Maria Josep Ragué Arias (Barcelona, 1941-2019) was a lecturer in Performing Arts at the University of Barcelona, an essayist, fiction writer, playwright, journalist, and translator.

As a result of childhood poliomyelitis, her university studies took different directions but ended up with degrees in Economics, Information Sciences, and a PhD in Hispanic Philology. The subject of her doctoral thesis was Greek female myths in twentieth-century Spanish theatre.

In her youth, a stay in California brought her into contact with the revolutionary and counterculture movements of the late 1960s and, in particular, with the women’s liberation movement. California Trip and Hablan las Women’s Lib are both works that relive her experiences of those years.

In the area of theatre and as a university lecturer, she wrote several essays including Els personatges femenins de la tragèdia grega en el teatre català del segle XX (1989), Lo que fue Troya (1992), El teatro del fin de milenio en España: de 1975 hasta hoy (1996), as well as several plays based on Greek female myths, for example Crits de gavines (1990).

She wrote for several theatre publications, among them Yorick, Primer Acto, Assaig de Teatre and Artez and, towards the end of her life, she was theatre critic for the daily El Mundo.

Her translation of Arnold Wesker’s play Annie Wobbler was awarded a translation prize. She also spoke in congresses and seminars on theatre.

In 1984 she published the short story collection I tornarà a florir la mimosa.

Web page: Francesc Viñas for AELC.
Translation: Julie Wark.