Cela, Camilo José

Ce·la (sāʹlä, thāʹ-), Camilo José. Born 1916.

Spanish writer who is best known for developing tremendismo, a style by which novels culminate in violence and terror, as in his early work The Family of Pascal Duarte (1942). He won the 1989 Nobel Prize for literature.

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▪ 2003

      Spanish writer (b. May 11, 1916, Iria Flavia, Spain—d. Jan. 17, 2002, Madrid, Spain), won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989 “for a rich and intensive prose, which with restrained compassion forms a challenging vision of man's vulnerability.” Cela's literary output included novels, short stories, essays, and travel diaries and was characterized by caustic wit and experimentation in both form and content. He also championed the Spanish language, and beginning in 1968 he published Diccionario secreto, a multivolume compilation of colloquial vulgarities. As a young man, Cela fought in Francisco Franco's army; later, as the editor (1956–79) of the literary monthly Papeles de son armadans, he often published works by critics of Franco's regime. Cela's most celebrated novels, La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942; Pascual Duarte's Family, 1946) and La colmena (1951; The Hive, 1953), were banned in Spain for a time. He later received numerous honours, including election to the Spanish Royal Academy in 1957 and the Cervantes Prize, Spain's highest literary award, in 1995. Cela was appointed to the Spanish Senate in 1977 and was made marquis of Ira Flavia in 1996.

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▪ Spanish writer

in full  Camilo José Cela Trulock 

born May 11, 1916, Iria Flavia, Spain

died January 17, 2002, Madrid

 Spanish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989. He is perhaps best known for his novel La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942; The Family of Pascual Duarte) and is considered to have given new life to Spanish literature. His literary production—primarily novels, short narratives, and travel diaries—is characterized by experimentation and innovation in form and content. Cela is also credited by some critics with having established the narrative style known as tremendismo, a tendency to emphasize violence and grotesque imagery.

      Cela attended the University of Madrid before and after the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), during which he served with Franco's army. His first novel, Pascual Duarte, established his European reputation. Traditional in form, it was both a popular and a critical success. His second novel, La colmena (1951; The Hive), with its fragmented chronology and large cast of characters, is an innovative and perceptive story of postwar Madrid. It solidified Cela's critical and popular reputation. Another of his better-known avant-garde novels, San Camilo, 1936 (1969), is one continuous stream of consciousness. His later novels include Cristo versus Arizona (1988; “Christ Versus Arizona”) and the Galician trilogy—Mazurca para dos muertos (1983; Mazurka for Two Dead People), La cruz de San Andrés (1994; “St. Andrew's Cross”), and Madera de boj (1999; Boxwood).

      Cela's acute powers of observation and skill in colourful description also are apparent in his travel books, based on his trips through rural Spain and his visits to Latin American countries. The most noted of these are Viaje a la Alcarría (1948; Journey to the Alcarría), Del Miño al Bidasoa (1952; “From the Miño to the Bidasoa”), and Judíos, moros y cristianos (1956; “Jews, Moors, and Christians”). He retraced the itinerary of his first travel book for Nuevo viaje a la Alcarría (1986). Among his numerous short narratives are Esas nubes que pasan (1945; “The Passing Clouds”) and the four works included in the collection El molino de viento, y otras novelas cortas (1956; “The Windmill and Other Short Fiction”). Cela also wrote essays, poetry, and memoirs and in his later years made frequent television appearances.

      In 1955 Cela settled in Majorca, where he founded a well-respected literary review, Papeles de Son Armadans (1956–79), and published books in fine editions. He began in 1968 to publish his multivolume Diccionario secreto, a compilation of “unprintable” but well-known words and phrases. He became a member of the Spanish Academy in 1957.

Additional Reading

Robert Kirsner, The Novels and Travels of Camilo José Cela (1963); and D.W. McPheeters, Camilo José Cela (1969), discuss both the life and the literary output of the writer.

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