Frente a la enigmática realidad: Juan Benet y el articulismo de opinión

Abstract

ABSTRACTJuan Benet’s image as a public intellectual in Spain during the final years of the Franco Regime and the transition to democracy is due in large part to his collaboration in the opinion section of the El País, the daily national that sympathized with this political process. The present study will center on how Benet as a writer of literary texts addresses similar aesthetic concerns in his newspaper writings. It will be shown that a large part of his columns, published in El País over two decades, focuses on the mysterious condition of the surrounding world. As in his fiction, Benet writes opinion pieces to explore the enigmatic and unexplainable nature of reality. In this fashion, as public intellectual, the author employs a national forum to address his readers while presenting his unique vision of a world shrouded in mystery and uncertainty.