Ideology and Aesthetics in an Exile Literary Magazine, «Lletres» (1944-1948) by Agustí Bartra

Abstract

The Catalan literary journals in exile played an important role in the defense of the Catalan language and literature during the Franco’s dictatorship period, among them Lletres (1944-1948), founded by Agustí Bartra in Mexico it played an important role. This article studies the characteristics of this journal defined by a mythical and symbolic expression that writers such as Jordi Vallès, Pere Calders or Joan Roura-Parella (who reflected in art a spiritual projection for human education) carried out, because these features of Neo-romanticism influenced in Bartra’s committed aesthetic. In addition, we analyse the background of the publication, like the Full Catalan (1941-1942) and the controversies between some of the collaborators, especially with Joan Sales and Ferran de Pol, discussion that would continue in Quaderns de l’exili (1943-1947), moreover we study the founding core and the issues of the journal.