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Jordi Llovet

The Catalan canon

All the world’s experts who have devoted their time to establishing the canon of a particular , and as a whole, have based themselves on three suppositions, which are seldom disputed. A list of canonical titles must be drawn up: a) on a historical basis, that is, by considering the tradition of the entire scope of this literature, from its origins to the present day; b) on an aesthetic basis, that is, by considering the formal and intrinsic values of literary works, and c) by looking at the correlations that can be established between texts from a literature in a specific language and the texts written in other languages which, nearly always as a result of their translations, are able to influence the way in which major works of iterature in the country in question are shaped.

A well-constructed canon —such as the and Frühromantik onwards—, national different ones established by critics from literature, or literature in its own, different the English-speaking world in particular, language, has developed as a continuum of from William Covell’s Polimanteia (1595), causes and effects which can be perfectly to Harold Bloom’s The defined and analysed, an interplay of reliefs (1994)— has no value whatsoever if the and contrasts, and even major revolutions author who has defined it has not taken (such as the one signified by the appearance into account this threefold dimension. of Petrarch in , Goethe in As far as the first and second of these and Baudelaire in French questions are concerned a priori, ), but always forming a sequence literature is, unfortunately, in a situation in which the precursors explain their which is far from comparable to the one descendants. Aesthetics which were already encountered in England since Chaucer, in considered outmoded, such as French Italy since the Duocento, or since neo-, have even re-emerged Chrétien de Troyes. In these three cases alongside the boldest modern forms, as —to which we can add German literature is the case when we compare the French from the period of the Enlightenment poètes maudits with the Parnassians. 122/123 II The Catalan canon Jordi LLovet

There may be clashes, sharp contrasts The Nova Planta decrees implemented and conflicts between the “ancients” and in the Catalan-speaking regions between “moderns” —the famous Querelle has not 1707 and 1716 sidelined our language yet faded away— however, the body of and, as a result, the literature produced these literatures can be presented with a from then onwards (as had been perfectly clear logic, and, more importantly, happening to a great extent since the uninterruptedly. Castilian-Aragonese alliance, a fact The case of Catalan literature is very referred to earlier) became purely different. It has an undisputed founder, symbolic and had scant aesthetic quality: the true father of the literary tradition, it is a literature which cannot claim to be . However, as the centuries part of our literary canon, and if this has have gone by, this tradition has suffered ever happened, in a gesture of laudable a number of setbacks and interruptions patriotism, it has done so more as a show of such enormity that, even today, we can of benevolence rather than a result of a hardly talk about Catalan literature as a serious consideration of our literary output. literature of continuous goals, which send This void which in fact spans part of forth their own reflections and voice. the 17th, the entire 18th and much of Catalan literature is full of interruptions, the 19th centuries, gave rise to the and it could not be otherwise if we enormous problems experienced by bear in mind the vicissitudes of history our literature when attempting to put which have preceded all the forms of together a continuous canon, a sequence, our cultural and political lives since as we said previously, of causes and the end of the or the end effects. had to wait for the of humanism at the latest. The union phenomenon of the Renaixença to occur, between the Kingdom of Aragon and associated with the rise of nationalist the Kingdom of Castile could have been movements throughout , to regain very productive —as was the friendship its position among first-rate literature, between the Catalan Jordi de Sant Jordi which was perfectly comparable with and the Castilian Marquis of Santillana, the other literatures on the continent, in the 15th century, who were friends at although a series of dysfunctions are the court of Alfonso the Magnanimous— perfectly visible if we begin to make but our literary output after this alliance comparisons: when France and England (between two political powers but by no were experiencing the dawn of a means between two languages) brought literature which was urban, modern Catalan literature to a period which was not completely unproductive, but not and separated by its own volition from comparable with the literature produced the tradition of , Catalonia in modern times in the other cultured (precisely as a result of the connection nations around us. We only have to add between nationalist politics and the the persecution of the romantic spirit) still seemed trapped by as the result of our defeat during the an aesthetic which had already become War of the Spanish Succession and outmoded elsewhere. Philip v seizing power, to understand This brings us to the third aprioristic that the political context of Catalonia and question which we mentioned at the the situation of its language was bound beginning: it is difficult to establish a to lead us to a situation of enormous correlation between our literary output disadvantage and great adversity. during the last 150 years and that 123 II

of the independent countries in our but that many efforts, a great deal of geographical area; the lack of political determination and many theoretical, autonomy and the absence of a solid political and economic initiatives as literary tradition during the centuries of splendid as those of Prat de la Riba, the Modern Age and the scant contact Eugeni d’Ors and Francesc Cambó helped between our literature —one of those us palliate the effects of a tradition which Kafka would have considered which has always encountered stumbling “minor”— and the greatest literatures blocks: this is how the great pleiad of in our neighbouring countries made it noucentista poets emerged. If their difficult for Catalan literature to measure works had been widely translated into up to the vast body of . the languages of European culture, the In order to remedy this situation, it Catalan literature of the early 20th century was necessary for our writers to look would today rank among the greatest northwards (as the generation of Catalan on the continent. -nouveau artists, or modernistes, did at the turn of the 19th century) or, After getting over the last stumbling aesthetically speaking, turn towards block and one of the many interruptions something which never fails: classical the country had undergone —the Spanish references. In fact, the endeavours of the Civil War— Catalonia now faced a so-called noucentista generation (from triple challenge: to recover a tradition the first decade of the 20th century) that was partly lost —forgotten due to played a major role in this, and Catalonia its remoteness in time—, to redouble has not yet shown its gratitude or the efforts of critical bodies (journalists, restored them to their rightful place. magazines, universities, etc.) in order to In view of our interrupted tradition and guarantee quality literature and stand lack of solid influences, thenoucentistes decisively alongside the neighbouring made the works of Shakespeare, Goethe, countries in order to learn Ibsen, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Milton, the lesson we seem to have ignored Hölderlin and Tolstoy their own through due to the changing fortunes of history. translation, not to mention, of course, As happened on other occasions, the in the strict sense of the the current uncertainty surrounding word, which were almost non-existent in our literature —an uncertainty Catalan until The Bible, Homer, Virgil, which nowadays affects many other Sophocles, Seneca, Plato and Aristotle literatures— can quite easily become were translated, in the middle of a literature of such quality as the one the 20th century. dating from more propitious and glorious We could, therefore, say that no factors times, providing we take the above worked in favour of the expansion of our factors into account. There is no literature following the major episode shortage of symptoms in this regard, during the Middle Ages in our region; quite the contrary in fact II

Jordi Llovet is professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Barcelona.