Cela plagiarism case reviewed
The Independent reports that a judge in Barcelona has ordered the reopening of a plagiarism case involving Spanish Nobel Prize-winning novelist Camilo José Cela.
Cela, who died in 2002, was alleged to have stolen parts of writer Carmen Formoso’s book Carmen, Carmela, Carmiña for his own novel La Cruz de San Andrés (The Cross of St Andrew).
A controversial writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1989, Cela was taken to court by Formoso in 2001, but the case remained unresolved before his death.
From the Independent:
Now a judge has ordered Luis Izquierdo, a retired professor of literature at Barcelona University, to respond in detail to 65 points brought when the case last came to court. The first time it was in court, a judge said Cela was not guilty of stealing scenes, characters, works and even words from Ms Formoso’s work.
But then the expert told the court there were “echoes and coincidences” between both works. These included the fact that in both novels the story is set in A Coruña in Galicia; they both make reference to the start of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931; both have a character called Jacob and a female character who is expert at cards. Both have a narrator and two other female characters.
Jesús Díaz Formoso, Ms Formoso’s son and her lawyer, told a court the expert did not go into enough detail to be able to give a proper opinion and should reread the texts. Mr Díaz Formoso also claims the publisher of Cela’s work, Planeta, is guilty of “unauthorised appropriation” of his mother’s work. Cela denied the accusations at the original trial.
Following Izquierdo’s report, a judge will rule on whether the case should go to trial.
Only proves that any writer who sues another writer for plagiarism is nothing but a grave digger.