This text stems from Josep Palau i Fabre’s translation of the Letters of a Portuguese Nun into Catalan. The thematic link between those letters and the author’s concerns throughout his entire life will allow us to discuss the act of translating, the disposition to carry out this task, but mostly it will raise the possibility of considering the issue of love and femininity by shifting between Palau i Fabre and Mariana Alcoforado’s letters. The former’s fascination for the mystery that the woman is, eroticism, desire and seduction marked for sure his whole oeuvre, in such a way that comparing all of these with said letters might show us what phantasms and what notions –both experientially and conceptually speaking– underlie these themes. 

Article published in #8 of 1616. Anuario de literatura comparada (2018)