JUAN JOSÉ MILLÁS 1º Bachiller Group A

Biography >>. Born in Valencia at the heart of humble origins, he moved being a child with his large family to Madrid (1952), city where he has lived most of his life. He was a bad but a curious student. He went to high school during the night shift while he was employed at the Postal Savings Fund. In pro-Franco university, for then in power of teachers close to the dictatorship, he started to study Philosophy at the University of Madrid, which he left at the third year. He obtained a work as an administrative officer in Iberia and devoted himself to reading and writing. His first novel was influenced by Julio Cortázar and his second novel obtained the prize Sésamo and opened the door for literary criticism.

Juan José Millás

>>. He wrote several novels later, but the most popular, and also the most significant for his work thanks to the fact that he wrote it with the freedom of not thinking about the critics, was a Wet Paper (1983), one order of a publishing house of juvenile literature that sold and continues being sold. Simultaneously he started collaborating in the press with great success and from there he left his job in Iberia and now he devotes himself exclusively to literature. >>. In 1987 he married Isabel Menéndez, who was a psychologist, and he has another child.

Juan José Millás

>>. Juanjo Millás created a personal genre, the "articuento", in which a daily story is transformed by fantasy into a new way of looking at reality in a critical form. >>. He has won several prestigious prizes for his journalistic career, as the Francisco Cerecedo in 2005. On the radio programme “The Window” in Cadena Ser on Fridays at 16: 00, he encourages the listeners to send small statements on words of the dictionary. At present, he is makig his own glossary with these statements achieving a high level of participation. In May, 2006 he was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Turin. His works have been translated into fifteen languages, among them, English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch.

>>. On October 15 th , 2007, he was awarded the Planet Prize because of his autobiographical novel “The world”, a few memories of his childhood, almost from his teens. This book tells the story of a boy who lives in a street and who dreams about escaping from this street. On December 3 rd, 2007 he was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Oviedo with the Asturian poet Angel Gonzalez. >>. On October 13 th , 2008 the National Prize of Narrative was granted to him, too.

Novels El jardín vacío (1981, Alfaguara) Cerbero son las sombras (1975, Alfaguara) Papel mojado (1983, Alfaguara) Visión del ahogado (1977, Alfaguara)

Papel mojado Letra muerta (1983, Alfaguara) El desorden de tu nombre (1986, Alfaguara) La soledad era esto Ella imagina (1990, Destino) Volver a casa (1994, Alfaguara) (1990, Alfaguara) Primavera de luto (1989, Destino) Tonto, muerto, bastardo e invisible (1995, Alfaguara)

Algo que te concierne (1995, El País Aguilar)* El orden alfabético (1998, Alfaguara) Trilogía de la soledad Cuentos a la intemperie (1996, Alfaguara)* (1997, Acento Editorial)* La viuda incompetente y otros cuentos (1998, Plaza y Janés)* Tres novelas cortas (1998, Alfaguara)* No mires debajo de la cama (1999, Alfaguara) Cuentos de adúlteros desorientados (2003, Lumen)

Hay algo que no es como me dicen (2004, Aguilar) Laura y Julio (2006, Seix Barral) Todo son preguntas (2005, Ediciones Península) Sombras sobre sombras (2006, Península) María y Mercedes (2005, Ediciones Península) El mundo (2007, Planeta) PREMIO PLANETA 2007 El ojo de la cerradura (2006, Ediciones Península, Colección Atalaya) Los objetos nos llaman (2008, Seix Barral)

Título Original: La soledad era esto Danish edition German edition French edition (Original Title: La soledad era esto )

Edición Sueca Edición Inglesa Edición Turca

The Subject Matters of his books are: His plays, books and so on speak about: • • • Personal identity Simmetry Childhood Love and loyalty Loneliness Fear Death Religion Freedom Imagination and Fantasy Social compromise and empathy with the underprivileged. Philosophy He has an autobiographic work (“El mundo”) which also talks about literature and how important literature is in our lives.

Characteristics of his plays • He is the creator and father of the "articuentos" texts that are halfway between the story and the newspaper article and whose topics are of current interest. They deal with society, varied situations, thoughts or problems caused by human behaviour. • All his plays are a perfect example of literary criticism, and under the name ‘’articuentos’’ he seeks to emphasize its main feature: they are opinion articles because they appear so in the press, but because of their very nature, the ‘articuentos’ are closer to the fiction and fantasy texts.

Juan José Millás • His aim is always to show the reverse of the plot, the truth and falseness, present mainly through humor, irony and paradox, swallowed up by the news and disappear, so that the end is only a clear vision of criticism of the reality. Through these ‘articuentos’, Juanjo Millás, as his friends call him, presents a work in constant search of the most subtle to articulate what is unreal with what is real, present and committed to represent the reality very effectively as possible, revealing their dark mechanisms and providing a sense of lacking.

Historical context in Spain in 70 years • From 1975 onwards and with Franco´s death, Spain started a new historial period in which democracy was implemented and it began its adaptation to the European policies very quickly.

• The best word that could describe Spanish political change in the 70´s would be undoubtedly “modernization”. It would not be wrong to state that most of the Spanish citizens understand the term “modernization” at that time as the way Spain tried to catch up with the social and economic standards of the surrounding European countries, that now are members of the European Union (EU).

• Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution was a landmark in history of our nation during the 70´s. The Cortes passed it on the 31 st October. It promotes the well-being of all its members, in the exercise of its democratic coexistence within the Constitution and the laws, in accordance with a fair economic and social order.

Other contemporary writers: Antonio Muñoz Molina Javier Marías

Rosa Montero Eduardo Mendoza

Arturo Pérez Reverte Almudena Grandes

Proyecto Comenius Project which has been made by: >>. Lucía De Prado Gómez >>. Sergio García >>. Sandra Egea López >>. Aida Fages Cárceles >>. Áurea Higón Cañigral Year: 1º A. Bach.