"Nada", by Carmen Laforet

Last week I read “Nada”, a novel written by Carmen Laforet. It was not the first time I have read this book, but I have to admit that this time I was able to pay more attention to the details.

“Nada” (1945), next to “La familia de Pascual Duarte”(1942), is one of the most important novels in the postwar Spain. The new Spain that Franco created broke drastically with the literature done before 1936, and culturally Spain was back in time looking for traditional forms. We can think of Juventud Creadora, the journal El Escorial, or the journal Garcilaso. The key word: realism. Far from any innovation, Franco’s Spain grew apart from “los ismos” or any desire to experiment. The books written, limited as they were, focused on: publicity of the new Regimen or escapism (trying to forget the war and its consequences). Social or politic criticism was out of the table because of “la censura” (censorhip). That is why “La Familia de Pascual Duarte” and “Nada” are so unique. Cela and Laforet found a way to overcome “la censura” and offer a critical view about Spain and, at the same time, be able to get published.  

“Nada” tells the story of a young girl, Andrea, which went to Barcelona to live with her extended family while studying at the university. Andrea found a completely dysfunctional family that was marked by the Spanish Civil War. She struggled with this family situation and the lack of food, to finally become a professional woman.

Other novel to have in consideration is “La plaza del Diamante” (1962), written by Mercè Rodoreda. This is the story of Natalia, a woman that got married to Qimet before the civil war. She experienced the limitations of been a woman, both, in her marriage, and later in Franco’s society. The main character developed her own voice through the novel, going from a submissive young girl to a woman that had learned how to listen to her own voice. After Qimet died in the Spanish Civil War as republican soldier, Natalia and her tow children starved almost to death. Finally she got married to an impotent man, Antoni, and little by little she healed from all the suffering she had experienced.

It is important to remember, before reading these two novels, that Franco’s Spain tried to destroy women as independent and active human been. Women had to be a submissive mother and wife, through which the Regimen could control the family values. Women were reeducated through La Sección Femenina and the Catholic Church. Though Carmen Martín Gaite’s “El cuarto de atrás” is a novel published in 1978, it can help to understand better this situation.

Neither Andrea, nor Natalia, were the ideal woman that Franquism wanted. But Carmen Laforet not only was able to publish in Franco’s Spain, but also was able to win the Nadal prize.