Considered to be the most important Catalan author of the postwar period and called one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century by Gabriel García Márquez, Mercé Rodoreda will be the focus of a conference on October 24, hosted by New York Universitys Catalan Center. The conference celebrates the centennial of Rodoredas birth and will feature discussions of her work as well as a concert by Catalan jazz musicians, Alexis Cuadrado and Òscar Peñas.
The conference opens on Friday, October 24, at 10:30 a.m. with a session titled Mercè Rodoreda, Views from the Periphery followed by Mercè Rodoreda between Catalonia and Spain: War and Exile at 2 p.m. The closing session, Mercè Rodoreda: Writing and Translation, begins at 4 p.m. All sessions take place at NYUs King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center, 53 Washington Square South.
At 6:30 p.m. Friday evening, a concert by Catalan jazz muscians Cuadrado and Peñas takes place at NYUs Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, located at 24 W. 12th Street.
Rodoredas novel, La Plaça del diamant, (translated as The Time of the Doves), has become the most acclaimed Catalan novel of all time. It is also considered by many to be the best novel of the Spanish Civil War. Other titles in English translation include Camelia Street, My Christina and Other Stories, and A Broken Mirror.
This symposium is co-sponsored by the Institut Ramon Llull, NYUs King Juan Carlos Center, the Càtedra Mercè Rodoreda at CUNY, and Brown University.