Carmen Laforet (Barcelona 6 September 1921 – Madrid, 28 February 2004) was a Spanish author who wrote in the period after the Spanish Civil War. An important European writer, her works contributed to the school of Existentialist Literature and her first novel Nada continued the Spanish tremendismo literary style begun by Camilo José Cela with his novel, La familia de Pascual Duarte. She received the Premio Nadal in 1944.
Laforet was born in Barcelona, Spain, but at the age of 2 she moved with her family to the Canary Islands where she spent her childhood. At age 12 she suffered the loss of her mother, and her father subsequently married a woman disliked by Laforet and her siblings (unsavory experiences portrayed in much of her literature). In 1939 at the age of 18, Laforet left for Barcelona where she studied Philosophy at the University of Barcelona while living with relatives. In 1942 she departed for Madrid where she studied Law at the Universidad Complutense. During her second year, she withdrew from classes to devote herself completely to writing, and between January and September 1944 she penned her first novel, Nada, which earned Editorial Destino’s Nadal Prize in its first year of publication (1945). A novel of female adolescent development, Nada is considered a classic in 20th century Spanish literature, and deals with such themes as existentialism and the adolescent search for identity. (Wikipedia)
Laforet on Narrative, Memory, and Trauma
The scars of conflict are everywhere evident, if seldom dwelt upon, in Laforet’s novel.
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Water features repeatedly in Nada, usually as a poor substitute for something else in a landscape of general impoverishment: Andrea “drink[s] the water the vegetables had been cooked in” (100), in place of the nutrition she needs; when Gloria comes down with a fever, Andrea brings her water (“It seemed she’d never grow tired of drinking” [230]), but it is proper medical attention that she requires; a friend has a car fuelled with “water and benzene” (111); another character, full of pretensions, claims to have drunk absinthe but is cut off with the accusation that “it’s probably green-colored water” (156). In the dilapidated house on Calle de Aribau, the water, lukewarm at best, is hardly even good for bathing, “incapable of refreshing or cleaning my flesh” (164), Andrea tells us. A pitcher of water is thrown as a weapon. Even in its figurative uses—as when someone’s words are pictured as “overflow[ing] like water that breaks through the dikes and carries away everything” (192)—there are seldom any positive associations to water in the novel.
Laforet Questions
- What image does Nada portray of Barcelona–and Spain?
- How does the book portray Andrea? How, if at all, does she change over the course of the novel?
- How does Andrea relate to the characters in the house on the Calle de Aribau? How does she relate to the people she meets elsewhere?
- What, if anything, does Andrea learn from her year in Barcelona?
- How is class portrayed in the novel, and how does a sense of class position affect its characters?
- What are the gender relations within the novel, both in the house on the Calle de Aribau and outside it?
- How is the narrator distinct from the protagonist?
- What are the secrets that the various characters keep (and sometimes share)? How do these secrets help to determine their actions and attitudes?
- The book is written in Spanish, but characters also sometimes speak in Catalan, and we get brief words and phrases in Catalan… what does the book suggest about the relation between these languages?
- What is the significance of the book’s title?
The following questions are taken from your blog posts…
Memory
Do you believe that the theme of memory/past experience/past tense has something more to do with Romance writing than just a style of writing?
The Patriarchy and Gender:
How do you think the Spanish civil war changed and/or adjusted patriarchal views (if so)? Do you think Gloria was treated less fairly now more than before?
Nada/Nothingness
What do you think the significance of the title, “Nada” (meaning “nothing”), is to the novel?
Do you think there is a correlation between the title and how Andrea views her life as a story? What do you guys think of the title translating to “nothing”?
On what ways was Andrea forced to piece the narrative of her family and the war’s impact on them together, and what were the emotional consequences?
Why do you think that a book titled “Nada” includes so many complicated relationships and family tensions?
What exactly do they have nothing of and what causes it? Is it the house, as Román suggests or the lack of structure or something else?
Class
I’m curious if any of you have any thoughts about this question on how the social class of the family effects the story.
Characters and Key Events
Which of the characters resonated with you the most?
When Andrea just got to Barcelona, aunt Angustias told her not to become friends with Gloria or she would be disappointed. If it was you, would you avoid Gloria just to be on aunt Angustias good side?
Do you agree with the other aunts that the grandmother’s unconditional love, spoiling Juan and Roman as much as she could, caused Roman’s ending in a way?
According to the character you choose, how do you think their struggles or personality have been influenced by the war?
If you were Andrea, knowing what Ena did to your uncle, would you still befriend her? And would you consider Ena a good friend?
What did you think of Ena and Roman’s relationship? What larger theme did you think it represented? What did it really signify?
Do you think the comparison of the characters and tone to a Tim Burton movie is valid?
What did you think of Ena and Roman’s relationship? What larger theme did you think it represented? What did it really signify?
According to the character you choose, how do you think their struggles or personality have been influenced by the war?
Do you think the friendship between the protagonist and his popular college classmate is equal?
How would the lives of the characters be different if the civil war did not happen? Would Juan still be this aggressive and violent? Would Roman still have ultimately ended his life?
How does Ena influence the actions and thoughts of Andrea throughout the novel?
How do we see Andrea’s outlook and attitude shift over the span of the book as she spends more and more time with her family at Calle de Aribau?
Are we as readers justified in feeling sympathy towards the characters who have contributed to such despicable acts?
How does Andrea’s interaction with the city of Barcelona as a symbolic setting reveal the impact of external environments during her quest for self-identity and discovery?
Reading and Stories
Do you feel that the meaning behind stories become stronger in general with a plotline or without?
I wonder, is it still a story if it doesn’t have an ending? Or, is the ending simply wherever the teller decides to stop telling the story?
Other
How did you feel about Laforet’s writing style? Did it captivate you like it did for me or was it harder for you to engage with?
