On his promotional tour, not only national, but international, Santiago Posteguillo grants me an interview. I congratulate you first of all, Well, for weeks now he has been the brand new winner of the prestigious Planeta Novel Award 2018. He won this award thanks to his novel Yo, Julia in which he rescues from oblivion the life and memory of the most powerful empress of ancient Rome, Julia Mrs, a woman who transformed her environment and changed the course of history forever. GINÉS J. VERA
Open the novel Yo, Julia with a poem Robert Graves, It is undeniable to fall into the similarity with the title of Yo, Claudio, the best-known work of the British writer. What other nods to that novel will readers find and why did you decide on this title??
Bueno, what Yo, Julia es, in itself, a novel like that of Yo, Claudio, while Emperor Claudius tells us what his dynasty is like and in Yo, Julia What is told is how Julia builds another imperial dynasty. Y, apart, There is another nod at the beginning with Graves' own poem that I put, to the extent that I include him because Graves liked to be remembered more as a poet than as a writer of historical novels. So, I wanted to put up a poem so people would know that Graves was a poet and, besides, a poem in which he describes a woman in such a way that every time I read it it seems as if he were describing Julia with Severo.
Tell us about the character of Julia Domna, perhaps forged from childhood, although at court he knew how to surround himself with an atmosphere of philosophers and intellectuals, mathematicians, poet…
Yeah, there are several things there. On the one hand, Julia was a woman forged in an aristocratic family from Emesa, in Syria, educated in several languages: in Aramaic, in latin, in Greek; a cultured woman in that sense, intelligent, and how intelligent he was, and without complexes, knowing that surrounding himself with circles of intelligent power would bring him good advice, who would give you wise advice, that would help you achieve your goals. Something that I really miss nowadays where current politicians tend to surround themselves with clappers., that of idiots, or useless, y, above all, of mediocre. And then, Of course, They get mediocre advice and that's how it goes.
What Yo, Julia is structured in five parts obeys, We read, five great enemies of the protagonist whom she tried to either destroy or survive, but why did you decide to choose a doctor, to the famous Galen, to tell this fascinating story?
Although I wink and pay homage to Yo, Claudio, You don't have to make the novel the same either.. Tying myself to a first person all the time made me uncomfortable in the way that I have to narrate; so, there are those brushstrokes in first person, and it is understood that the rest that I tell in the third person is as if it came to life. But I also wanted someone who would allow me to reflect on what Julia does., that she was herself. And for deep reflections I needed an intellectual. When I discover that Galen was not only the doctor of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, but also of the following dynasty, Julia's own doctor, I tell myself: man, The thing is that here we have a character from an entity that would be a shame to waste.. That's why I have given him that role as a narrator., as a narrator of his story, and I think it looks very good how he begins to write from surprise with what Julia is doing and ends up writing from admiration.
You can easily make a novel out of Galen, or two or three. I think they are those great characters that you focus on and give great depth to the story.. And then there are some dialogues between Galen and her…
The barriers that Julia Domna encountered in her time do not seem to differ much from those that many women encounter today.. Perhaps that is why it is so close to us when we see that in a world of men she uses her intelligence., her cunning and her beauty. Somehow, the reading of Yo, Julia can make us think about this? Is there any claim in this work?
Yeah, there is a real claim that “the story, until recently, It has been written by men and we have focused on telling only the story of menthe story, until recently, It has been written by men and we have focused on telling only the story of men; an incomplete narrative. It is true that in sexist societies there were more men in preeminent positions than women, but it is no less true that there were also a few very important women who have also been silenced. And I think that's not right.. And furthermore, from a literary point of view, They are usually formidable characters, because they have to overcome precisely difficulties greater even than those difficulties that a man faces. And conflict is great for a novel.
Now the historian who rescues the character for me in the 21st century, Professor Barbara Levick, It's a woman rescuing another woman., She said in her biography about Domna that she did not understand why there were no novels or films about this character.. You read the biography and say: well it's true, I don't understand. So, the movie didn't depend on me, but the novel does. Well I repeat it, I have done the novel.
