writing) is an archaic and symbolic institution; which only exist because it has to and not because it has a real power in catalan society; to those who believe that catalan literature can not cross Catalonia’s limits; to those writers who want to be known and don’t have any idea about how to do it... to all of them has its director, Francesc Parcerisas, sent his words. He will help us to find out the real influence and the daily work of this historical institution.)
Text and photos by Georgina Castillo

-Tell us something about your vision of your own trajectory, that one of a man who has become the director of an institution so important after being a poet. Do you feel comfortable with this responsibility?
-I believe that they are two different aspects which are related to someone’s personality. You can be a person who is interested in writing, painting, or composing music, and at the same time in participating in an associative life. I personally have always been interested in it. When groups and associations of writers or translators started to appear in the 70’s, I came in them immediately. These people are a little destitute inside the society. If they don’t get some cohesion it’s very difficult to do something. I have always taken part in the Association of Writers in Catalan Language and I was the representative of translators in the “Institució de les Lletres Catalanes” for a long time. I have always been in them because I believe that things never come from heaven. Somebody must push them.

-How do you evaluate your work after these two years as a director of the institution?
-I am quite satisfied with the things that we have done. I believe that we have reorientated the activity. Sometimes we say that we make a little work instead of making spectacular operations. I believe more in good musical or gymnastic schools than in great athletes or musicians. I think competition is better than being a great figure. The “Institució” is not neither a big company nor a big entity so it is limited but it tries to promote writers in institutes, libraries and universities. We don’t spend money in fireworks but in daily work. Altough the most important think is that, from time to time a party is necessary.

-Between 1937 and 1939 the “Institució de les Lletres Catalanes” was a group of writers and intellectuals who defended the Generalitat (the Catalan government) during the civil war, and during the transition it meant the fight to recover the rights they lost because of the dictatorship. Have these political and patriotic purposals changed?
-It was born mainly to help writers and literature, by distributing catalan books when cultural industry and civil life had disappeared or was very deteriorated. The “Institució” wanted to do what particular industry couldn’t. It didn't publish many books, but those that came out, like La fam by Joan Oliver or Aloma by Mercè Rodoreda, later became essential works of catalan literature. The institution knew how to agglutinate writers with very different political ideas (there were anarchists, communist etc) and defended the status of Catalan writers who were faithful to the Republic. The purposals of claim and fighting are not the same nowadays. The defense of literature creation is still valid, as well as the defense of the diffusion and translation.

-One of the purposals of the “Institució de les Lletres Catalanes” is giving prestige to the Catalan writers in Catalonia and outside. It doesn’t mean that they have lost it?
-I think this loss of prestige is real. Writers don't have the prestige that they used to have 50 years ago. It was a difficult resistant period. Their public image didn't reflect their real private situation that was much more sad that the one of any actual writer. They had a social reconnaissance of their work, they were the guardians of words. Today the social prestige depends on their economical situation. When I see the presidents of the governments photographed with soccer players I think that something is going wrong. The outstanding writers are those who have gained a great reward and then they receive the attention from the medias. The institution look for the writers who represent better the prestige of the group and help them to appear in the medias.

-What does the “Institució” do to give prestige to Catalan writers?
-Some years ago the institution made several campaigns to bring about public prestige of Catalan writers like the Va de lletres. It was a publication of an advertisement where two writers spoke each one about the other. The repercussion of this campaign was very small and too expensive. This is one of the reasons why the big operations are not useful. The money spent in that campaign could have been used in two campaigns much less transcendent in appearance but more important for literature, such sending writers to schools. Nowadays It would be interesting to do so in lower levels in primary school, because it would be a reading incentive for children.

-How could an author be recognized by readers and critic, when the media and especially the television ignore the literature completely because it doesn’t give spectacle?
-This is very difficult because television is supported by the audience shares. During all these 11 years the “Institució” have many times attempted to pressure the “Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió” and we have never received anything. The situation has changed a little bit, because there are two or three programs, like Miralls (where poems are recited), Aleph (where several people talk about a writer), the interviews of Joan Barril in BTV, all of them demonstrate that people watch what is well done. But very often the authors who appear in television are not there for their writer’s names, but for other questions like fame. But I believe that when someone speak clearly, pleasantly and understandably, about literature, it works. Historically there are the interviews by Montserrat Roig, Josep M» Espinàs, etc. Now the interviews in television are very short, very superficial, more importance to the anecdote than to the content is given.

-What do you do to encourage Catalan writers to write in Catalan? What happens with catalan writers who prefer to write in Spanish?
-Writers can do what they want, they should have a total freedom. But it’s obvious that the “Institució de les Lletres Catalanes” dedicate all its efforts to promote the projects written in this language. In fact, the aid to creation is the main purposal. It’s absolutely necessary to help the individual writer to do a work that nobody else could make. But there are many writers and resources are limited. We give grants to projects of poetry, narrative, studies about literature, translation or scripts for audiovisual medias. We are trying to get more aids better gifted, because a writer cannot write a novel with 250,000 pesetas.

-What do you consider to accep or refuse a grant?
-There are many criteria but the most important is the equilibrium between the consecrated writers and those who look for the first chance to be known. A well-known writer has to be helped because it is a project that has a guarantee. This has to be balanced with the projects of people totally unknown. Our work is encouraging people who begin to write, but what it’s not logical is supporting something that doesn't have any social effect. Aids must not be seen as a gift. For instance, the organizations that receive our support, like schools or libraries have to commit to bring audience, to guarantee a continuity.

-Is the translation of foreign writers a way to compensate the lacking of literary creation in Catalan?
-Catalan has to compete with Spanish in the creation, edition and distribution. Although the creation in Catalan language, in spite of the difficulties, is very potent. There are 3000 writers, 50 of them are known and only 5 live on writing. If we don't believe that these authors are good, we won't sell their books. For example, we have just started a project with the British Council. English, German and Catalan writers will see their texts translated by young translators and they will be hung in an Internet page. There are people who say that we aren’t enough known out of Spain, and complain about few resources. I believe that we must have a global idea of the world. All of us would like that some day a Catalan writer gained the Nobel reward and that a movie based on his book was produced in Hollywood, but the main purpose is not that. The genius comes out only from time to time, and what we must do is attempt to distribute the work of the good writers we have. The commercialization, nevertheless, is always difficult. Catalonia is not the only country which has problems to sell its literature.

-What do you think about Internet as a media to diffuse Catalan literature?
-I believe that it is a world with many possibilities but also with much disorganization. Nevertheless it’s a very interesting market because you don't know exactly what you are going to find. What we would like to do is a good port, a good net, so that somebody who look for poetry can find the Catalan one. We are not interested in somebody who look for Catalan literature, because this person already knows what he is looking for. We are interested in the person who navigates looking for contemporary writers and finds casually the Swedes, the Danes and the Catalan.

-What’s the effect of this globalization on the Catalan future?
-I think that it would be good for us, but only if we are there. What we must do is to find the way to make them known by everybody, look for all the literary pages, make links between them. The page of the Association of Writers changes every day and gives new information, new links. There is a project of the Autònoma University of Barcelona called Traces. It is a Catalan bibliography project. There is another one of the institution, Qui és qui (Who is who), with indexed bibliography information about writers. But everything is still to do. It will grow gradually, and this is a good time to start with.

-You said in an interview that vanguard Catalan poetry could not be written unless poets have crossed all the previous stages. It’s now possible?
-It’s always possible, but the exact meaning is difficult to understand. My idea is that the vanguard poetry nowadays is indebted with the one of the 20’s, which is very old, and which had much more rigor. One of the characteristics of our moment is the coexistence of many styles. In a museum, for instance, videotapes share the space with sculptures or paintings. The same happens with literature. Actual writing can be so traditional as it used to be in the last century. It means that vanguard art may be very moderate.

-How do you evaluate this "the new milennium culture", as a simple excentricity or as a real attempt to find new ways of expression?
-This culture is based on the “surprise effect”, and it’s very difficult to be always surprising. After the washbasins by Duchamp or the frame without cloth you can not do the same, or something similar, anymore. If somebody like the poet Joan Brossa has played with the distribution and the shape of letters, you can not do visual poetry with letters after him, you must invent something new. In fact poetry has found an audience, some distribution canals, it has left the book in order to return to its original condition as a “club poetry”, by doing performances or live readings. This is new and it’s very effective. For example, you musn’t forget the International Poetry Festival to which we don’t give any aid because it already works very well.

-You are poet and translator. Although poets always have never followed the fashion style and only few of them receive immediate support, I believe that they have more prestige than translators who are considered as people who don’t make a creative work. What do you think about that?
-The translator is a hidden figure, like an orchestra conductor. In fact, in scenic arts sometimes people go to listen to an orchestra and not what it plays. It doesn’t happen very often with translation. The translator is not visible.The reader only see a language, although this language has changed. The “Institució” organize seminars of translation that work well. What we do is to join two poets and ten translators together during four days and they work on texts. This contact of creation is extraordinary. The result could be sold, but what is real important is this contact because people from Catalonia will receive forever influence from outside and foreign people will always be in contact with our literature, and this is something that lasts, because british people will explain it in Britain, Greek people will explain it in Greece, etc.