Palmira Ventós i Cullell (Barcelona, 1858-1916) wrote stories, novels, and plays and was an amateur painter. Although she is no longer well known, she is one of the first women to publish fiction in the twentieth century, and the first Catalan woman writer to have a play performed in a public theatre.

Using the pseudonym Felip Palma, Palmira Ventós published her first works in the magazines L’Avenç and Joventut. She became known with “La Porc” a story published in 1902, which was followed in 1904 by the collection Asprors de la vida and, in 1907, by her only novel, La caiguda. All three works are modernist and marked by the ruralism of the time, as well as by the work of Víctor Català.

After 1909, coinciding with the advent of Noucentisme, the Catalan cultural movement mainly initiated in opposition to Modernism, her writing took another direction, and she mostly wrote for the theatre. She made her debut in this domain with the play Festa completa which, later rewritten and performed with the title Isolats, was a resounding success, although this was short-lived. The failure of her subsequent works marked the end of her literary career and, basically, of the life of Felip Palma since Palmira Ventós died prematurely in 1916.

Her work is notable for its criticism of the social conventions of her times, for example, with regard to marriage and religion, and she also analyses the situation of women in the early years of the twentieth century.

Web page: Marta Barberan for AELC.
Documentation: Felip Palma. La caiguda i altres.
Photographs: © Diccionari Biogràfic de Dones.
Translation: Julie Wark.