CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE
(1833-2005)
C
ontemporary Catalan literature is usually considered to have begun with the
19th
century Renaixença, or ‘resurgence’; more specifically, it is commonly
held to have begun with the 1833 publication of the ode La Pàtria (The Fatherland)
by Bonaventura-C. Aribau (1798-1862). Along with mediaeval literature, contemporary
literature is the most interesting period in the history of Catalan letters and
without a doubt the most accessible to the modern reader, not only chronologically
but also linguistically. This literature encompasses all the variety of any current corpus
of literature: all the literary genres (poetry, narrative, theatre, essay); the differing
degrees of quality and success; a variety of movements and styles; and different
social, geographic, age and gender backgrounds. In this respect, on the occasion of
the Guadalajara Book Fair (2004) in Mexico, where Catalan culture was the special
guest, the prestigious critic and publisher Josep Maria Castellet stated in an interview
that “nowadays Catalan literature has certain authors […] that are on par with any
other literature, including French, English or Spanish. This implies, at the same time,
that there are quite a few authors that have been translated into other languages, and
it is clear that the foreign publishers only choose based on criteria of quality. We have
thus reached a level of normality.” 30
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30
We provide a selection of 25 authors and 34 literary works in Catalan from all ages published
by the Madrid newspaper El País (Babelia, 7-11-2004), one of the most influential in Spain,
on the occasion of the Guadalajara Fair under the title “Basic Readings in Catalan Literature”.
Many of the titles have been translated into English, sometimes in more than one version, or into
other languages too; moreover, other translations exist in English for a number of unmentioned
books by the same authors. When this is the case, the title of the English translation we give here
is followed by the year of publication. The selection proposed was the following: Ramon Llull (also
known in English as Raymond Lully, or Llull, 1232-1316): Llibre d’amic e amat (The Book of
the Lover and the Beloved, 1923, 1995); Ausiàs March (or Marc; 1400-1459): Poesies (Poems;
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English anthologies: 1986, 1992, 2006); Joanot Martorell (1410/11-1465): Tirant lo Blanc (Tirant lo
Blanc 1984, Tirant lo Blanc [complete] 1993 [1974]; Jacint (also Jacinto, or Cinto) Verdaguer (1845-
1902): L’Atlàntida (Atlantis; ‘Cant IV’ = ‘Canto IV’, 1917), Canigó (Canigó, 2000), En defensa pròpia
(In Self Defence); Àngel Guimerà (1845-1922): Terra Baixa (Marta of the Lowlands, 1914), Maria
Rosa, La filla del mar (Daughter of the Sea); Joaquim Ruyra (1858-1939): Marines i boscatges
(Seaboards and Woodlands); Joan Maragall (1860-1911): Visions i cants (Visions and Songs), Nausica
(Engl. anthol.: 1964, 1983); Víctor Català (nom de plume of Caterina Albert, 1869-1966): Solitud
(Solitude, 1992); Eugeni d’Ors (1881-1954): Glosari (Glossary); Josep Carner (1884-1970):
Poesia (Poetry) (including part of Els fruits saborosos [The Tasty Fruits], Arbres [Trees] and Nabí
[Nabi, 2001; Engl. anthol.: 1962]); Carles Riba (1893-1959): Elegies de Bierville (Bierville Elegies,
1995); J. V. Foix (1893-1987): Sol, i de dol (Alone, and in Mourning), Les irreals omegues (The
Unreal Omegas; Engl. anthol.: 1998); Josep M. de Sagarra (1894-1961): Memòries (Memoirs);
Josep Pla (1897-1981): El quadern gris (The Grey Notebook); Llorenç Villalonga (1897-1980):
Bearn o la sala de les nines (The Dolls’ Room, 1988); Pere Quart (nom de plume of Joan Oliver,
1899-1986): Les decapitacions (The Decapitations), Vacances pagades (Paid Vacations); Mercè
Rodoreda (1908-1982): La plaça del Diamant (The Pigeon Girl 1967, The Time of the Doves 1980);
Joan Sales (1912-1994): Incerta glòria (Uncertain Glory, 2002); Pere Calders (1912-1984):
Cròniques de la veritat oculta (Chronicles of the Hidden Truth); Salvador Espriu (1913-1985):
Cementiri de Sinera (Sinera Cemetery, 1988), La pell de brau (The Bull-hide, 1977, 1987; Engl.
anthol. 1989, 1997); Joaquim Amat-Piniella (1913-1974): K. L. Reich; Joan Vinyoli (1914-1984):
Domini màgic (Magical Dominion), Passeig d’aniversari (Birthday Stroll); Joan Perucho (1920-
2000): Les histories naturals (Natural History, 1989); Joan Fuster (1922-1992): Diccionari per a
ociosos (Dictionary for the Idle, 1992), Nosaltres els valencians (We, the Valencians); and Gabriel
Ferrater (1922-1972): Les dones i els dies (Women and Days, 2004). Additionally, see pages 188-
189 for a further selection (the ten most relevant 20th
century authors) suggested by members of the
Society of Writers in the Catalan Language in 2000.
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184
As mentioned before, in the Catalan-speaking lands, Romanticism was the backbone
of this process of “rebirth”, which was translated into a renewed interest in the
Catalan language and its literary output from the Golden Age, as well as in a parallel
mytholigisation of the past, especially the Middle Ages. The intermediate period
was, in contrast, regarded as obscure and relatively unattractive. The renaixencistes
called it the “Decadència” (‘Decline’), thus positioning themselves as the restorers
and thus saviours making the 19th
century “risorgimento” possible.
As we have seen, certain extremes in this movement are worth pointing out. For
example, it should be noted that despite the importance his famous ode was given
after the fact, Aribau neither composed nor wrote virtually anything else in Catalan,
rather he was a prominent publisher of Spanish literature in Madrid. What is more,
in terms of the Valencia Renaixença, it should be said that at least at first, it arose
independently of the first Renaixença in Catalonia and Majorca, which were closely
related (Bonaventura-C. Aribau, Joaquim Rubió i Ors, Marià Aguiló). The first relevant
manifestation of the movement appeared in Lo Gaiter del Llobregat (1841; The
Piper of the Llobregat River), by Joaquim Rubió i Ors (1818-1899), which was a collection
of his poems published between 1839 and 1841 in the newspaper Diario de
Barcelona. Two poetry anthologies, Los trobadors nous (1858; The New TroubaLLIBRE
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185
CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
A 500 peseta note (worth €3) issued in 1971. The obverse displays a portrait of the young poet
and priest Jacint (nicknamed mossèn [‘Father’] Cinto) Verdaguer (1842-1902), the outstanding
figure of the literary movement known as the Renaixença (‘resurgence’, ‘rebirth’). The reverse
side shows the Canigó mountain (in French, Canigou) in the Pyrenees, seen from the FrenchCatalan
village of Vernet (officially, Vernet-les-Bains). The name of the mountain is the title of
Verdaguer’s epic poem (1886; English translation: Canigó, 2000).
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THECATALANLANGUAGE
186
dours) and Los trobadors moderns (1859; The Modern Troubadours) by Antoni de
Bofarull (1821-1892), laid the foundations of the Floral Games (Jocs Florals). This
literary and social event, reinstated in imitation of homonymous mediaeval events,
primarily consisted of, as mentioned in previous chapters, a yearly poetry contest in
which all the prominent poets of the day participated. The resounding success of the
Floral Games in Barcelona led similar events to be held in the rest of the Catalanspeaking
countries, such as the Floral Games put on by Lo Rat-Penat (‘The Bat’;
Poster for the film Marta of the Lowlands (1913), a cinematographic version in English of the play
Terra Baixa (1897; Lowlands) by Àngel Guimerà. Along with the poetry of Jacint Verdaguer and
the novels by Narcís Oller, Guimerà’s plays, which are still staged today, placed 19th
century Catalan
literature on par with its contemporary European literatures.
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CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
Valencia, starting in 1879, although these bilingual, in both Catalan and Spanish) or
those by the Companyia Literària de la Ginesta d’Or (‘Literary Company of the Golden
Broom’; French Catalonia, starting in 1924, in both Catalan and French).
Three key authors in the Renaixença made it possible for Catalan literature to be
on par with its contemporary literatures around Europe as of the last quarter of the
19th
century: Verdaguer, Guimerà and Oller. The quality of the works vying in the Floral
Games steadily rose, and in 1877 the young priest Jacint (Cinto) Verdaguer won
the prize for his epic poem, L’Atlàntida (Atlantis; Engl. transl. of ‘Canto IV’: 1917).
Verdaguer (1845-1902) is the most important author of the 19th
century, and his role
in Catalan letters has been compared to that of the figure of Ramon Llull in the 13th
century due to the revival brought about by the advent of his poetic language.
Towards around 1890, he entered a tumultuous stage in his life, leading him to a dramatic
confrontation with his protector (the Marquis of Comillas, at that time the
wealthiest man in Spain), and his own bishop, deeds which caused major upheaval
in Catalan society of the time. While in L’Atlàntida he achieved widespread success
in Catalonia and unprecedented international recognition (it has been translated into
twelve languages and was set to music by Manuel de Falla), in his second epic poem
Verdaguer evokes a mythological, ideal place called Canigó (1886; Canigó, 2000),
named after a mountain in the Northern (French) Pyrenees (called Canigou in
French), enabling him to evoke the origins of a real country – Catalonia. What is
more, Verdaguer also wrote other books of poems on religious, popular, mystical and
patriotic themes, and he is also widely heralded as a first-rate prose writer. His outstanding
works include travel accounts such as Dietari d’un pelegrí a Terra Santa
(1889; Diary of a Pilgrim to the Holy Land) and his journalistic articles, like the dramatic
series “En defensa propia” (1895-1987; “In Self Defence”).
Àngel Guimerà (1845-1924), on the other hand, is regarded as the venerable reviver
of Catalan theatre. Prior to him, noteworthy dramatists included Josep Robrenyo
(1783-1838) and Frederic Soler (1839-1895), better known by his pseudonym Serafí
Pitarra, who after rebellious and bohemian works written in his youth, was to end up
as the dramatist par excellence of the Barcelona bourgeoisie. In terms of Guimerà,
who was born on the Canary Islands and whose mother tongue was Spanish, his work
was marked by the stigma of being an illegitimate child as well as a romantic disillusionment
in his youth. He also wrote poetry and was one of the founders of the La
Renaixença, first a magazine (1871-1881) and later a newspaper (1881-1905). His
earliest plays, such as Mar i Cel (1888; Sea and Sky), still betray a Romantic influence
which would gradually veer towards a greater emphasis on realism, such as in his
landmark trilogy: Maria Rosa (1894), Terra Baixa (1897; Marta of the Lowlands, 1914)
and La filla del mar (1900; Daughter of the Sea). The strength of these works is still
appreciated by modern-day audiences, and their outstanding success when first published
and performed can be seen in their numerous translations to other western lanLLIBRE
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188
guages. What is more, his most popular work, Terra Baixa, was adapted to musicals
(such as the opera Tiefland, in German, with music by Eugen d’Albert) and film (1907;
Marta of the Lowlands, England, 1913; Tiefland by Leni Riefenstahl, Germany,
1940/44-1954); Tierra Baja by M. Zacarías, Mexico, 1950).
In terms of novels, it should be mentioned that this was the last literary genre to
join the Renaixença. Among a variety of reasons put forth to explain this delay, prominent
are the facts that the earliest Romantic Catalan novelists wrote in Spanish
instead of in Catalan; that the contemporaneous works of authors such as Walter
Scott, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas were first translated into Spanish; and – no
less importantly – that publishers and potential authors were reluctant to take the
“novel” step (not to mention economic and critical risk) of publishing a novel in Catalan,
a genre that had gone virtually uncultivated since the end of the Middle Ages.
The first forays into novel-writing during the Renaixença were L’orfeneta de Menargues
(1862; The Little Orphan Girl of Menargues) by Antoni de Bofarull, and Julita
(1874) by Martí Genís i Aguilar (1847-1932). However, more than the Romantic
model, the impetus behind the Catalan novel ended up coming from Realism and
novels of local customs and manners. The former trend was manifested first in the
coarse ruralism of authors such as Marià Vayreda (1853-1903) with La Punyalada
(1893; The Stab); the latter with the works of Emili Vilanova (1840-1905). However,
these and other authors foreshadow the appearance of Narcís Oller (1864-1930) and
his six novels and six books of short stories, a corpus that marked the introduction of
the narrative genre into Catalan within the hegemonic currents that modernity then
represented in Europe. Oller’s career spanned from epigones of a somewhat
Romantic tone, to forays into the realms of Realism and Naturalism, closing with the
beginnings of Modernisme in the transition from the 19th
to 20th
century. His first novel,
La Papallona (1882; The Butterfly), a rather melodramatic story of seduction and
abandonment, was translated into several different languages, with the French version
begin deemed worthy of a prologue by Émile Zola. L’escanyapobres (1884; The
Usurer), closer in style to Naturalism, touches on the classic theme of greed. One
year later, he published Vilaniu, a portrait of a disturbing and suffocating life of a
provincial city. Nonetheless, the major novel of Barcelona in the 1880s – and the first
to mythologise this city – was La febre d’or (1890 and 1892; Gold Fever), a total novel
in which Oller portrays the rise and fall of a Barcelona family, parallel to the rise and
subsequent crash in the stock market, as well as the growth and spectacular transformation
of Barcelona in preparation for the 1888 Universal Exposition. La bogeria
(1899; The Madness) touches on determinism, a central theme of naturalists,
through the history of a madman. And finally, with Pilar Prim (1906) he inclines more
towards the psychological novel.
In the Land of Valencia, Teodor Llorente and Vicent W. Querol, without a doubt
the best 19th
century Valencian poets, spearheaded the bourgeois and conservative
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189
Valencian Renaixença, which would ended imposing itself on the popular and progressive
sector of Carmel Navarro, better known under the pseudonym of Constantí
Llombart. Llorente (1836-1911) was the most influential literary personality of the 19th
century in the Valencian Country. Ideologically, he attempted to keep cultural Valencianism
outside the political realm, and especially to distance it from Catalan regionalism-nationalism.
Despite the fact that he acknowledged the unity of Catalan, he
constantly referred to it as the mythical “llemosí” (‘speech of Lemoges’; for an explanation
and the connotations of this term, see page 107.) Under the influence of European
Romanticism, he wrote poetry evoking landscapes and events, such as Llibret
de versos (1885; Little Book of Verses) and Cartes de Soldat (1897; Soldier’s Letters),
amongst others. Like Llorente, Vicent W. Querol (1837-1889) was influenced
by the Majorcan Marià Aguiló and was the author of Rimes catalanes (1877; Catalan
Rhymes, which as mentioned above was reissued in 1891 under the abbreviated
title of Rimes [Rhymes]), a modification of obvious significance. Constantí Llombart
(1848-1893), on the other hand, a writer with a republican and federalist ideology,
was also a cultural activist and founder of the cultural society called Lo Rat-Penat
(‘The Bat’) of Valencia, which once outside his stewardship veered towards Llorente’s
brand of conservatism. Defender of the common language of the Land of Valencia,
Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, Llombart wrote poetry, theatre and Los fills de la
morta viva (1879-1885; Children of the Living Dead, in reference to Valencian Catalan),
a biographical essay on Valencian writers from the 18th
and 19th
century.
Unlike the Land of Valencia, on Majorca and the other islands, the “Catalanness”
of their language was overall not a cause of controversy amongst writers, and
the relationship with their colleagues in Catalonia had been fluid since the beginning
of the Renaixença. The ideals of this movement were swiftly embraced by poets
such as Marià Aguiló, Tomàs Forteza and Josep-Lluís Pons i Gallarza. Belonging to
the stigmatised minority xueta (probably from the Majorcan words for ‘little Jew’ and
‘bacon’, referring to Majorcans reputed to have Jewish blood), Marià Aguiló (1825-
1897) stood out as a scholar (folklorist, philologist and bibliophile) and poet. His
studies and profound knowledge of the Catalan language blossomed in one of the
earliest dictionaries of Catalan on historical principles. As a Romantic poet, he wrote
especially on issues such as the fatherland, love and death. Through his influence,
his cousin Tomàs Forteza (1838-1898), a xueta too, but a fervent Roman Catholic,
also came to write poetry in Catalan. Lluís Pons i Gallarza (1823-1894) was a Catalan
by birth who spent almost half his life in Majorca, and his poetic oeuvre is
renowned for his Romantic rendering of the classical subject of the Beatus ille.
As for Northern Catalonia and Alghero, their literary Renaixença ended up
gelling as of 1880, largely as a result of the prior vigorous Renaixença in the Principality
of Catalonia. Though late, this awakening contributed to shaping a certain local
tradition: Northern Catalonia produced such prominent poets as Antoni Jofre (1801-
CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
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1864), Josep Bonafont (1854-1935) and Justí Pepratx (1821-1901), although the
most popular poet from Northern Catalonia was undoubtedly Albert Saisset (who
wrote under the popular pseudonym of Un Tal (‘So-and-So’; 1842-1894), quite a distance
from the Renaixença thesis and author of well-known humorous poems. In
Alghero, noteworthy figures include the pedagogues and poets Josep Frank (1830-
1900) and Joan Palomba (1876-1953), founder along with others of “La Palmavera”
in 1906, an explicitly Catalanist group whose members had direct relations with Catalonia,
and thanks to which the continuity of literature in Catalan in this Italian city on
Sardinia was upheld.
Turning now to the 20th
century, with all its historical avatars, it can be claimed that
as a whole it represented the consolidation and diversification of Catalan literature in
all the Catalan-speaking territories, often alongside the contemporary trends in world
literature. Many of its writers have been published beyond the borders of Catalan
through translations into a variety of languages, and some have been (and are) even
suggested as recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Certain foreign writers have
even adopted Catalan as one of their literary languages, as happened with the Czech
columnist and novelist Monika Zgustová, the English narrator and scriptwriter Matthew
Tree or the American critic and columnist Sam Abrams. In the same sense, a number
of writers whose first language was Spanish have also occasionally written in Catalan,
such as Manuel Vázquez Montalbán or Eduardo Mendoza. One can get an
inkling of the scope and variety of Catalan-language literature and 20th
century writers
(up to 1975) in the almost 2,300 pages contained in four thick volumes of the
eleven making up the Història de la literatura catalana (History of Catalan Literature),
the standard general history of Catalan literature edited by A. Comas, M. de Riquer
and J. Molas; or in a good part of the 3,100 bio-bibliographic or conceptual articles
in the recent Nou diccionari 62 de la literatura catalana (2000; New 62 Dictionary of
Catalan Literature), edited by E. Bou, which closes with authors born before 1950.
(Other merely quantative indicators, such as the Qui és qui [‘Who’s Who’] database
of the Institute of Catalan Letters [Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, or ILC] registered
1,526 living writers in Catalan as of 16-3-2006; and the web of the Society of
Writers in the Catalan Language [Associació d’Escriptors en Llengua Catalana, or
AELC] claimed to have over 900 members in all the Catalan-speaking territories as
of March 2006.)
Here we can only make a brief survey of the main literary movements and the
most prominent authors of the 20th
century, and for reasons of perspective, especially
those who are no longer with us. A survey or inventory by the Catalan-language newspaper
El Punt (2000) to members of the aforementioned Society of Writers resulted in
a tally of the ten most important deceased authors, which included Pere Calders,
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CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
Josep Carner, Salvador Espriu, J.V. Foix, Joan Fuster, Josep Pla, Carles Riba, Mercè
Rodoreda, Josep-Maria de Sagarra and Llorenç Villalonga. But an only slightly less
restrictive criterion would have allowed great figures such as Joan Maragall and Caterina
Albert (who can only count as 19th
century writers if the definitions are particularly
rigorous) to be included, as well as others we will briefly deal with below.
Between 1892 and 1911, approximately, belles lettres and the arts in Catalonia
joined the broad cultural movement characterised by its zeal to break with the past
and become up-to-date —Modernisme (‘Modernism’). Some of the modernist writers
and artists (who might include the famous architect Antoni Gaudí, better known
abroad by his name in Spanish, Antonio) suggested regenerating the country by opening
up to Europe, while others favoured decadent positions or currents such as l’art
pour l’art (‘Art for Art’s sake’). Taken as a whole, this movement, which can be related
to similar developments such as Art Nouveau, Modern Style, Jugendstil and Sezession,
attempted for the first time to establish a national culture in the strong sense of
the word, thus distinguishing it considerably from its contemporary Modernismo in
Spanish literature. The modernist artists, with their more rebellious stances, ended up
being swept away by the bourgeois, writers of “order” from the Noucentisme movement
(roughly translatable as ‘Twentieth century-ism’) a classically-leaning movement that
appeared in around 1906 and which, from the death of the poet Joan Maragall (1911)
until the coup d’état by General Primo de Rivera in 1923, became the predominant cultural
and aesthetic ideology in the most active circles of the Barcelona elite.
Joan Maragall (1860-1911) personifies Modernisme in poetry. His oeuvre, which
is diverse and at times even contradictory, represents the critical voice of the bourgeoisie
to which he belonged, and it includes the influence of Goethe and Nietzsche
in his earliest books, as well as mystical lyricism, spanning a conciliatory pro-Spanish
vision to clearly Catalanist attitudes. He is the author of some of the most iconic
poems in Catalan literature, such as the popular Vaca cega (1895; The Blind Cow,
translated into Spanish by his friend the philosopher and writer Miguel de Unamuno),
El comte Arnau (1906-1911; Count Arnold), and Cant espiritual (1909-1910; Spiritual
Canto) [Maragall English anthologies: 1964, 1983]. In narrative, Caterina Albert stands
out (1869-1966), best known by her nom de plume of Víctor Català. She was the
author of Solitud (1905; Solitude, 1992), the most universal novel of Catalan Modernisme,
translated into seven languages, and one of the best Catalan novels of all
times. Albert was one of the first women to courageously document the inner tension
of women subjected to male domination. In Solitud, she narrates the inner turmoil of
the main character, a young married woman who has to live in isolation in the mountains
with her indolent husband. Other prominent Modernist writers were Santiago
Rusiñol (1869-1931), a bohemian artist and author of the satirical novel L’auca del
senyor Esteve (1907; Mister Esteve’s Couplets); Joaquim Ruyra (1858-1939), who
wrote three books of short stories on seafaring and coastal life between 1903 and
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1928, including Marines i boscatges (1903; Seaboards and Woodlands), reviewed
and subsequently enlarged in Pinya de Rosa (1920; Rose-knot, with the novel El rem
de trenta-quatre [The Long Oar, 1994]); and Raimon Casellas (1855-1910), author of
the renowned Els sots feréstecs (1901; The Wild Hollows), a novel about rural conflicts.
Noucentisme crystallised as of 1906, especially around the figure of Eugeni
d’Ors (1881-1954), its maximum ideologue and propagandist (Glosari [1906-1921];
Glossary: essay-style articles that were published daily in the catalanist, conservative
newspaper La Veu de Catalunya [The Voice of Catalonia]), who nonetheless
ended up emigrating to Madrid. The same year, the appearance of the poetry collections
Els fruits saborosos (The Tasty Fruits) by Josep Carner (1884-1970) and La
muntanya d’ametistes (The Amethyst Mountain) by Guerau de Liost (pseudonym of
Jaume Bofill, 1878-1933) heralded poetry’s adherence to Noucentisme. Carner, who
has been consecrated with the epithet “prince of poets”, also published collections of
ironic poetry, such as La paraula en el vent (The Word on the Wind) and Auques i
ventalls (Couplets and Fans), both in 1914. Later, as a member of the diplomatic
corps, he published El cor quiet (1925; The Still Heart), which was a foretaste of
Nabí, his most mature work, published when he was in exile (1941; Nabi, 2001)
[Carner Englisth anthology: 1962].
The Majorcan generation after the Renaixança, clustered around the poets
Costa i Llobera and Alcover, tends to be classified within what is usually called the
Majorcan School. Parallel to Noucentisme in Catalonia, this “school” shared multiple
aspects with the former movement in addition to its chronology, including aesthetic
formalism, a certain Mediterranean-style classicism and the cultivation of landscape
poetry. Miquel Costa i Llobera (1854-1922), a priest from a wealthy rural background,
poet and translator, is primarily known for the sixteen odes in his successful Horacianes
(1906; Horatians) and for his famous poem “El Pi de Formentor” (1875; ‘The
Pinetree of Formentor’). Joan Alcover (1854-1926), a lawyer, had several moments
of approximation to and then withdrawing from linguistic and literary Catalanism, and
he served as a bridge for the young Josep Carner. Cap al tard (1909: Towards Evening)
contains his most celebrated poems, among them “La Balanguera” (from the name
of a female folk character), based on a popular Majorcan song, which has become
the official anthem of the island of Majorca — but as a patriotic song has had other
uses in the Catalan-speaking lands as a whole, especially when more explicit
anthems were forbidden. Joan Alcover should not be confused with Antoni M. Alcover
(1862-1932), the Majorcan priest who was a linguist and folklorist. Antoni M.
Alcover’s work as folklorist is perhaps his most renowned activity in Majorca today:
with the pseudonym of Jordi des Racó he published several series of Majorcan traditional
tales such as Aplec de rondaies mallorquines (1896; Folk Tales of Mallorca,
1999). Alcover is especially well remembered today for the planning and direction of
his opera magna: the 10-volume Diccionari català-valencià-balear (1926-62), regardLLIBRE
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ed as one of the most significant lexicographical monuments in all Romance lan-
guages.
For its part, the European avant-garde was primarily reflected in two Catalan
poets: Salvat-Papasseit and Foix. The poetry of Joan Salvat-Papasseit (1894-1924),
son of a modest family and frail in health, shifted between a spontaneous archaism
tinged with futurism, and touched on the topic of love on the brink of death [English
anthology: 1982]. The works of J.V. Foix (1893-1987) synthesised both the practices
rooted in Paris movements as well as the influence of the Occitan troubadours, along
with dolce stil nuovo and the Catalan classics. His poetry collections Gertrudis
(1927), KRTU (1932) and especially Sol, i de dol (1947; Alone, and in Mourning) and
Les irreals omegues (1948; The Unreal Omegas) are his most celebrated works
[English anthologies: 1987, 1998, 1999].
Other authors who began their careers in the 1920s were the prose writer Josep
Pla, the poet Carles Riba and the dramatist, novelist and poet Josep-Maria de Sagarra.
Many consider Josep Pla (1897-1981) to be the patriarch of contemporary Catalan
prose. Connoisseur and admirer of the works of Montaigne and Voltaire, he was
the author of a prolific literary output (his complete works fill almost sixty volumes)
with a sceptical and mocking tone. He cultivated an array of literary genres, includJosep
Pla (1897-1981) on the right, next to future Nobel Prize winner for literature, the bearded
Camilo José Cela, contemplating the Ampurdan Plain (NE Catalonia). Pla is heralded as the
patriarch of contemporary Catalan prose. Author of a refined sense of irony, clearly indebted to
Montaigne and Voltaire, his complete works fill almost sixty volumes of journalistic articles, memoirs,
travel accounts, and other writings.
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194
ing journalism, travel accounts, memorialism (El quadern gris; The Grey Notebook),
biography (Homenots; Well-built Men), and so forth [available in English: Gibraltar
1955, Seeing Catalonia 1983]. About Josep-Maria de Sagarra (1894-1961) it can be
said that while still alive he became a popular myth. From the pre-war era, two plays
of customs and manners stand out which are still successfully staged: L’hostal de la
Glòria (Gloria’s Hostel) and El cafè de la Marina (The Coast Café), as well as the
novel Vida privada (1932; Private Life), an ironic vision of patrician Barcelona in the
1920s. From the post-war period, he translated into Catalan Dante’s Divine Comedy
and twenty-eight works by Shakespeare. From the poetry oeuvre of Carles Riba
(1893-1959), a university professor of Greek and careful reader of Hölderlin, Mallarmé
and Valéry, one of his most prominent works is Elegies de Bierville (1942; Bierville
Elegies, 1995). Composed in the hardship of exile and employing a lofty metaphysical
tone, they are regarded as one of the highest points in Catalan poetry of all ages.
In addition to composing other poetry collections, such as Salvatge cor (1952; Wild
Heart), he also translated many Greek and Latin classics into Catalan (the Odyssey,
Virgil’s eclogues, Aeschylus, Sophocles and others), as well as two books from the
Bible, and modern writers such as Poe, Rilke and Kavafis [Riba English anthologies
1964, 1970]. Carles Soldevila (1892-1967), from an educated middle-class background,
wrote an extensive range of work in a variety of genres and tones. His bestknown
novel is Fanny (1929), the story of a girl from a good family whose fall from
grace sees her ending up as a dancer in a musichall. In spite of formal innovations
such as its Joycian inner monologue, its spectacular success pertains far more to its
sexual daring and the consequent controversy that this caused. His comedy Civilitzats,
tanmateix! (1921; [Civilised All the Same!]), the story of a love triangle on a
desert island, was particularly successful in Barcelona. It was an even greater hit in
France in a plagiarised version by a future académicien – and later taken up by Hollywood
as The Little Hut (1957), starring Ava Gadner and David Niven. Finally, the
Majorcan poet Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel (1913-1938), a close friend of the poet Salvador
Espriu, died at a tender age. Nonetheless, his brief oeuvre has bequeathed to
us one of the most breathtaking lyrical voices of the 20th
century.
Without a doubt, the most popular author during the Franco era was the aforementioned
Salvador Espriu (1913-1985), whose name was put forward several times
as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature. An author who cultivated a variety
of genres, including theatre (such as Primera història d’Esther [1948; The Story of
Esther, 1989]), his works broadly reflected the Mediterranean world, especially that
of the Greeks and Jews. Prior to the Spanish Civil War, he had gained fame as a narrator
(Laia, 1932). In the post-war period, he made a clear civic commitment in favour
of reconciliation amongst Spaniards and peaceful coexistence amongst the different
peoples and languages of Spain (his most popular book of poems, along these lines,
was La pell del brau (1960; The Bull-hide, 1978 and 1988, in reference to the popular
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CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
nickname for Spain). In a parallel fashion,
he pursued his literary examination of the
subject of death, the common thread of
his works as a whole, in other poetry collections
such as Cementiri de Sinera
(1946; Sinera Cemetery, 1988) and Setmana
Santa (1971; Holy Week) [selected
poetry in English: 1975, 1989, 1997].
The most noteworthy deceased
prose writers of the 20th
century include
Llorenç Villalonga, Mercè Rodoreda and
Joan Sales, as well as the novelist and
short-story writer Jesús Moncada;
although the latter died in 2005, he published
almost his entire oeuvre in the previous
century. Likewise, special mention
should be made of the narrator Pere
Calders and the essayist Joan Fuster.
The first four are hailed as the authors of
four of the most important and universal
Catalan novels of the 20th
century (the
fifth of which being Solitud [1905; Solitude,
1992) by Caterina Albert, discussed
above) and as such, have been
broadly disseminated around the world
through translation. In 1961, Llorenç Villalonga
(1897-1980), a psychiatrist from
Palma, Majorca, published Bearn o la
sala de les nines (The Dolls’ Room,
1988), his most important novel, in which he uses an elegiac tone to tell of the decline
of the family and world of a rural, cultivated Majorcan aristocrat. This novel has often
been likened to The Leopard by the Italian prince Tomasi di Lampedusa, although it
was written before. The other great novel that contributed to marking a decisive turning
point in 20th
century Catalan narrative was La plaça del Diamant (1962; The
Pigeon Girl 1967, The Times of the Doves 1980) by the Barcelona author Mercè
Rodoreda (1908-1982), who published five other novels in addition to this [also in
English: Two Tales 1983, My Christina and Other Stories 1984, Camelia Street 1993,
Broken Mirror 2006]. Colombian Nobel Literature Prize laureate Gabriel García
Márquez, captivated by The Pigeon Girl or The Times of the Doves, claimed that it was
the “loveliest novel published in Spain since the Civil War”. Related to the narrative of
The Aragonese-Catalan writer, Jesús Moncada
(1941-2005) is considered one of the
great prose writers of the Catalan language.
Taken as a whole, his fiction work – the short
stories and novels – is recognised as being
one of the 20th
century’s most solid. Most
especially, Camí de sirga (1988: The Towpath,
1994) is among the half dozen novels
in the 20th
century that are most admired
both by public and critics alike. His early
death was one of the greatest losses to
Catalan literature in recent years.
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196
Proust, Woolf and Joyce, and influenced by Freud’s theories, the main character in this
novel is a young woman from a working-class Barcelona neighbourhood who narrates
in first person, employing a poetic, emotional tone, her private and collective experiences
from before, during and after the Spanish Civil War. Another writer whose work
is of considerable stature is Pere Calders (1912-1994). With writing published as far
back as before the Spanish Civil War, and as one of the representatives of the generation
of writers living in exile in Latin America, he did not become popular until the late
1970s. His best-known works, tinged with irony and fantasy, include short stories like
Cròniques de la veritat oculta (1954; Chronicles of the Hidden Truth) and the novel
Ronda naval sota la boira (1966; Naval Patrol under the Mist), probably his most successful
work in prose, although he is the author of other novels as well [Calders Narrative
titles in English: Brush 1982, The Virgin of the Railway and other stories 1991]. He
is also regarded as the literary mentor of the then-young Jesús Moncada (Mequinensa,
Aragon Strip, 1941-Barcelona 2005). Though he died prematurely, Moncada translated
Verne and Dumas into Catalan, but was mainly the author of half a dozen unforgettable
books published between 1985 and 2004. His novels and short stories show
an attempt to preserve the memory of his birthplace, Mequinensa, and its people
between the late 19th
century and 1971, the year when the town was submerged under
the waters of the Ebro river when it was turned into a reservoir. With his usual style
somewhere between ironic and lifelike, yet with an elegiac tone and undercurrent, that
Covers from two translations of the novel La plaça del Diamant (1962; The Pigeon Girl 1967, The
Time of the Doves, 1980) by Mercè Rodoreda (1908-1982). Influenced by the works of Proust,
Wolf, Joyce and Freud, the narrative by this Barcelona writer marked a clear landmark in the 20th
century Catalan novel. Together with the novels of Rodoreda, Bearn o la sala de les nines by
Llorenç Villalonga (1897-1980) contributed to the revival of this genre within 20th
century Catalan
literature. The Doll’s Room has been often likened to Lampedusa’s Leopard because of its subject,
setting and tone although Villalonga’s novel was written before.
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CONTEMPORARYLITERATURE(1833-2005)
sepia world on the verge of disappearing is embodied most successfully in Camí de
sirga (1988; The Towpath, 1994). Translated into around fifteen different languages,
the novel elevates both Mequinensa and its varied human microcosm to the level of
myth, and it makes this book one of the most unanimously celebrated Catalan novels
in the last quarter of the 20th
century. In the case of Joan Sales (Barcelona, 1912-1983),
he was known more for being Villalonga and Rodoreda’s editor than for his own brief
oeuvre or his translations into Catalan (of Dostoyevski, Kazantzakis and Mauriac).
Regarded as a “Catholic novelist” along the lines of Green or Böll, his most celebrated
book was the war novel Incerta glòria (1956; Uncertain Glory 2002). According to the
renowned critic and writer, Valentí Puig, this is “one of the greatest novels in Catalan literature”.
The title, taken from a line by Shakespeare (“The uncertain glory of an April
day”, fromThe Two Gentlemen of Verona) refers to the calm enthusiasm with which
the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was greeted on an April day in 1931
– just as the inadvertent countdown to a fratricidal conflagration commenced. As a
(Communist) officer in the Army of the Republic, Sales was stationed on the front in
Aragon, which he made use of to set his novel, and where he witnessed the successive
slaughter of young soldiers. Forced into exile in France and Mexico, and turning
once again to the Catholic faith of his childhood, he composed this complex, wellrounded
war novel. It has been pointed out that his four main characters, reflecting
very different individualities, all seem like flesh-and-blood characters as opposed to
predictable stock heroes. Despite the obvious quality of the novel (including its “heterodox”
model of language), ideological rather than literary reasons (a moral vision of the
Civil War that was unacceptable to both winners and losers) condemned both novelist
and novel to virtual ostracism.
Joan Fuster (1922-1992) was the greatest cultivator of the genre of essay. A
Valencian, he has been considered one of the best European essayists; his Diccionari
per a ociosos (1964; Dictionary for the Idle, 1992), inspired by Voltaire’s Philosophical
Dictionary, is regarded as one of his best works. Like the latter, his articles
touch on a wide variety of subjects from a humanistic perspective shaded with caustic
humour and irony. A writer of articles, scholar of the history of Catalan language
and literature, literary critic and poet, he was, however, primarily known as one of the
principal ideologues of the Catalan Countries, as well as for being the catalyst during
the cultural – and partly political – renaissance of el País Valencià (the Valencian
Country) during the Franco dictatorship. In this realm, his best know essay (which
did not escape bitter controversy at the time) is Nosaltres els valencians (1960; We,
the Valencians), with a historical subject matter and a vindictive tone.
Other deceased authors not included in the aforementioned survey, but who
undoubtedly also deserve being mentioned are: Marià Manent (1898-1988), perhaps
better known for his work as a critic and his translations into Catalan (including works
by Keats, Pasternak, Andersen, Blake, Coleridge and Kipling) than for his brief yet
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198
elegant poetic oeuvre [Manent English anthologies: 1984, 1988]; Vicent Andrés
Estellés (1924-1993), according to Joan Fuster the best Valencian poet since Ausias
March and author of realistic and coarse poetry centring on love, sex and death,
though also on civic commitment [Andrés Estellés English anthology: 1992]; Joan
Brossa (1919-1998), a nonconformist poet who rejected the conventional divisions
between literary (or artistic) genres, and who produced a variated oeuvre that would
most certain fall under the label of “total art” [Brossa English anthology: 1973, 1992,
2000]; and Gabriel Ferrater (1922-1972) who, remote from the prevailing social realism
of his time, was the author of a poetic oeuvre in the English tradition, articulated
around moral experience and reflection.
The last third of the 20th century witnessed the passing of other no less interesting
authors who as a whole contributed to overcoming the wasteland of the cultural
and linguistic desert that the Franco dictatorship attempted to impose. Amongst the
poets, we should briefly mention Clementina Arderiu (1889-1976), Pere Quart (nom
de plume of Joan Oliver, 1899-1986), Agustí Bartra (1908-1982), Joan Vinyoli (1914-
1984), Blai Bonet (1926-1997) and Miquel Bauçà (1952-2005). Nowadays somewhat
forgotten, Manuel de Pedrolo (1918-1990) was one of the most honoured poets writThe
publication of the novel La Pell Freda (2002: Cold Skin, 2005) by Albert Sánchez Piñol, represented
a remarkable moment for Catalan literature. This “blend of Conrad and Lovercraft” was
the first Catalan novel to hit the international best-seller lists and has translation copyrights
reserved for some twenty languages.
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ers in Catalan literature; he likewise touched all the literary genres (including translations
of Faulkner, Dos Passos, Kerouac, Miller, Sartre, Robbe-Grillet and others
into Catalan), but the enormous popularity he enjoyed in life came mainly from his
extensive narrative oeuvre, especially from his science fiction novel Mecanoscrit del
segon origin (1974; Typescript of the Second Origin), a true best-seller for years on
end (more than one million copies sold), especially amongst young readers. The
successful narrator and journalist Montserrat Roig (1946-1991) devoted her works to
her commitment to Catalan culture, the political left and feminism. Mercè Rodoreda
considered her one of her “epigones”. She stands out as a novelist for her novel El
temps de les cireres (1977; The Cherry Season), part of a tetralogy, which focuses
on the history of the main character as a woman in the upper-class neighbourhoods
of Barcelona at the end of the Franco dictatorship. Her journalistic output includes
the renowned, well-documented research report Els catalans als camps Nazis (1977;
Catalans in the Nazi Concentration Camps) and L’agulla daurada (1985; The Golden
Needle), the result of an enamoured stint in Saint Petersburg during the late
Soviet era. Her attitudes towards life largely coincided with those of another writer,
Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952-1998), an impassioned poet and activist, who also died
prematurely. Joan Perucho (Barcelona 1920-Barcelona, 2003) was included by Harold
Bloom in his highly restricted “Catalan canon” (2002). A rural judge until retirement,
and a highly respected art critic and journalist, he stands out for his narrative of the
wondrous (such as Històries naturals [1960; Natural History, 1989]) and Les aventures
del cavaller Kosmas [1981; The Adventures of the Knight Kosmas]). The death
of Miquel Martí i Pol (Roda de Ter, Barcelona, 1929-Vic, Barcelona, 2003) represented
the disappearance of the most widely read Catalan poet in recent years. Born into
a working-class family in inland Catalonia, his physical and speech abilities were
affected by illness when he was 41. His poetry swings between historical realism and
reflections on death. He also translated Saint-Exupéry, Beauvoir, Barthes and Zola,
amongst others. Martí i Pol’s popularity during his lifetime is solely comparable to
that enjoyed in his day by Salvador Espriu, with whom he shares the honour of being
put forth as a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature [available in English: Vacation
Notebook 1995 = Quadern de vacances 1976].
To close this chapter, given the lack of proper historical perspective, we will limit
ourselves to citing some of the living authors who are generally most widely hailed and
accepted by current critics and the reading public. In the field of narrative, important
writers include Quim Monzó (Barcelona, 1952), a short-story writer and journalist, probably
the best contemporary narrator, one who is revitalising the genre and with the most
far-reaching influence, and one of the two or three current writers who are most popular
and enjoy the widest international reach. Baltasar Porcel (Andratx, Majorca, 1937),
Isabel Clara Simó (Alcoi, Alicante, 1943), Carme Riera (Palma, Majorca, 1948) and
Miquel de Palol (Barcelona, 1953) are four novelists with a solid body of work, as is Fer-
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ran Torrent (Sedaví, Valencia, 1951), author of successful noir novels featuring the city
of Valencia as the backdrop [available in English: Porcel’s Horses into the night 1995
= Cavalls cap a la fosca 1975, Springs and Autumns 2000 = Primaveres i tardors 1986;
Simó’s A Corpse of One’s One 1993 = Una ombra fosca com un núvol de tempesta
1993, Julia 1998 = Júlia 1983; Riera’s Mirror Images 1993 = Joc de miralls 1989].
Similarly, the narrative and novelistic oeuvre of Sergi Pàmies (Paris, 1960), son of
the engagée writer Teresa Pàmies (Balaguer, Lérida, 1919: Testament a Praga [1970;
Testament in Prague]), are bound together to Monzó’s by the common thread of irony
that has been roundly described as “devastating”. Josep Lozano (Alginet, Valencia,
1948) and Joan-F. Mira (Valencia, 1939) are two prominent Valencian prose writers. The
latter, a Valencian intellectual and translator (the Divine Comedy [2000], the New Testament
[2004]), has also published several novels (Borja Papa [Pope Borgia, 1997], Purgatori
[2003; Purgatory]) and a variety of essays. The former is the author of Crim de
Germania (1980; Guild Crime), a historical novel set in the Valencian civil war in the early
16th century that became a veritable best-seller in the Land of Valencia with more than
200,000 copies sold. A surprising – and noteworthy – case is that of Albert Sánchez
Piñol (Barcelona, 1965), whose first novel, La pell freda (2002; Cold Skin, 2005), “a
blend of Conrad and Lovecraft,” has rights reserved in more than twenty languages and
was the first novel in Catalan to hit the international best-seller lists. Other novelists and
narrators worth watching include Emili Teixidor (Roda de Ter, Barcelona, 1933), Julià de
Jòdar (Badalona, Barcelona, 1942), Biel Mesquida (Castellón de la Plana, 1947), Miquel
de Palol (Barcelona, 1953) and Maria Mercè Roca (Gerona, 1958).
Children’s and young people’s narrative in Catalan has been consolidated as one
of the most dynamic in Europe. Indeed, 30% of the books published in Catalan are
aimed at the children and young readers’ markets, although many of them are international
best-sellers, especially English books such as the Harry Potter series, or works in
French such as Tintin and Asterix. Authors of this genre in Catalan include Josep-Maria
Folch i Torres (1880-1950), the first to professionalise Catalan literature for children as
a writer and editor of the successful children’s magazine En Patufet (1904-38; The Wee
Guy) and the author of an extremely popular Christmas play entitled Els Pastorets (1916;
The Little Shepherds) as well as of Les aventures extarordinàries d’en Massagran (1911;
The Extraordinary Adventures of Abitbignow); and also the narrators and illustrators Lola
Anglada (1894-1984), Mercè Company (Barcelona, 1947) and Roser Capdevila (Barcelona,
1939), the latter two being the creators of the popular series Les Tres Bessones (“The
Triplets”), which has been translated into more than thirty languages. Other venerable authors
in this genre are Josep Vallverdú (Lérida, 1923), Joaquim Carbó (Caldes de Malavella,
Barcelona, 1932), Gabriel Janer Manila (Algaia, Majorca, 1940) and Miquel Desclot (nom
de plume of Miquel Muñoz, Barcelona, 1952). A remarkable case is that of the humoristic
El zoo d’en Pitus (1996; Pitus’ Zoo) by Sebastià Sorribas (Barcelona, 1928), with more
than 300,000 copies sold.
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In poetry, we cite only a few mature authors, such as Josep Palau i Fabre
(Barcelona, 1917), Jordi Sarsanedas (Barcelona, 1924), Màrius Sampere (Barcelona,
1928), Feliu Formosa (Sabadell, Barcelona, 1934), Joan Margarit (Sanaüja, Lérida,
1928), Salvador Oliva (Banyoles, Gerona, 1942), Narcís Comadira (Gerona, 1942) and
Marta Pessarrodona (Terrassa [Tarrasa], Barcelona, 1941).
As for theatre, it might be more difficult to choose specific authors worth mentioning,
not because there are few but because a little perspective is perhaps more necessary
in this genre given the fact that classical works from the 19th
and 20th
centuries are
still being staged to enormous popular success. Nonetheless the importance – even
on an international scale – of renowned dramatic authors made popular in part because
of their television scripts, such as Josep-M. Benet i Jornet (Barcelona, 1940) and Sergi
Belbel (Terrassa, Barcelona, 1963), is worth mentioning, as is an important set of senior
dramatists such as Ricard Salvat [1934- ] and his influential Adrià Gual Dramatic Art
School [1960-75], Iago Pericot [1929- ], Jordi Teixidor [1939- ], Benet i Jornet, the brothers
Rodolf [1948- ] and Josep-Lluís [1954- ] Sirera…, who are on the basis of many
other (as Belbel, Jordi Galceran [1964- ], Jordi Sànchez, Joel Joan, Josep-Pere
Peyró…). Finally, Galceran’s El mètode Grönholm (2003; The Grönholm Method), has
been hailed as a “social phenomenon”, a success seen in more than fitteen countries
by a quarter milion spectators. [Some English translations of Catalan theatre include
the collective selections within Contemporary Catalan Theatre: translated excerpts of
Teixidor’s El retaule del flautista, R. Sirera’s Verí del teatre [= The Audition], Belbel’s En
companyia d’abisme, and Benet’s Nau; as well as those in Modern Catalan Plays
(2000; complete versions of Brossa’s The Quarrelsome Party, R. Sirera’s The Audition,
Benet’s Desire, and Belbel’s Fourplay). Other individual translations are Benet’s Legacy
(2000), and Belbel’s Caresses (1999) and Blood (2004).]
No less interesting, though less widely known, are other writers from Northern
Catalonia (Josep-Sebastià Pons [Illa (officially, Ille) 1880-1962], Gumersind Gomila
[Port-Mahon, Minorca, 1906-Perpignan, 1970], Pere-Jordi Cerdà [pseudonym of Antoni
Cayrol, 1920], Joan-Lluís Lluís [Perpignan, 1963], Daniel Bezsonoff [Perpignan,
1963]); from Andorra (Antoni Morell [Barcelona, 1941]); from Alghero (Rafael Sari
[1904-1978] and Francesc Manunta [1928-1995]); from Ibiza (Marià Villangómez
[1913-2002]); and from the Catalan-speaking part of Aragon (Santiago Vidiella [Calaceit
(in Spanish, Calaceite), Teruel, 1860-1929] and Desideri Lombarte [Pena-roja
(Peñarroya), Teruel, 1937-1989]). Finally, just as in other countries, we should also
point out the usually short-lived success of what are known as “media authors”, usually
more renowned for their participation in successful radio or television programmes.
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