A Reading of Catalonia's Capital: Urbanism, Violence and City as an Organism in "Barcelona trágica" by Andreu Martín

Abstract

The novel Barcelona trágica (2009) by Andreu Martín depicts an episode of political uncertainty, a case of civil disobedience and occurrences of urban violence, historically known as “La Setmana Tràgica de Barcelona” (The Tragic Week of Barcelona), which unfolds in the summer of 1909. The present study investigates in depth the vision of the capital of Catalonia as a living and damaged organism in constant metamorphosis, which exposes an exhausting process of collision and social adjustment to emphasize the unfinished realization of personal and collective subjectivity. The article points out the existence of unstable and antagonistic historical links between the global urban space and the multiplicity of frontier spaces, used by the industrial bourgeoisie as marginalizing structures to disrupt and alienate the battered existence of the incipient anarchist proletariat. It also reflects on how the urban area in Martin’s narrative becomes a versatile barometer of public disturbances and class problems in order to reevaluate the citizen-society binomial. In this way, through the critical observation of the strategies of fiction, it is shown how the individual suffers from undeniable and harmful consequences due to the multiple negotiations and asymmetrical relations between Barcelona and its citizens, reflection of the harsh metropolitan environment resulting from the political and social crisis of  1909.