Catalan Literature: A Comprehensive Overview
CATALAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
CONCEPTS
- Distinguish between oral literature (romances, corrandes, legends, tales) and serious literature (poetry and fiction).
- Periodization of 19th and 20th Century Catalan Literature (movements, authors, themes):
1. Romanticism/Rebirth
Themes: Motherland, nature/landscape, imitation of popular literature. Key Authors: Bonaventura Carles Aribau, Jacint Verdaguer (poetry).
2. School of Mallorca
Themes: Nature. Key Authors: Miquel Costa i Llobera, Joan Alcover, Maria Antònia Salvà (poetry).
3. Realism/Naturalism
Key Author: Narcís Oller (narrative).
4. Modernism
Themes: Nature. Key Authors: Joan Maragall (poetry), Joan Ruyra, Víctor Català, Santiago Rusiñol (narrative).
5. 20th Century
Themes: Nature/city. Key Authors: Eugeni d’Ors, Josep Carner (poetry).
6. The Avant-garde
Concepts: Words in freedom, calligrams, automatic writing. Key Authors: Joan Salvat-Papasseit (1st stage), J.V. Foix (2nd stage) (poetry).
7. Second Vanguards
Concepts: Sonnet, sestina, visual poetry, poem-objects. Key Author: Joan Brossa (poetry).
8. War Poetry
Themes: Major literary themes, war, exile. Key Authors: Carles Riba, Clementina Arderiu, Rosa Leveroni, Josep Carner, Tomàs Garcés, Marià Manent, Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel, J.V. Foix, Josep Palau i Fabre, Joan Vinyoli, Pere Quart, Salvador Espriu.
9. War Narrative
Techniques: First-person narration, introspection, interior monologue, disappearance of the narrator, experimental language. Trends and Genres: Psychological novel (Mercè Rodoreda, Llorenç Villalonga), metamorphosis, myth, fantasy, symbolism (Mercè Rodoreda, Gabriel García Márquez, Pere Calders, Joan Perucho), subgenres: crime fiction and science fiction (Manuel de Pedrolo).
10. The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda
- Weak pronouns, pronominal substitution, distinction between “him/to them”, combining “them” (colloquial and incorrect).
- Subordinate noun clauses: syntactic structures, functions, change and omission of prepositions.
- Subordinate adjective clauses: forms and function of the relative pronoun, correct use of relative pronouns.
PROCEDURES
- Comprehension and production of written texts.
- Literary commentary of poetry and prose. Poetry: Content (words, verses, key themes), form (verse, meter, rhyme, stanzas), author’s characteristics, literary movement. Prose: Plot, themes, ideas, author’s characteristics, literary movement.
- Grammatical analysis: Morphological and syntactic complements, verbal pronominal substitution, subordinate noun and adjective clauses.
1. Differences between Short Story and Poetry
Story: Conflict between artist and society. Imagined environment. Attempts to transform the environment but always fails. Descriptive techniques. Realism. Three types: rural, symbolic, decadent. More extensive and does not follow a structure.
Poetry: Step forward towards prose. Intellectual. Represents the adequate genre of the time. Noucentisme ideas and fixing the language. Characteristics: Importance of formal aspects, taste for standard style, formal beauty, objectivity, accuracy, return to classical forms, use of irony.
2. Literary Movements
Romanticism: Artist at the center. Escapism, imagination, intuition.
Renaissance: Revival of nationalism. Restoration of floral motifs. Themes: Homeland, love, faith.
Realism: Opposite of Romanticism. Based on reason. Isolation and fantastic sentiments.
Naturalism: Crisis of conscience. Novel born in France. Flees from models that intend to describe reality and romantic flavor. Based on scientific ideas. Objective and impersonal, everything must be proven by genetics and environment.
Modernism: Cultural and artistic movement. Opposed to the Renaissance. Transforms Catalan culture into modern Europe. Creates a total art. Artist in conflict with society. Breaks with the old. Key Authors: Joan Maragall, Brossa, Rusiñol.
School of Mallorca: Mallorcan authors between 1900 and 1950.
Noucentisme (Poetry Only): 1906-1923. Break with the new but continues to standardize culture. Wants everything perfect and old again (classical things and rebirth). Key Authors: Josep Carner, Guerau de Liost.
Avant-garde: Breaking with tradition.
- Futurism: Destruction of syntax and punctuation. Rupture with the past. Exalts the machine.
- Cubism: Representation of reality without imitation. Uses calligrams. Key Authors: Joan Salvat-Papasseit, Joaquim Torres-Garcia.
- Dadaism: Disorder of words, spontaneity, no punctuation, broken syntax. Key Authors: J.V. Foix, Joan Miró.
- Surrealism: Valuation of the imaginary, absurd humor, automatic writing.
3. Oral vs. Serious Literature
Oral Poetry: Oral transmission, word of mouth, from generation to generation. Author unknown and subject to change, traditional.
Serious Literature: Written transmission, author known, traditional, unmodified.
Pompeu Fabra: Created the orthographic dictionary and grammatical rules of Noucentisme.