Ana Maria Matute

Matute, Ana María 

Born July 26, 1926, in Barcelona, Spain. Spanish writer. A representative of critical realism in modern Spanish literature.

Matute’s work, especially in its early phase, has tragic overtones; it is full of social criticism and psychological probings. Many of her protagonists are victims of the Franco regime, for example, in her novel The Abels (1948). The novel Dead Sons (1958; Russian translation, 1964) depicts the tragedy of Spanish youth during the first years of the dictatorship. In the trilogy The Hucksters, which consists of the novels First Memories(1960), Soldiers Weep at Night(1964- Russian translation, 1969), and The Trap (1969), Matute gives a critical interpretation of life in Spain during recent decades; in this work, a member of the Communist underground is the bearer of the ideas of struggle and service to mankind. Matute is the author of children’s books, including Foolish Children (1956) and Pauline, the World and the Stars (1960).

WORKS

Obra completa, vol. 1. Barcelona, 1971.
La torre vígía. Barcelona, 1971.
In Russian translation:
Schast’e: Rasskazy. Moscow, 1966.
“Grazhdanskaia voina i pisateli moego pokoleniia.” Inostrannaia literatura, “1966, no. 9.

REFERENCES

Iasnyi, V. K. Begstvo v deistvitel’nost’: Sovremennyi ispanskii roman. Moscow, 1971.
Terterian, I., Sovremennyi ispanskii roman (1939-1969). Moscow, 1972.
Fuentes, V. “Notas sobre el mundo novelesco de A. M. Matute.” Revista nacional de cultura, 1963, no. 160, pp. 83-88.
Jones, M. E. W. The Literary World of Ana María Matute. Lexington, Ky., 1970. (Bibliography, pp. 123-30.)

V. K. IASNYI