Made in Canada, Read in Spain: Essays on the Translation and Circulation of English-Canadian Literature Chapter 4 Canadian into Catalan: The Translation of Anglo-Canadian Authors in Catalonia Isabel Alonso-Breto and Marta Ortega-Sáez 1. Catalonia’s Singularity and Parallelisms with Quebec87 Although it may seem disconcerting to begin this chapter about the translation of Anglo-Canadian writers into Catalan with a comparison of Quebec and Catalonia in a book which only deals with CanLit in English, we find that the parallelism is apt because of the minority language and distinct nation status of these two constituencies, and because Quebec and English Canada are co- existent national entities, just like Catalonia and Spain. The parallelism between Catalonia and Quebec has recently been strengthened with the recent upsurge of nationalism and the demand for a referendum to decide whether to become separate from the Spanish state. The story is not new, since as a “historical” autonomous community with a language of its own, Catalan, and a distinct history88 and cultural tradition, often at odds with the Spanish ones, Catalonia presents some interesting parallelisms with Quebec, a province with its own language and cultural singularity, which sometimes are also in conflict with those of English Canada. Over the centuries, Catalan has acquired a strongly political added value, so much so that Catalan identity cannot be understood in isolation from commitment to the language. In fact, as regards language, parallelisms in the linguistic situations of Catalonia and Quebec cannot be overestimated. In Quebec, French has been the only official language since 1977. In spite of this, federal government interventions take place attending to the official status of both French and English in the Federation (Létourneau, 2002) Similarly, in Catalonia both Catalan and Spanish are official, even if only the first is 87 We wish to thank August Bové and Jacqueline Hurtley, Professors of Catalan Literature and English literature at the Universitat de Barcelona, for kindly revising this piece. 88 In spite of the union of the Crowns of Aragon and Castille through the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille in the 15th century, Catalonia remained a different political entity with its own institutions after 1714 (besides its own language) until the 18th century, when it was incorporated into the kingdom of Spain. 9 0 Chapter 4 Edited by Pilar Somacarrera the “llengua pròpia de Catalonia” (Catalonia’s own language) according to the Catalan “Estatut” or Statue of Home Rule. Thus, Gade remarks that since the late 1970s Catalonia and Québec “have enjoyed substantial autonomy to chart their own cultural courses” (Gade, 2003) and also that “everywhere in these two polities, language use and policy define issues that remind inhabitants of the need for vigilance in protecting and expanding their minority rights” (Gade, 2003). Indeed both Catalan and Quebecois are islands of linguistic minorities in a sea of speakers of two overwhelmingly powerful languages - Spanish and English. These two hegemonic languages turn out to be menacing for these linguistic communities for different reasons, among which the enormous output of global cultural production in them is one of the most important.89 According to Gade (2003), “in Québec, the mother tongue of 81 percent of its 7.4 million people is French. Close to 10 percent of the population speak English as their maternal language and … [a]nother 10 percent of Québec’s population comprise a more fluid multilingual category of immigrants or children of immigrants whose first language is neither French nor English but who use both” (Gade, 2003). In the case of Catalan, it is not spoken in Catalonia only, but also in other autonomous communities, like Valencia and the Balearic Islands, some areas in Aragon (the Franja de Ponent or “Western Fringe”), and Murcia (the area of El Carxe), the independent state of Andorra in the Pyrenees, the Northern Catalonia areas in France (incorporated by this state in the 17th century) and the city of l’Alguer on the Italian island of Sardinia. The legal status of Catalan varies in these territories, being the official language in Andorra and co-official in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Together with the differences in the legal status, there are also regional variations in the use of Catalan in these areas.90 In all, and broadly speaking, some 10 million people can be said to be fluent in Catalan. 91 89 Other reasons would be, in the case of Quebec, the proximity of a cultural and linguistic giant like the USA (besides the overwhelming presence and use of English in the rest of Canada) and, in Catalonia, the massive arrival of Latin American immigrants who speak only Spanish and are not especially interested in or need to learn Catalan. 90 See the web of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. It should be cautioned here that if considered according to linguistic criteria, Valencian is not perceived as a language different from Catalan (as it is presented, for instance, in the document Selling Canadian Books in Spain). Rather, it is commonly acknowledged, also in most Valencian cultural and political spheres, that Valencian is a variant of Catalan. One of the main Valencian editing houses in Catalan, Bromera, has translated many of Eric Wilson’s teenage mystery novels. 91 The overall estimated population who understand Catalan (although they do not necessarily speak it on a daily basis) amounts to 13.529.127 (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2012). Chapter 4 9 1 Made in Canada, Read in Spain: Essays on the Translation and Circulation of English-Canadian Literature In spite of the many similarities, there are also differences. For one, the variant of French spoken in Quebec has had to fight off the stigma of being a local and inferior version of European French, which remained the standard for what was not only correct but also chic. Catalan has not had this problem as it has been in charge of setting the norm for itself. There are further differences, some of which are signalled by Daniel W. Gade as follows (we quote the passage at length because it is illustrative of the difficult course of the Catalan language through history, a course which can be matched to Catalonia’s own difficult history): In Catalonia, the Catalan language has a written history that predates by at least 500 years the appearance of French in Québec. Unlike Québec, however, where the British conquest never led to suppression of the language, in Catalonia periods of tolerance for Catalan have alternated with harassment and proscription. […] A 1716 Bourbon decree imposed Castilian on Catalonia, but not until 1857, when a national network of public schools was established, did the central government in Madrid mandate teaching in Castilian. A diglossia emerged in Catalonia, in which Castilian became the public language and Catalan was left as the home vernacular. Later in the nineteenth century, Catalan re-emerged as part of a larger movement (La Renaixença) toward self-government, education, literary achievement, and economic advancement. The Second Republic (1931- 1939) in Spain built on these developments and gave legal protection to Catalan. […] The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) aroused complex allegiances in Catalonia, and language was only part of that equation. After 1970, resistance grew and Madrid loosened its control over these matters somewhat. Franco’s demise in 1975 presaged a new vision of a democratic and diverse Spain (Gade, 2003). Although all the areas where Catalan is spoken make up the so-called “Països Catalans,” or “Catalan Countries,” a historical and ideological entity that holds strong for most Catalans, Catalan remains an endangered minority language. An expert in endangered languages,92 researcher Carme Junyent of the Universitat de Barcelona, places Catalan within the 40% of languages of the world which show symptoms of replacement. Junyent attributes the detriment of Catalan, which could lead to its extinction, to the use of Spanish among immigrants and to the lack of institutional support (Vernet and Llobet, 2004). Gade (2003) follows this train of thought and indicates the bullying that the Catalan language 92 Carme Junyent participated in the foundation of GELA (The Study Group pro Endangered Languages) – an international association of worldwide linguists – in 1992. 9 2 Chapter 4 Edited by Pilar Somacarrera undergoes not only in the rest of the Spanish peninsula but also within the above mentioned “Catalan Countries”: Since 1975, knowledge and use of Catalan has increased rapidly in Catalonia. Yet it remains an in-group phenomenon, for non-Catalans are rarely expected to speak Catalan even when they understand it. Catalans see their language as a marker of their own shared identity to be used among themselves and, at the same time, manifest the ability to incorporate Castilian seamlessly as an alternative mode of expression. Parallels in grammatical structure and lexical similarities have predisposed most Catalans to become fluent in Castilian, perhaps as much through cultural osmosis as formal study. The rest of Spain makes no such accommodation; indeed, Catalanoparlants [Catalan speakers] have occasionally met with hostility outside their home regions as living representatives of the subversion of Spanish unity (Gade, 2003). Notwithstanding differences between Quebec and Catalonia, there exist a number of cultural ties. Proof of this proximity is the existence of the Bureau de Québec à Barcelone – the only one in Spain. As María Jesús Bronchal, its Attachée aux Affaires Institutionelles, Publiques et Culturelles, affirmed in an unpublished interview, the institution is very active in the promotion of cultural manifestations of Québec throughout Spain.93 Such is the case of outstanding Québecois companies like Cirque du Soleil, Les Sept Doigts de la Main, Cirque Éloize; and relevant personalities of the artistic world: Denys Arcand and Robert Lepage, among others.