A LA RECERCA DE L’HEROI PROLETARI CATALÀ
IN SEARCH OF THE CATALAN PROLETARIAN HERO

ON THE INVISIBILITY OF THE PERIPHERIES

Author(s): Àlex Matas Pons
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Julià de Jòdar; Walter Benjamin; working literature; Jacques Rancière; heterotopy
Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes "L’àngel de la segona mort" (1997), the first novel in the Julià de Jòdar’s trilogy "L’atzar i les ombres". The novel tells the story of the Guifré i Cervantes neighbourhood, a boundary located between the cities of Badalona and Barcelona, and a destination of several migratory movements during the 20th century. Specifically, this article examines the character and narrator Gabriel Caballero from the point of view of philosophy of history: analyzes how his journey and his narrative point of view recover the memory of the vanquished. This article explains what are the elements that characterize Julià de Jòdar’s historical poetics, focused on the story of a defeated neighbourhood, and how they are very different from the conventional narrative strategies used by historicism when making minority groups invisible which have been defeated by capitalism.

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