Grasset Morell, Eloi

Bio:

Eloi Grasset is an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UCSB, where he teaches Iberian Literatures and Film. His last coedited book, titled: Remingining Don Quijote”(Juan de la Cuesta, 2017) is centered on the influence that Cervantes’ narrative has had in media and film, through the exploration of different interactions between text and image. His first sole-authored book, titled La Trama Mortal. Pere Gimferrer y la política de la literatura (1962-1985) [The Mortal Plot. Pere Gimferrer and the Politics of Literature (1962-1983)], was published in September 2020 by Editorial Renacimiento. In this monograph, Eloi Grasset analyzes at length and for the first time the influential participation of the renowned Catalan poet, editor, and translator Pere Gimferrer (b. 1945) in the reconfiguration of the cultural field in Spain and Catalonia after the Franco dictatorship (1939-1975), with particular emphasis on his involvement in the reconstruction of the modern cultural tradition that had been interrupted in the country after the Civil War (1936-1939). Although cultural historians have consistently overlooked Gimferrer’s role as a cultural agent, Grasset contends that his influence in the process of renovation that Iberian/Spanish cultures initiated in the sixties was crucial and deserves to be highlighted. By repositioning Gimferrer’s historical relevance, La trama mortal should be understood as an important intervention in the current debates regarding national and cultural identities in Spain. His most recent research is focused on the link between politics and visual regimes operating in Spain during the late sixties.