Some conferences will analyze the literature of Sarrionandia in Barcelona

This week the well-known Basque writer Joseba Sarrionandia will be the subject of a series of lectures at the University of Barcelona’s Basque Language Department. The two-day seminar will be divided into three sections.

This week the well-known Basque writer Joseba Sarrionandia will be the subject of a series of lectures at the University of Barcelona’s Basque Language Department. The two-day seminar will be divided into three sections.

The first lecture, open to all UB students, will take place at the University’s Faculty of Philology on the morning of May 2nd, led by Andrea Sanz Zarandona. Basque Literature is the subject this second semester in the Basque Studies programme, so this lecture allows students to concentrate on Sarrionandia’s work. This initiative, however, is dedicated to all students and professors at the University of Barcelona, with the aim of increasing the presence of Basque studies there and promoting collaborations and new dynamics generated with this type of event.

In the afternoon, the event will move to the Basque Center. With similar content, here the talk will target a more general audience. This initiative is part of the Basque Literature cycle, Literaldia, which is being carried out from April 23rd to May 8th, organized by the Basque Center of Barcelona.

On May 3rd those who attended the talk the previous day either at the university or the Basque Center – or for those who are unable to attend either – another lecture will concentrate on the main literary tools and features found in Sarrionandia’s work. This time, the focus will be on the writer’s poetry.

Aritz Galarraga, Basque reader at UB and UAB, said that the goal is to work on different characteristics of Sarrionandia: "One of the focal points of his work is language, doubts about the power of words and, at the same time, the tension they create. Sarrionandia expresses them in different forms in his work. With this as a starting point, some of the characteristics of Sarrionandia’s poetry and prose, such as exile, metaphor, symbols, irony and the search for active and interpretive readers, among other things, will be discussed.