Literature as a Response to Cultural and Political Repression in Franco's Catalonia

Description

During the 1950s and 1960s, several key Catalan authors set about rewriting some of their narrative work despite the obstacles to publication in Catalan under the Franco regime. This study describes the social, political and cultural conditions that impelled Salvador Espriu, Xavier Benguerel, Sebasti Juan Arb and Joan Sales to revise Laia, El testament, Tino Costa and Incerta glria, concentrating particularly on the linguistic debates and literary trends from the 1950s to the early 1970s. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical perspectives, this book examines the reasons for the rewriting, including censorship and self-censorship, generational and ideological changes within the Catalan literary field, controversies over linguistic purism, the appearance of new literary trends and gender and political issues. It focuses on the (re)construction of a distinctive national identity and the impact of repression, memory, exile and silence on the representation of the war and the post-war periods. This study explores not only how writers or society at large were affected by the dictatorship, but how the armed conflict left its mark on the writing process itself. Jordi Cornell-Detrell is a Lecturer in Spanish in the School of Modern Languages at Bangor University. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: The Rewriting of Laia, El Testament, Tino Costa and Incerta Glria Language, Literature and the Writer in Franco's Catalonia Disembodying the Nation: The Rewriting of Laia by Salvador Espriu Reading between the Lines: Silences and Double Language in Xavier Benguerel's El Testament Chronotope and Language Change in Arb's Tino Costa The Undercurrents of History: Memory, Language and Fiction in Joan Sales's Incerta glria Conclusion Bibliography Frontcover CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 Introduction: The Rewriting of Laia, El testament, Tino Costa and Incerta glòria 2 Language, Literature and the Writer in Franco’s Catalonia Generational and ideological divisions between the post-war writers Linguistic controversies between 1956 and the early 1960s: the Catalanwriters and their social duties The myth of the spoken language 3 Disembodying the Nation: The Rewriting of Laia by Salvador Espriu The vanished voices of Laia: sexuality, witchcraft and death The post-war text: voices from the land and the sea 4 Reading Between the Lines: Silences and Double Language in Xavier Benguerel’s El testament The endless night of Xavier Benguerel: challenging the critical reception of El testament From the 1955 to the 1967 text: empowering the reader 5 Chronotope and Language Change in Arbó’s Tino Costa Realist versus mythical discourse in the 1968 version Disempowering the narrative voice: class, religion and social change in Tino Costa 6 The Undercurrents of History: Memory, Language and Fiction in Joan Sales’s Incerta glòria From the 1956 to the 1971 version: gendered voices, political engagement and censorship Cruells facing the angel of history: spies, traumas, homicidal somnambulism and conspiracy theories in ‘Últimes notícies’ Reverberating voices: direct speech, multilingualism and expressive clichés in the 1969 text 7 Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX Backcover