Anatomy of a moment
Anatomy of a moment: The night in which Spain's democracy was saved (Originally: Anatomia de un instante ) is a non-fictional, historical essay by Javier Cercas from 2009, German edition 2011, published by S. Fischer Verlag . It deals with the coup d'état of February 23, 1981 , an unsuccessful attempt by parts of the Guardia Civil and the military to end democracy in Spain and to establish a new dictatorship . This was an important turning point in recent Spanish history.
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Adolfo Suárez (1979)
Santiago Carrillo (2006)
The structure of the text is based on a well-known TV recording by the Spanish broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). TV cameras inside the Spanish parliament recorded the coup plotters storming the meeting room and threatening the parliamentarians.
Cercas devotes himself extensively to describing the protagonists of the events. One after the other, he deals with the life stories of the outgoing Prime Minister Adolfo Suárez , Vice-President Manuel Gutiérrez Mellado , the communist leader Santiago Carrillo and the alleged leader of the putschists, General Alfonso Armada . Although shots were fired, the first three had resisted the military in parliament. Cercas tries to fathom their extremely different motives for their actions.
Although Cercas claims to have dealt intensively with the events of 1981 and is based on sources and interviews, the work is expressly not a scientific work, although some reviewers call it a non-fiction book. The novelist tries to empathize with the thoughts of the characters involved and speculates about their motives.
review
The German-language criticism was very positive about "Anatomie einer Moment".
Paul Ingendaay described the book in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as a “ masterpiece ”, as a “ thrilling storytelling ” and as a “ free book that does not follow any theory, does not want to claim or prove anything ”.
In her book review for Deutschlandradio Kultur, Katharina Döbler suggests the translator of the German edition, Peter Kultzen, for a prize and notes that Cercas has “ a tension and depth ” from the subject, “ which a political non-fiction book generally does not have ”.
Original source
- Anatomía de un instante. Essay. 2009 (German anatomy of a moment. The night in which Spain's democracy was saved. Translated by Peter Kultzen. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-011369-6 )
Web links
Review notes on anatomy of a moment at perlentaucher.de
- Paul Ingendaay: What happened on February 23, 1981? Javier Cercas: Anatomy of a Moment. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. February 11, 2011, Retrieved April 3, 2012 (review).
- Anne Chisholm: The Anatomy of a Moment by Javier Cercas. review. In: The Daily Telegraph . February 6, 2011, accessed April 3, 2012 (book review).
- Video original del golpe de estado del 23-F. (Video) RTVE, accessed April 4, 2012 (Spanish, TV recording from Parliament until the cameras were switched off (33 minutes)).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Katharina Döbler: The heroism of retreat. In: Deutschlandradio Kultur. February 22, 2011, accessed April 3, 2012 .