2023-10-26 14:06:24
The Catalan author Antonio Monegal has been awarded the National trial prize 2023 for his work Like the air we breathe: the meaning of culture, published by Acantilado publishing house. The text asks what culture is and what it is for. The jury has chosen it for “the excellence of the style and creativity, and for putting the focus on the broad concept and the integrative nature of culture, which allows us to understand and define what we are and do: a phenomenon that gives meaning to our society.”
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“In the face of those who criticize the elitist nature of culture,” the jury added about the author, “he argues, with a clear, fresh and direct narrative, in favor of it as a vital resource, as a basic necessity in the world.” that it has to be invested because we cannot afford to live without it.”
Antonio Monegal, 66 years old, studied Philosophy at the University of Barcelona and received his doctorate from Harvard. He is a professor of Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature at the Pompeu i Fabra University. He has been a film professor and is the author of Luis Buñuel from literature to cinema: A poetics of the object (1993). Among others, he has also signed On the Limits of Difference: Poetry and Image in the Hispanic Vanguards (1998) and has edited and coordinated various collective volumes that intertwine literature with the audiovisual.
The author will receive an award of 30,000 euros thanks to the election of a jury composed of Carmen Iglesias Cano (proposed by the Royal Spanish Academy), Ramón Villares Paz (by the Royal Galician Academy/Real Academia Galega), Javier Calzacorta Elorza (Royal Academia of the Basque Language/Euskaltzaindia), Andreu Domingo Valls (Institute of Catalan Studies / Institut d’Estudis Catalans), Vicenta Tasa Fuster (Academia Valenciana de la Lengua/Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua), Javier de Navascués Martín (Conference of Rectors of the Spanish Universities, CRUE), Ana María Bueno de la Peña (College Association of Writers of Spain, ACE), Miguel Ángel Márquez Guerrero (Spanish Association of Literary Critics), Gloria Ángeles Franco Rubio (Center for Gender Studies of the UNED) , Najat El Hachmi Buhhu (by the Ministry of Culture and Sports) and Juan-Carlos Mèlich Sangrà, awarded in the 2022 call. The jury was chaired by María José Gálvez Salvador, general director of Books, Comics and Reading from the Ministry of Culture and Sports; and Jesús González González, deputy general director of Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature, has acted as vice president.
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