The Sala Zaida hosts from this Wednesday ‘Written by Women. Literary Traces’, an exhibition promoted by the Caja Rural Granada Foundation within the framework of the 43rd Book Fair to pay tribute to Spanish authors of the 1950s.
The exhibition, open until next Sunday, the 18th, also commemorates the centenary of the birth of three essential figures in Hispanic literature: Ana María Matute, Carmen Martín Gaite, and Julia Uceda, born a century ago in three distant cities such as Barcelona, Salamanca, and Seville.
The opening event was attended by the head of the Caja Rural Granada Foundation, Poli Servián, the co-director of the Book Fair Alfonso Salazar, and the founders of the Writer’s Museum, Claudio Pérez and Raúl Manrique, along with relatives of Julia Uceda.
In this special edition, the Granada Book Fair seeks to highlight the valuable legacy of these women who, «with their talent and perseverance, made Spanish literature a broader, more plural, and enriching territory,» as reported by Caja Rural in a press release.
The honored authors faced difficult times, marked by the post-war period and social restrictions, and yet, thanks to their creative courage, they managed to position themselves at the forefront of literature, following the path of the writers of the Generation of ’27 and pioneers such as Carolina Coronado, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, or Emilia Pardo Bazán.
Alongside Matute, Martín Gaite, and Uceda, the exhibition also recognizes other essential voices of the same era, such as Gloria Fuertes, Josefina Aldecoa, María Zambrano, Carmen Laforet, Francisca Aguirre, and Pilar Paz Pasamar.
These contemporary authors of the Generation of ’50 enriched and diversified, with their work, a literary transition period, linking the trail of the great predecessors –Carmen Conde, Rosa Chacel, María Lejárraga, Concha Méndez, and María Teresa León– with the subsequent generations. Thanks to them, the cultural panorama of the second half of the 20th century was transformed, incorporating perspectives and sensitivities that had been invisible until then.
The exhibition features items loaned by the Centro de Arte Moderno in Madrid and its Writer’s Museum, a reference in the preservation of literary materials.
It presents more than fifty diverse objects: first editions, original photographs, manuscripts, historical magazines, and personal items of the honored writers.
Each piece allows visitors to not only approach the work of these authors but also delve into their personal universe, humanizing their figure and making their legacy tangible.
Particularly moving is the presence of everyday objects that accompanied the literary creation of these women: the typewriters on which they typed their masterpieces, where they jotted down ideas, and photographs capturing moments of their private and professional lives.
These «literary traces» allow the public not only to read but also to see and feel the history of these creators who defied the limitations of their time.
The exhibition ‘Written by Women. Literary Traces’ will be open to the public from Monday to Friday from 17:00 to 21:30, and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 to 14:30 and from 17:30 to 21:30 at Sala Zaida, located on the first floor of number 1 Acera del Darro in Granada.