Writers in Between Languages
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5 Minority Literatures in the Global Scene Writers In Between Languages: This book is a collection of the contributions made by Basque Writers In Between Languages: writers and American and European academics to the internatio- nal symposium, “Writers in Between Languages: Minority Lite- ratures in the Global Scene,” held May 15–17, 2008 at the Center Minority Literatures in the Global Scene for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, in the United States. Our symposium attempted to think about the consequen- ces of bilingualism for writ ers in a minority language, like Basque, EDITED BY in that they are located in that “in-between” of different cultural Mari Jose Olaziregi and identity communities and subjected to constant exchange and recognition of differences. One could say that practically all the current 800,000 Basque-speakers or euskaldunak who live on both sides of the Pyrenees in Spain and France are bilingual. And that this bilingualism is formed in conjunction with such widely spoken languages as Spanish and such prestigious languages in literary circles as French; lan guages that, in turn, have been displaced by the enormously central and legitimizing place that English occupies in the current global framework. The sympo- sium attempted, moreover, to debate the consequences implied by linguistic extra-territorialization for many authors in a minority language, the realignment implied by the hegemony of Eng lish for E all other literatures, and the options open to a minority author to DIT E get their voice heard in the World Republic of Letters. Together D BY with the above themes, certain aspects of the academic study of a minority literature such as that of Basque completed the list of Mari Jose subjects we intended to examine. O laziregi ISBN 978-1-877802-??-? Center for Basque Studies - University of Nevada, Reno CONFERENCE PAPERS SERIES Center for Basque Studies - University of Nevada, Reno Center for Basque Studies Conference Papers Series, No. 5 Writers In Between Languages: Minority Literatures in the Global Scene EDITED BY Mari Jose Olaziregi Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada This book was published with generous financial support from the Basque Government. Center for Basque Studies Conference Papers Series, No. 5 Series Editor: Joseba Zulaika Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2009 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Cover and Series design © 2009 Jose Luis Agote. Cover illustration: Juan Azpeitia. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writers in between languages : minority literatures in the global scene / edited by Mari Jose Olaziregi. p. cm. Includes index. Summary: “Collection of articles by Basque writers and American and European academics on the globalization of literature, postcolonialism, and new ethnic landscapes. Also treats topics such as center and periphery dualities, subaltern identities, so-called borderlands thought, and the effect of Creoleness”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-877802-90-4 (hardcover) 1. Basque literature--History and criticism. 2. Basque language--History. 3. Lit- erature and globalization. 4. Nationalism and literature. 5. Ethnology in literature. 6. Postcolonialism in literature. I. Olaziregi, Mari Jose. II. Title. PH5281.W75 2009 Joni eta Luisi. Table OF ConTenTS Acknowledgments . 9 Introduction . 11 MARI JOSE OLAZIREGI Part I – Creation (Writers) Chapter One—Writing in Basque in a Global Space from the Periphery .......... 27 AURELIA ARCOCH A Chapter Two—I Do Not Know Who “I” Is......................................... 39 RIKARDO ARREGI DIAZ DE HEREDI A Chapter Three—The Cork and the Anchor . 49 BERNARDO ATXAG A Chapter Four—Identity, Language, Creation (An Autobiographical Vision)....... 65 MARIASUN LAND A Chapter Five—Five Reasons for Writing in the Language of the Neighborhood . 75 MIREN AGUR MEA B E Chapter Six—Eight Crucial Decisions (A Basque Writer Is Obliged to Face) . 89 IB AN ZALDU A Part II – Re-Creation (Academics) Chapter Seven—On the Lightness of Being: The Conflict of Belonging in Basque Literature............................... 115 NEREA ARRUT I Chapter Eight—The Astigmatic Vision and the Perception of Minority Literatures . 131 L. ELENA DELGAD O 8 Contents Chapter Nine—Charting National Identities: The Excursion Mode . 149 LUIS FERNÁNDEZ CI F UENTE S Chapter Ten—Critical Basque Studies: A Place for Literature in Postnationalist Identity . 171 ANNA B EL MARTÍ N Chapter Eleven—Josep Pla: Localism, or a Complete Way of Viewing the World.............................................................. 191 XAVIER PLA Chapter Twelve—Post-Hispanism, or the Long Goodbye of National Philology .... 199 JOAN RA M ON RESIN A Chapter Thirteen—On Visible and Invisible Languages: Bernardo Atxaga’s Soinujolearen semea in Translation ........................... 213 MARIO SANTAN A Chapter Fourteen—Memory, Past, and Writing in the Global Scene: Bernardo Atxaga’s El hijo del acordeonista and Carme Riera’s La mitad del alma . 231 AL F REDO J. SOSA -VELASC O Chapter Fifteen—Exile, Dissemination, and Homogenization: The Case of Equatorial Guinea as the Space of a Minority Literature ....... 255 MICHAEL UGART E Chapter Sixteen—Salvador Espriu and the Marrano Home of Language . 267 TERESA M. VILARÓS -SOLER List of Contributors . 291 Index .................................................................................. 299 Acknowledgments This book is a collection of the contributions made to the international symposium, “Writers In Between Languages: Minority Literatures in the Global Scene,” organized by the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, and held May 15–17, 2008 on the campus of this same university. The generous funding of the Basque Gov- ernment made it possible for nineteen guests, made up of Basque writers and experts from American and European universities, to be able to debate and reflect on the chal- lenges posed by the new global scenario for minority literatures such as that of Basque. I can only express my most sincere gratitude to all the guest contributors. The generosity of their contributions and the enthusiasm with which the debates took place made the symposium a success. I am also indebted to the conference organizing committee, made up of the writer Bernardo Atxaga who, during the academic year 2007–8, was our William A. Douglass Visiting Distinguished Scholar, and by my colleagues Joseba Zulaika and Estibalitz Ezke- rra. I appreciate most sincerely the ideas and guidance they offered me. Finally, I would emphasize that the organization of the symposium would not have been possible without the encouragement and expertise of my colleagues at the Center for Basque Studies. Thanks to Kate Camino for all her effort and unconditional dedica- tion. To Sandy Ott, Xabier Irujo, and Eric Herzik for all the support they afforded me from the beginning. To Jill Berner for her skill in publicizing the event. And to our team of coworkers in Euskadi, Cameron Watson and Jose Luis Agote, for the excellent work undertaken in the copyediting and design of this book. Eskerrik asko bihotzez! Mari Jose Olaziregi Introduction MARI JOSE OLAZIREGI This book is a collection of the contributions made by Basque writers and American and European academics to the international symposium, “Writers In Between Languages: Minority Literatures in the Global Scene,” held May 15–17, 2008 at the Center for Basque Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, in the United States.1 If the effects of globalization have come to be understood most prominently at a technical or economic level—giving rise to terms such as “economic liberalization,” “single thought” (pensée unique), “intercon- nectedness,” “deterritorialization,” and “Westernization”—as regards the social, cultural and political spheres, the tendency has been more to emphasize that the global village is not so global. Globalization is not so global after all. New “ethnic landscapes” are the most disturbing form of an unsteady and uneven world;2 a world in which the foreigner has become a symptom.3 Within this context, postcolonialism has developed theories based on concepts like center and periphery, subaltern identities, so-called borderlands thought, or the effect of Creoleness (créolité)—all concepts that have encouraged the sub- version of homogenizing-hierarchical readings.4 Our symposium attempted to think about the consequences of bilingualism for writ- ers in a minority language, like Basque, in that they are located in that “in-between”5 of different cultural and identity communities and subjected to constant exchange and recognition of differences. One could say that practically all the current 800,000 Basque- speakers or euskaldunak who live on both sides of the Pyrenees in Spain and France are 1. Translated by Cameron J. Watson. Unless otherwise stated, all translations in the following work are by the authors and translators of the articles in question. 2. See Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995). 3. See Julia Kristeva, Etrangers à nous-mêmes (Paris: Gallimard, 1991). 4. On subaltern studies, see Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Subaltern Studies: Deconstructing Historiography,” in Selected Subaltern Studies, ed. Ranajit Guha and Gayatri Spivak (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988); on borderlands thought, see Gloria Anzaldúa,