The Reception of Doris Lessing’s Novels in Franco’s Spain
Abstract
Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing’s serious concerns with political and social issues, as well as her constant experimentation with genre and style, have made her a highly prestigious literary figure in the English language. In Spain, her work was recognised in 2001 when she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Letters. However, for years, some of her novels were practically unknown to Spanish readers. The first Spanish version of The Golden Notebook appeared in 1978, sixteen years after its publication in London. Why did it take so long? Did Spanish publishers ignore Lessing in the 1960s and 1970s? Did her controversial spirit clash with the traditional views of Franco’s censors? This article describes information found in censorship office files in an attempt to provide an explanation for the attitudes to Lessing’s novels in the Franco era. They contain valuable data regarding publisher and bookseller interest in Lessing at the time, with reference to Spanish and imported editions of her work, and, more importantly, provide some insight into the censors’ opinion of her fiction.The authors retain copyright of articles. They authorise AEDEAN to publish them in its journal Atlantis and to include them in the indexing and abstracting services, academic databases and repositories the journal participates in.
Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), for non-commercial (i.e., personal or academic) purposes only, users are free to share (i.e., copy and redistribute in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., remix, transform and build upon) articles published in Atlantis, free of charge and without obtaining prior permission from the publisher or the author(s), as long as they give appropriate credit to the author, the journal (Atlantis) and the publisher (AEDEAN), provide the relevant URL link to the original publication and indicate if changes were made. Such attribution may be done in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the journal endorses the user or their use of the material published therein. Users who adapt (i.e., remix, transform or build upon the material) must distribute their contributions under the same licence as the original.
Self-archiving is also permitted, so that authors are allowed to deposit the published PDF version of their articles in academic and/or institutional repositories, without fee or embargo. Authors may also post their individual articles on their personal websites, again on condition that the original link to the online edition is provided.
Authors are expected to know and heed basic ground rules that preclude simultaneous submission and/or duplicate publication. Prospective contributors to Atlantis commit themselves to the following when they submit a manuscript:
- That no concurrent consideration of the same, or almost identical, work by any other journal and/or publisher is taking place.
- That the potential contribution has not appeared previously, in any form whatsoever, in another journal, electronic format or as a chapter/section of a book.
Seeking permission for the use of copyright material is the responsibility of the author.