Catalan Review

Abstract

When Llorenç Villalonga published Mort de dama (1931), the character of Aina Cohen offended representatives of the Escola Mallorquina, who interpreted it as an attack on autochthonous literature. Although Villalonga responded by affirming that it was his alter ego and although some contemporary critics have related her vaguely with Freud o have associated her with a Spenglerian concept of art, Aina Cohen has never been entirely freed from the condition of a simple, merciless caricature of the Escola Mallorquina. The goal of this article is to explore the complexity of this figure (a Jewish woman, lesbian, Catalan writer), who bears some characteristics of Josef Breuer’s Anna O. and appears as a point of intersection for various anti-Semitic, homophobic and misogynist discourses.