“Reinvindicación del Conde don Julián” by Juan Goytisolo

  “Reinvindicación del Conde don Julián” (1970) is a very hard book to read. The narrator in this novel uses, most of the time, a second person perspective. One could say that there is an “I” that mirrors a “you”. This book plays with language punctuation (avoiding periods and capitalization at the beginning of sentences) and spelling. This experimentation in writing reminds us of the literature done before the Spanish Civil War. It would be unfair not to point out that this experimentation had started many years before. As stated before in previous posts, books written right after the war avoided formal experimentation, and went back to a very traditional literature akin to the Regime. However, in the 40’s, some novels looked for strategies to innovate and, at the same time, survive censorship (e.g. “La Familia de Pascual Duarte” (1942) or “Nada” (1944)). Little by little, experimentation was more and more obvious, like seen in “La Colmena” (1946), “El Jarama” (1955), “Tiempo de Silencio” (1962) or “Reivindicación del Conde don Julián” (1970). But because of the Regime’s control in literature, some of them had to be published in other countries, like this novel by Juan Goytisolo.  A big difference with other previous novels is that “Reivindicación del Conde don Julián” breaks with realism, just like other books by Goytisolo. This break with realism can be observed in other authors and novels, like in Carmen’s “El cuarto de atrás” (1978). Although Goytisolo’s writing has been influenced by French literature; I prefer to see it as a progression inside the post war Spanish literature.

This book recovers the Moorish invasion of Spain with the intention of its destruction. Full of violence and sex, rapes and treason, it pretends to destroy a Spain that has been built under the Castilian perspective.

Summarizing this book would be very complicated, since it is a journey to the character’s subconscious and there is no clear plot. The novel is divided into 4 chapters, taking the reader deeper, and deeper into the fantasy of the obliteration of the Spanish myth, a Spain that has been built on the imposition of the Castilian culture. The book starts with the character waking up, who then walks the city of Tangier while the narration mixes reality and thoughts. Reality slowly loses space, and the subconscious takes control.