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The autobiographical experience of exile becomes the axis around which are structured a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts written by Xavier Benguerel (Barcelona, 19051990). Although they are fictional recreations, the works discussed here represent an important inflexion within the corpora of testimonial texts as they become highly relevant to the study of the representation of the experiences of the Catalans in French camps, as well as the literary construction of a desired return to a country under the regime of Franco’s dictatorship. The autobiographical experience of exile becomes the basis of a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts written by Xavier Benguerel (Barcelona, 19051990). His literary construction reveals the exile’s personal feelings both in testimonial works such as Memòries 1905-1940 (Memories 1905-1940) (1971) and Memòries de l’exili: Xile 1940-1952 (Memories from Exile: Chile 1940-1952) (1982)1 and in fiction narrative, in short stories2 as well as in fictional works such as Gorra de plat (Peaked Cap) (1967), Llibre del retorn (Book of Return) (1977), Els vençuts (The Defeated) (1969)3 and 1939 (1973). This literary use of these personal perspectives takes place after the writer’s return to Catalonia in 1954, a return that was actually not definitive as for some time he maintained a work link with Chile, a country where he had set up a pharmaceutical business. Xavier Benguerel, who began his career in the 1930s with Pàgines d’un adolescent (Pages of a teenager) and Suburbi (Suburb) (1936),4 resumed his literary activity with some psychological novels. Those that stand out are El testament (The Will) (1956) and Icària, Icària (Ikaria, Ikaria) (1974). In parallel with these, he wrote documentary or testimonial novels such as the aforementioned Gorra de plat,5 Els fugitius (The Fugitives) (1956), Els vençuts, 1939 or Llibre del retorn, where the traces left by his personal experience of exile become much more obvious.6 Our analysis will focus exclusively on the last three novels. The first testimonial novel published by Benguerel after his exile was Els fugitius, which served as the literary basis for the final version, entitled Els vençuts, as the author himself recognized in the 1969 prologue. He wrote two more books on the same subject: 1939, which became a sequel of the previous novel, and Llibre del retorn. In terms of content, Els fugitius —first part of the later version of Els vençuts— describes the initial moments of the journey into exile taken by a writer, Joan Pineda, who, after leaving his family behind, walks 001-CATALAN REVIEW-25.indd 71 06/08/12 14:24

The Construction of Exile from a French Deportation Camp in the Narrative of Xavier Benguerel