Simone de Beauvoir in Catalan

PalmBeauvoir's universe in Catalan begins in 1963 with the biography Simone de Beauvoir or the failure of a ChristendomWritten by the French Dominican friar A.M. Henry, and translated by the writer Alfons Romeu. In 1966, the first Catalan translation of a work by Beauvoir appeared, by the writer and politician Ramon Xuriguera, within the 'La Mirada' collection of the Aymà publishing house. It is the essay A very sweet deathAn emotional, raw, and poignant chronicle of his mother's final days, beginning with her hospitalization after a fall and subsequent diagnosis of terminal cancer, but also intended as a broader philosophical reflection on death, old age, and suffering.

The novel was first published in Catalan in 1968 The beautiful imagesTwo years after the original French edition, in a joint edition by Edicions Proa and Aymà, with a translation by the poet Joan Oliver, 'Pere Quart', as part of the 'A tot vent' collection he edited. The work narrates the life of a well-to-do family in Paris, through which Beauvoir introduces her reflections on truth and its concealment beneath the veneer of audiovisual spectacle.

The year 1968 became key in Beauvoir's penetration in Catalonia with the publication of four more translations of the French thinker's most philosophical works, beginning with The Second Sex, a foundational reference point for contemporary feminism. It seems that the merit of the translation ofThe Second Sex The translation is a joint effort between Josep Maria Castellet, the literary director of Edicions 62, and Maria Aurèlia Capmany. While Capmany proposed translating the work, Castellet ultimately overcame Francoist censorship and obtained permission from the regime to publish it in two volumes. The Second Sex (1968), almost twenty years after the original French edition. The first volume, entitled 'Facts and Myths', is translated by Hermínia Grau de Duran, with a prologue by Maria Aurèlia Capmany; and the second volume, entitled The experience livedIt is translated by Carme Vilaginés. Almost 58 years have passed since this complete edition was published, and it has not been reprinted. Castellet also achieved the historic milestone of publishing three other essays by Beauvoir in two years: The political thinking of the right (1968) and For a morality of ambiguity (1968), in a translation by the then Marxist and later Catalan socialist and constitutionalist politician Jordi Solé-Tura; and The measure of man (1969), translated by the poet Miquel Martí Pol. All three titles were part of the 'Libros al alcance' collection.

Capmany's Essays

Since 1969, and inexplicably, Beauvoir's name has disappeared from the Catalan publishing scene, despite the positive reception and great influence of her work.The Second Sex in the development of feminism in Catalonia through Maria Aurèlia Capmany, and her literary and ideological mastery inherited by Montserrat Roig and Maria Mercè Marçal. Therefore, if one wants to follow Beauvoir's feminist influence in Catalonia for the remainder of the 20th century, it must be done indirectly through reading Capmany's essays. Women in Catalonia (Ediciones 62, 1966), and Feminism in Catalonia (New Earth, 1973) and the novels Thankfully, I am a woman (New Earth, 1969) and Quim/Quima (Laia, 1971); from readingFeminism (Salvat, 1984), by Roig and the poetic and narrative work of Marçal, such as the poetry collection Mourning witch (Ediciones 62, 1998) and the posthumous political diary Under the sign of the dragon (Proa, 2004).

The long silence is broken, thirty-three years after the translation of The measure of man, with the appearance of The Broken Woman (Deriva, 2002), in a translation by the writer Marta Pessarrodona, a new contribution that expands the Beauvoir literary universe in Catalan. The next literary novelty would take eighteen years to appear and would be the publication of the book The inseparable ones (Ángulo editorial, 2020), a story about Beauvoir's close friendship with Zaza Lacoin in her youth, translated by Margalida Castells, and which will be followed two years later by the publication of a new version ofA very sweet death (Ángulo editorial, 2022), also translated by Castells.

The list of Beauvoir's works available in Catalan has increased with the publication of the novel Misunderstanding in Moscow (Navona, 2022), translated by August Rafanell. The narrative tells the story of two retired professors who travel to Moscow, and is inspired by Sartre's stays in that country during the 1960s. The most recent reference is the publication of the book Moral idealism and political realism (Ediciones 62, 2025), translated by Jordi Martín Lloret, as part of the 'La Blanca' philosophy collection. This book compiles four essays on existentialism that appeared in the journal Modern Timesand which are titled: 'Existentialism and the Wisdom of Nations', 'Moral Idealism and Political Realism', 'Literature and Metaphysics' and 'An Eye for an Eye'. Previously, Edicions 62 had reissued at least twice The beautiful imagesFirst within the '20th Century Writers' collection, and then in 2008, within the 'MOLU' collection, taking advantage of the centenary of the author's birth.

Finally, the existing translations of selected fragments ofThe Second SexThese texts, intended for the educational community, are published by Diálogo and the University of Valencia. They consist of the introduction and conclusion, accompanied by critical reading guides and educational activities developed by Susana López Pavón and Teresa López Pardina, respectively. A third title shares the educational purpose of the previous two and is also linked to... The Second SexIt is an anthology of texts entitled No one is born a woman (Eumo, 2009), edited by Marta Segarra, which recovers the Catalan translation by Hermínia Grau de Duran and Carme Vilaginés from 1968. These texts reproduce in full the introduction and conclusion, as well as excerpts from the chapters 'History: From the Middle Ages to the Modern Age'; 'Myths: Woman, Angel and Demon'; 'The Myth of Feminine Mystery'; 'Childhood: The Early Years'; and 'The Independent Woman'. The edition is part of the 'Pandora's Box' collection. Segarra explains that she followed two criteria for selecting the excerpts: firstly, she chose the most relevant reflections on the female condition; and secondly, she decided to reflect Beauvoir's style, including the entire introduction and conclusion.

Pending Titles

Today, a significant portion of Beauvoir's fiction, memoirs, and letters remain unavailable to Catalan readers. The list of titles awaiting translation is far too long, and listed chronologically by order of writing, they are: The guest (1943); The blood of others (1944); Useless mouths (1945); All men are mortal (1946); North America day by day (1948); The Mandarins (1954); The Marquis de Sade (1955); The Long March: An Essay on China (1957); Memoirs of a Dutiful Young Woman (1958); The fullness of life (1960); The force of things (1963); Djamila Boupacha (1964), written jointly with Gisèle Halimi; Old age (1970); In the end (1972), Simone de Beauvoir herself (1979); When the spiritual predominates (1979), and The farewell ceremony (1981). Nor has his correspondence with Sartre, Nelson Algren and Jacques-Laurent Bost been translated into Catalan, nor the Conversations'with Alice Schwarzer.