Before Babel: a History of Basque Literatures

Before Babel: A History of Basque Literatures Joseba Gabilondo BαRβaπoaK © 2016 Barbaroak. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Design: Joseba Gabilondo. Photographs: Wikimedia commons. ISBN: 978-1530868322 Library of Congress Cataloging Data: PH5281 .G33 2014 Barbaroak, LLC. www.barbaroak.com Only Basques preserve, to our days, their vulgar and barbarian language, which does not show any elegance, and is very different from the rest of languages and the most ancient of Spain, […] it is said that the whole Spain made use of the Basque language before the Romans entered these provinces and, with their arms, spread their language. It is also said that, because these Basque people were vulgar, ferocious, and wild […] and the mountains they inhabited were inaccessible, they never fell completely under the yoke of the foreign empire, or they shook it swiftly. Juan de Mariana, General History of Spain, (1601). What are we waiting for while congregated in the forum? The barbarians are expected to arrive today. Why is there such lack of action in the senate? Why are the senators sitting still and do not legislate? Because the barbarians will arrive today. … Why are the streets and public squares becoming empty? And everybody is going home with skeptical thoughts? Because night has fallen and the barbarians did not arrive. Some people came from the border And reported that the barbarians do not exist anymore. Now what are we going to do without barbarians? These people were after all a kind of solution. Constantine P. Cavafy. “Waiting for the Barbarians.” (1904; translation by Konstantinos Karpozilos). To Carlos Blanco Aguinaga Generosity, intellectual breath, and political commitment never came together in such an inspiring way. Introduction 1. Writing Difference 3 2. The Basque Country 7 3. Origins of the Basques: On Materia Vasconica 10 4. On the Open Structure of the Book 20 1. Literary Theory and History 1. Postnationalism 25 2. History 30 3. Literature 48 4. Postnational Literary History 55 2. Middle Ages: The Age of Differences 1. Travelers and Outsiders Picaud, Ibn Hayyan, Al Makkari 63 2. Jewish and Arabic Writing Halevi and Benjamin of Tudela 66 3. Political Literature Jimenez de Rada, Pactist Literature 72 4. The Aristocracy, Ballads, and Improvisational Poetry: Milia Lastur, Lazarraga, Etxepare 86 3. Imperial Difference and the Atlantic 1. The Renaissance: Language Apologies M. Zaldivia, Garibay, Poza, Echave 101 2. Baroque and Subalternity: The Iron Century Loyola, Axular, Oihenart, Erauso, Aguirre 112 3. Atlantic Enlightenment Larramendi, Munibe, Lyrical Poetry, Etxeberri 130 4. Colonial Difference and the Nation 1. The Tradition of Invention Humboldt, Mogel, Chaho, Hugo, Mérimée 165 2. Anthropologists and Bertsolaris Broca, Abbadie, Etxahun 187 3. Foundational Fictions and Tourism Trueba, Loti, Navarro Villoslada 197 4. Basque and Spanish Nationalisms Arana, Unamuno, Agirre 205 5. State Difference and Nationalist Essentialism 1. Modernism Lizardi, Lauaxeta, Orixe, Hermes 219 2. National Allegories Txillardegi, Laxalt, Martín Santos 225 3. Neolithic and Industrial Basques Krutwig, Oteiza, Aresti 230 4. Modernity’s Failure Saizarbitoria, Lertxundi, Guerra Garrido 236 6. Global Difference and Postnationalism 1. Globalizing Basque Otherness Atxaga, Irigoien, Pinilla 245 2. Women’s Literature and Exile Urretabizkaia, Mintegi, Borda, Jaio 252 3. Postnational Hybridity Borda, Sagastizabal, Epaltza, Montoia, Osoro 258 4. Neoliberalism, Autobiography, and Affect Juaristi, Savater, Onaindia, Uribe 273 5. The End of the Long 20th Century Saizarbitoria, Rodriguez, Lujanbio, Galfarsoro 279 Cited Works 283 Introduction “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (Act.1, sec. 3) 1. Writing Difference To this day, there is not a history of Basque literature written originally in English with a global audience in mind. There are two translations (Igartua and Zabaltza; Olaziregi Basque Literary) but the two best remain untranslated (Aldekoa, Historia; Urkizu Historia). Although there is an im- mediate need for such a history, this book is not another traditional history of Basque literature; rather, it intends to be a cultural history written against the nationalist grain that has informed Basque literary history to this day. So far, Basque literature has been considered that which is solely written in Basque language or euskara. Conversely, literatures written by Basques in state languages such as Spanish, French, or English, have been relegated to their respective state canons: Spanish, French or North- American literature. This tendency to equate language and state in the name of a putative cultural and historical unity, the nation, is prevalent not only in the Basque Country but in Europe and the world at large. Surprisingly enough, it shows how dominant nationalist ideology contin- ues to be in literary studies since its initial elaboration by the Schlegel brothers at the beginning of the 19th century in Germany. The following is a postnational history of Basque literature(s): it en- compasses all the literatures written by the Basques in all their languages, while also showing the violence, conflicts, and differences that these literatures create, represent, and reflect. Here, thus, “postnational” means a position critical of nationalism and, therefore, a way of historicizing that comes after nationalism and nationalist history. Yet, the reference to “national” in “post-national” intends to empha- size the fact that nationalism neither has disappeared nor has been super- seded—it remains the ghost of all literary and cultural histories. As Ben- edict Anderson claimed in 1983, “the ‘end of the era of nationalism,’ so long prophesied, is not remotely in sight. Indeed, nation-ness is the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time” (12); his claim still holds true these days. To my knowledge, no postnational history of literature exists in Eu- rope—and, in this sense, this project presents innovative ideas that might 3 affect or change most literatures in Europe. The concepts of “literatures of the Americas” (Jordan, Brotherson, Pérez Firmat), “Latin American literature” (Rama, González Echevarría and Pupo-Walker; Valdés and Kadir), African literatures (Olaniyan and Quayson; George), “Indian literature” (Chauduri, Gupta), or “literatures in the Iberian Peninsula” (Cabo Aseguinolaza, Tarrío and Domínguez) come closest to a postnational understanding of literature in the western and southern hemi- spheres. Yet, even in most of these cases, minority literatures written in other languages than Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English are still marginalized or omitted tout court under the umbrella theory of postcolo- nialism, which gives preference to imperialist languages with terms such as Francophone, Anglophone, Lusophone, etc. As Gayatri Spivak has noted, “[I]n the field of literature, we need to move from Anglophony, Lusophony, Teutophony, Francophony, et cetera. We must take the languages of the Southern Hemisphere as active cultural media rather than as objects of cultural study by the sanctioned ignorance of the metropol- itan migrant” (Death of a Discipline 9). Yet, even her work has contributed to the imperium of English. Obviously, Basque literature is, in the northern hemisphere, part of what Spivak only locates in the southern —although Basque has been written in countries such as Argentina since the 19th century (Aramburu and Eskerro). The main goal of writing a postnational literary history is to walk away from the narrative and teleology of a single nationalist subject, which, very much in a Hegelian fashion, celebrates the formation, development, critical moments, and final maturation or self-realization of such a national subject within its state. This postnational history aims at under- scoring that Basque culture and literature have been marked by diglossia, internal conflict, external repression, and stereotyping through dis- courses such as Orientalism, Occidentalism, and primitivism. Therefore, to approach Basque literature as solely written in a single language be- trays, in its nationalist zeal, the complex, heterogeneous, and divided history of Basque culture. The goal of this postnational history, thus, is to be historical by stepping outside the prefixed box of a putative Basque nation that gains historical consciousness and becomes a full historical subject by writing itself into its national language. Conversely, the other goal of this history is to question the even more hegemonic ideology that pervades both literary history and state nationalism. Such ideology posits that every subject is national and, therefore, s/he writes on behalf of and for the interest of the nation-state. Basque difference shatters this ideology in the Spanish, French, and (North) 4 American states. Most first-world literary histories follow this state-nationalist tendency, with the institutional and economic support of the State. Yet, this is not a specifically Basque, Spanish, French, or (North) American problem; it is a nationalist problem tout court. In this respect the other important effect of a Basque postnational history is to reterritori- alize Basque literatures and authors who have been considered so far Spanish, French, (North) American, etc. In short, a postnational history cuts into state-nationalist canons and makes them secondary and depend- ent on minority literatures such as the Basque.

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