Rafael Argullol

(Barcelona, Spain, 1949). He studied Philosophy, Medicine, Economics and Media Studies at the University of Barcelona and also took courses at the University of Rome, the Warburg Institute of London and the Free University of Berlin; and obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy (1979) in Barcelona. He has taught at European and American, and he has given conferences in Europe, America and Asia. Regular contributor to newspapers and magazines, he has repeatedly linked his sense of travelling to his literary aesthetic. He has taken part in diverse theatre and film projects. He has won the Nadal prize with his novel La razón del mal (1993), and the essay prize of the Fondo de Cultura Económica with Una educación sensorial (2002).

He is also author of the poetry books Disturbios del Conocimiento (1980), Duelo en el Valle de la Muerte (1982) and El afilador de cuchillos (1998); the novels, Lampedusa (1981), El asalto del cielo (1986), Desciende, río invisible (1988) and Transeuropa (1998), as well as of the essays El Quattrocento (1982), La atracción del Abismo (1982), El héroe y el único (1984), Tres miradas sobre el Arte (1985), Giacomo Leopardi: Infelicidad y tiranismo (1985), Territorio del Nómada (1987) and together with Eugenio Trías El cansancio de occidente (1988) ; El fin del mundo como obra de arte (1990), a combination of the short story and essay genres, and Sabiduría de la ilusión (1995). He took part in the foundation of various publishing houses, such as Fontemara (1975), Icaria (1978) and El Acantilado (2000). He regularly gives conferences around the world and collaborates with leading cultural and artistic magazines published in Spain.