Author, banned in Spain explains censorship law
By MERRILY ROBINSON
Antonio Ferres. KU Spanish Department teacher for this semester only, is a Spanish novelist whose works have been banned in his native country.
The writer of eight books, Ferres was invited to teach at KU by Domingo Ricart, head of the Spanish Department. Last semester he taught at Indiana University. Two years ago, he conducted a lecture tour, speaking at such universities as Tulane, Princeton and the universities of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
FERRES COMPLETED work recently on the Spanish Civil War and has contracted with a Paris publisher for its release in French. The first book, "The Vanquished Ones" (translated title), was banned shortly after its 1965 publication in Spain.
"I never was told just why it it was banned," Ferres said. "I was just notified that it had been."
Ferres will return to his native Madrid at the end of his stay at KU. He says he views himself as "not an exiled writer, but a writer who must exile some of his literature."
FERRES' WORKS have been translated, in whole or in part, into about 20 foreign languages, including Italian, Dutch, French, German and Russian. He will receive his first publication in English this month when the first chapter of his "Tower of Babel" is printed in Artes Hispanicas, a bilingual journal at the University of Indiana. In addition, a section of his travelogue, "Land of Olive
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Trees," will be published soon in the New Left Review.
All Ferres' works are now being translated by Prof. Joseph Schraibman of Princeton University, so that he can achieve a wider American publication.
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Asked about his political sentiments, Ferres said they would be generally categorized as leftist, but insisted that would have little effect on his writing.
"MY AIM IS to tell in writing the realities of my country," he said. "But I probably became situated in the international left through publication of part of "Walking through Las Hurdes" in Jean-Paul Sartre's magazine, Les Temps Moderns."
DESPITE THE censorship difficulties he has encountered in Spain, Ferres is not tempted to expatriate himself to gain more literary freedom.
Ferres speaks very little English. His interview was conducted through an interpreter, KU graduate student Felipe Diaz, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Madrid. The interview, held at Diaz's home, was interrupted several times by the enthusiastic entrance of his dog, nicknamed "Frankie" in much the same spirit that a staunch Republican would name his dog "Lyndon."
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"Spain's censorship law says it does not censor," Ferres said. "I was merely asked, on one occasion, to rewrite the ending of one of my books, a travelogue. Rather
"I will go back to Spain and fight the censorship. One cannot ignore a problem like this in his homeland."
than going through the extra time and expense of trying to sell to a non-Spanish publisher, I complied."
Besides, Ferres added, he is not alone in his struggle.
Commenting on his profession as a whole, Ferres said: "Literature is an art that has a life to itself. However, since the writer is not the son of the muses, but the son of man, he must try to convey an artistic image of what he sees. A novel is the result of a spiritual attitude on the part of the writer."
"ALL OF SPANISH literature today has an underground element. The authors are accustomed to writing 'around' the censors, and Spanish people are used to reading between the lines. You usually can make your point through implication."
Ferres is teaching KU graduate courses in Novels of Spain after the Civil War, and Stylistics of Writing.
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