De mica en mica s’omple la pica de Jaume Fuster: un intent de consolidar la novel·la negra i policíaca a Catalunya

Discussing the Catalan crime fiction may appear as a challenging scientific task due to its lacking autochthonous tradition. The scholars exploring this issue have come to conclusion that, even though there were authors such as Rafael Tasis o Manuel de Pedrolo, whose contribution to this literary genre’s solid foundations seems indubitable, Jaume Fuster is the writer responsible for its consolidation in the Catalan literary system in the 1970s. The aim of the present paper is to analyze Jaume Fuster’s De mica en micas’omple la pica in a specific historical context in order to present some of his foreign influences and inspirations. Specifically, it investigates whether the author remained indifferent to external literary products or whether he chose deliberately some of the archi-genre’s elements in order to implement and consolidate crime fiction in Catalonia. For this purpose, we have applied some of the principles of Even-Zohar’s Polysystem Theory. The results showed that De mica en mica s’omple la pica not only has played a major role in the consolidation of crime fiction but it also placed its author in one of the central positions in the Catalan literary polysystem. Moreover, Fuster tended to interact with different foreign traditions by using in his works modified crime fiction components based on the unique repertory conditioned by the geopolitical situation of Catalonia.