Janés, Clara

b. 1940, Barcelona

   Writer

   Although of a Catalan publishing family, Janés writes poetry, novels and essays largely in Spanish. She has lived abroad extensively and translates from several central European languages. Her studies of comparative literature enhance the cosmopolitan, cultured ambience of her writing. Existentialist, anguished and introspective in poetry collections including Las estrellas vencidas (Conquered Stars) (1964), Límite humano (Human Limitations) (1973) and Libro de alienaciones (Book of Alienations) (1980), she introduces increasingly frank eroticism in Kampa (1986), Eros (1981) and Creciente fértil (Fertile Crescent) (1989). Desintegración (1969) and Los caballos del sueño (Dream Horses) (1989) are major "generational" novels.

   Further reading

   - Pérez, J. (1991) " The Novels of a Poet: Clara Janés", in L.González del Valle and J.Baena (eds) Critical Essays on the Literatures of Spain and Spanish America, pp. 197–207 (a special number of Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea which compares portraits of Janés" generation written three decades apart).

   —— (1994) "Clara Janés", in Twentieth Century Spanish Poets: Second Series, ed. J.P.Winfield, vol. 134 of the Dictionary of Literary Biography, pp. 205–12 (panorama of life and works to 1992, emphasizing poetry).

   JANET PÉREZ