Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CATALAN LITERATURE AND WRITERS
Catalan was established as a literary language as early as the thirteenth century, and a
golden age
of medieval Catalan literature followed, lasting until the mid-sixteenth cen-
tury, with another cultural and literary flowering in the nineteenth century known as the
Renaixença
(Renaissance). However, this long pedigree has suffered two major interrup-
tions: first, the rise of Castile and later Bourbon rule, which saw the Catalan language ec-
lipsed and then suppressed; and a similar suppression under Franco, when there was a ban
onCatalanbooksandpublications.Inthepost-CivilWarperiod,therewassomerelaxation
of the ban, but it's only been since the return of democracy to Spain that Catalan literature
has once again flourished.
Catalan and Spanish speakers and readers are best served by the literature, since there's
little still in translation. The vernacular works of mystic and philosopher
Ramon Llull
(1233-1316) mark the onset of a true Catalan literature - his
Blanquerna
was one of the
first books to be written in any Romance language, while the later chivalric epic
Tirant lo
Blanc
(
The White Tyrant
) by
Joanot Martorell
(1413-68) represents a high point of the
goldenage.Noneoftheworksoftheleadinglightsofthenineteenth-century
Renaixença
is
readilyavailableintranslation,andit'sto
Solitud
(
Solitude
)by
VictorCatalà
(1869-1966)
that you have to look for the most important pre-Civil War Catalan novel. This tragic tale
of a woman's life and sexual passions in a Catalan mountain village was first published
in 1905, pseudonymously by Caterina Albert i Paradís, who lived most of her life in rural
northern Catalunya.
During and after the Civil War, many authors found themselves under forcible or self-im-
posed exile, including perhaps Spain's most important modern novelist,
Juan Goytisolo
(born 1931), a bitter enemy of the Franco regime (which banned his books). Goytisolo
has spent most of his life abroad - in Paris and Marrakesh - with his great trilogy
(
MarksofIdentity
,
CountJulian
and
JuantheLandless
) confronting the whole ambivalent
idea of Spain and Spanishness. Other notable exiles included
Pere Calders i Rossinyol
(1912-94), best known for his short stories, and
Mercè Rodoreda i Gurgui
(1909-83),
whose
Plaça del Diamant
(
The Time of Doves
),
El Carrer de les Camèlies
(
Camellia
Street
) and
LaMeva Cristina i Altres Contes
(
My Cristina andOther Tales
) are relatively
easily found in translation. For something lighter, there are the works of
Maria Antònia
Oliver i Cabrer
(born 1946), novelist, children's author and short-story writer born in
Mallorca, whose early novels were influenced by her birthplace, but whose
EstudienLila
(
StudyinLilac
) and
Antipodes
introduce fictional Barcelona private eye Lonia Guiu. More
detectives - this time, oddball twins Eduard and Pep - comb the city in the work of con-
temporary Catalan novelist
Teresa Solana
(born 1962).
