Formal Letters, Language Standardization, and Post-War Narrative

Posted on Jan 25, 2025 in English Studies

The Menu

There are two types of formal letters:

  • Administrative letters, where there is no trust relationship.
  • Personal letters, which target a relationship of trust, expressing experiences or states of mind subjectively.

Features of Formal Letters

  • Date: Independent and on a separate line. A comma is placed between the location and the date (e.g., Xativa, 23 February 2009).
  • After the greeting, a comma or colon is used, and the next line starts with a capital letter.
  • Farewell formulas end with a comma if they are incomplete or with a period if they are complete.

Standardization

The process tries to recover the spheres of use and the number of speakers of a language, each with a program.

Linguistic Policy

Action: A government’s plan regarding the use of languages in communities where there is a multilingual situation. Usually, there are two approaches:

  1. Liberalism: Do not intervene and let the conflict process develop naturally.
  2. Determinism: Publish a legal framework that maintains the primacy of a language or otherwise stops the process.

Linguistic Policy Models

There are two theoretical models:

  1. Principle of Personality: A person can utilize their language regardless of the multilingual area they are in. For example, in Finland, both Swedish and Finnish are spoken, recognized, and can be studied.

  2. Principle of Territory: A language is allowed within a given area of a state. For example, Switzerland is composed of confederated cantons with four official languages (German 64%, French 19%, Italian 8%, Romansh 1%). Language rights are specific to each area, and if someone moves, they may not have the same rights.

Post-War Narrative

Around 1925, a process of cultivating prose began. Writers proceeded from modernist narrative (Prudenci Bertrana) or Noucentisme (Carles Soldevila). A new generation emerged, including Joan Francesc Trabal and Merce Rodoreda. The 1930s were a fertile period for novels and short stories. Proper literary and cultural institutions were created to help develop literature in the language. However, the Civil War led to the implementation of restrictions at all levels, with exile and language relegated to family or private use.

Despite the illegality, cultural life continued underground and in exile, where writers continued their creative work. After the 1950s, economic and social liberalization favored literature.

Short Story

In the 1950s, two trends can be distinguished in short story creation: a link with the realistic psychological tradition before the war and a recreation of reality through imagination and fantasy. The objective was the observation and psychological analysis of characters and situations (Merce Rodoreda).

Novel

In the 1960s, the emergence of the genre led to a rich diversity of written works. Authors who had already emerged before the war were joined by young artists influenced by new European novels and traditional ones. Before the war, there were naturalist and psychological novels by Rafael Tasis. A new realistic current emerged with Jose Espinas. Manuel de Pedrolo developed existential reflection and experimentalism, and Joan Perucho explored games, irony, and the interplay between reality and fantasy.

The two major novelists of the post-war period are Llorenç Villalonga, with an ideology influenced by the 18th-century French spirit, and Merce Rodoreda, an author with great ability for fabrication and simple, beautiful writing.