Catalan Language and Literature 4: Argumentation and Debate
Catalan Language and Literature 4
Theoretical Summary
Topic 4: Argumentation and Debate
What Does it Mean to Argue?
If we carefully analyze the speeches, oral or written, that we produce every day, we realize that we are constantly arguing: when trying to convince someone to buy or make a resource, when writing to request the withdrawal of a fine from the Administration.
The purpose of argumentation is to convince the receiver of something. Therefore, to argue is to defend an idea through convincing arguments.
Elements of Argumentation
We all argue intuitively, but sometimes we do not have the adequate resources and therefore do not achieve the goal: to convince.
There are two very important elements that we must consider when arguing: the context and the receiver. Depending on these two elements, a tone, a register, and an individual reasoning will stand out.
Given the context and the receiver, we will choose one type of argument or another, and this will increase the chances of convincing with our discourse.
Scheme of Argumentation
- Sender
- Receiver
- Arguments (reasoning used to defend the thesis)
- Thesis (idea defended)
- Aim
Types of Arguments
- Argument of Cause or Effect: Relates the fact to the cause that generated it or the consequence it causes.
“If there are accidents, it is because people drive too fast, so if we allow ordinary people to drive, there will be accidents.” - Pragmatic Argument: Demonstrates the fact by its success or its implementation.
“I think it is absolutely necessary; in some countries, they have already implemented restrictions in this direction and significantly reduced the number of accidents.” - Argument of Inertia: Justifies the fact by custom or tradition.
“Do not waste time changing things that will get us nowhere. Unfortunately, people drive too fast and are used to it. We will only increase the number of fines, but the speed and accidents will not decrease.” - Argument of Authority: Shows the fact through a prestigious and renowned voice.
“As the jurist Victor Oleguer said, restrictions encourage people to attend symposiums. So I think that this is not an issue to discuss but to directly legislate.” - Argument by Analogy: Compares the fact with another.
“This phenomenon is similar to what we experienced when we banned smoking in some public establishments. At first, everyone saw it as a negative change, now it is no longer discussed, and we all breathe better. The same will happen here.” - Emotional Argument: Justifies the fact by causing commotion in the receiver.
“The problem is that we only measure this phenomenon with figures. But we must not lose sight of the 1,000 victims of traffic accidents who have or had a name, a family that awaited them. So, we are not talking about 1,000 but many more victims.”
The Debate
The essence of a debate is argumentation. In a debate, several senders/receivers defend opposing theses through a series of arguments.
In addition, there is a moderator, who has the obligation to establish the beginning and end of the debate and make explicit the rules under which it will be developed. They should also make sure that the participants stick to the subject of debate, that the speaking time is shared equitably, and that each speaker fulfills their role. Finally, they should ensure and maintain respect and good manners during the debate and should withdraw the word from people who do not respect the established standards.
Grammatical Reflection: Verbal Complements
The Attribute
The attribute is a complement of copulative verbs (be, seem, appear). It expresses a quality or characteristic of the subject of the sentence, with which it agrees in gender and number.
- My daughter is sweet [ATR]
- My son is sweet [ATR]
- My children are sweet [ATR]
- My daughters are sweet [ATR]
The attribute can be an adjectival phrase (AdjP), a nominal phrase (NP), or a prepositional phrase (PP).
- Laia was sad [ATR]
- When I was little, Laia was a very happy girl [NP]
- I am from Reus [PP]
Circumstantial Complements
The circumstantial complement (CC) is a verbal complement that expresses the circumstances in which the action of the verb occurs. Because there are various circumstances, there are several types of circumstantial complements.
They answer the questions where, when, how, why, with whom, with what, etc.
The CC can be an adverb, a nominal phrase, or a prepositional phrase.
- Laia sings very well [Adv]
- Normally, she goes to school with a neighbor [PP]
- One day I saw a boy [NP]
Here is a classification of the main types of circumstantial complements:
- a) CC of Location: Explains where the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question where?
In the morning, Laia went to school [CCL]
We live far away [CCL] - b) CC of Time: Explains when the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question when?
In the morning, Laia went to school [CCT]
That day it rained a lot [CCT] - c) CC of Manner: Explains how the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question how?
Laia sings very well [CCM]
Walk briskly [CCM]
I answered with brusqueness [CCM] - d) CC of Quantity: Explains how much the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question how much?
That day it rained a lot [CCQ]
I didn’t eat much [CCQ] - e) CC of Company: Explains with whom the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question with whom?
Normally, she goes to school with a neighbor [CCC]
She went out with a very strange boy [CCC] - f) CC of Instrument: Explains with what the action of the verb takes place. Answers the question with what?
I hurt myself with a knife [CCI]
Write with a light purple pen [CCI]
Predicate Complements
It is a verbal complement of predicative verbs that expresses a quality or characteristic of the subject or direct object (DO) of the sentence. It agrees in gender and number with the subject or the DO.
- Laia always wore clean clothes [DO] [PredC]
The word “clean” complements the verb “wore” while expressing a quality of the “clothes,” which is the DO of the sentence. It agrees with this DO. - My husband lives alone [Subj] [PredC]
The word “alone” is a complement of the verb “live,” but it also expresses a characteristic of the subject “my husband,” with whom it agrees.
Due to its characteristics, it resembles the attribute, but remember that the predicate complement can never be a complement of copulative verbs.
Be careful, as it can also resemble a circumstantial complement.
The predicate complement is an adjective or a participle:
- My husband lives alone [Adj]
- I work all day tired [Part]
Literature: The Modernist Novel
The Descendant of the Realistic Model
The Catalan modernist novel sought a new narrative, a new form of description, different from the realistic model.
This is very clear in the novel The Wild Assistant by Raimon Casellas, which was the first modernist novel in Catalonia.
Seeing the bottom of the buried hole, the poor priest felt cold in the womb and will took a vague fear that the rocks around him who tend to be above. Closed Wound all sides, as if made by the monster searches with eyes on a place to escape, or at least extend to the eye. But it was in vain, it was all in vain … There were no holes or vents to expatiate freely view … there was all covered, covered, walled … there will not be known far outside the hole … there did not know what it meant horizons … Shaver and head upward in order watch the sky between the hoop and pinnacles of moles.
Raimon Casellas, Narrative, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 1993.
The difference between modernist and realist writers lies in the new mission attributed to the artist: the modernist writer no longer has to observe reality and imitate it, but they must discover the inner life that hides behind it.
So, the modernist artist describes reality through an emotion. They perceive that there is more beyond and reveal its mystery in all its intensity.
Modernists are not inspired by objective reality but by lived emotion. Realistic writers direct their eyes to the outside reality; modernists, however, look inward. In this sense, Modernism has strong connections with Romanticism.
The Rural or Symbolic Novel
The rural or symbolic novel is not considered the main type of modernist novel in Catalonia. It has a unique character for each person and language. In this type of novel, description is not expressed objectively but from the point of view of the person, and elements become symbols. Hence the name symbolic novel.
The Catalan modernist novel is also called rural since it takes place in the countryside, especially in the mountains.
The Importance of Music and Painting
Modernist literature is closely related to music and painting. This is part of the renewal of narrative language: the boundaries between traditional prose and poetry disappear, and intermediate genres appear.
Many of the Catalan novelists revealed artistic hobbies: Casellas was an art critic, Albert and Catherine, and Prudència Bertrana drew and painted. Their novels are therefore highly plastic.
This fragment of Solitude, a very poetic novel by Caterina Albert, is almost like a prose poem.
Indeed, under that sky of dull pure virgin blue, the hill, unsure of its springtime green, full of stalls and blondes tight band for glasses, had a more magical, fantasy painter luminista appearance than real thing and true.
Caterina Albert, Solitude, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2008.
The Symbolic Characters
The main characters of modernist novels will confront their environment, geographical and social, and will express their internal conflicts. The characters of these novels usually represent the archetype of the modernist hero.
Father Lazarus, the priest in The Wild Assistant, or Gaietà, the shepherd in Solitude, are two examples of these characters. Intelligent and sensitive, they try to change their society, but it is all useless, and they end up failing in their social or natural environment.
The Female Characters
A typical character of the modernist novel is the femme fatale, a woman who symbolizes hidden forces, the monstrous, eroticism, passions, sensuality, and often evil or perdition. In The Wild Assistant, for example, Casellas creates the character of “la bagassa,” the prostitute who tempts Father Lazarus. In Josafat, Bertrana’s “la Finet” is the woman who will ruin the poor bell-ringer.
That was the eternal temptation of all Montmany. By day, in the solitude of the dark forests, young and old do not think about anything else. At night, in the silence of the chambers full of darkness, all men roll around the couch, dreaming with that woman. Not a moment to rest, the strange image of the bagassa, those with red hair like copper, with those white carnasses as cottage cheese, with that skin as llantiosa Boll espurnada of gold. Which witch it seemed that neither the sun nor the serene had that face, that those arms and neck, as is the color everyone. But it was so strange in everything the woman of Satan … […] I had a look, a laugh, gesture, a kind of thing all the Devils of hell, who had no other wives of assistant!
Raimon Casellas, Narrative, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 1993.
A Suggestive Setting
The setting of the modernist novel is a suggestive, mysterious atmosphere, with emphasis on the description of landscapes and dramatic, intense, and even distressing situations. The landscape should reflect the conflicts and struggles of the characters, and for this reason, writers use striking language that provokes a strong impression.
On the other hand, the landscapes of these novels are often attributed human characteristics. Therefore, they are called anthropomorphic landscapes. In Solitude, a novel by Víctor Català, the mountains and Mila are the protagonists:
About She was about to fall and roll down the mountain was the same Mila; tack round had given the back to north, and suddenly the earth melted all sides and the sky like a curtain fell to the feet of women. […] It had just seemed to Mila that if given a further step, the declaration would disappear stooped, in which limit steppes and rosemary sprig dark spikes as thick paint view against light. Where was the rest of the mountain? Where the world of men? sucked, and seemed to suck also idea of his existence that lack visible elements remaining: light in the background, nature of rocks where they were nailed the man and women. A feeling of emptiness ever heard, to invade completely.
Víctor Català, Solitude, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2008.
Víctor Català (1869-1966): Life
Víctor Català is the pseudonym of Caterina Albert, a writer who signed with a masculine name to avoid causing the scandal that would have occurred if it were known that her works were written by a woman.
Caterina Albert belonged to a family of wealthy landowners and, although she had little formal schooling, she achieved a special education through the cultured and refined environment she breathed at home. Catalan (a rather symbolic pseudonym) took classes in painting and sculpture, but as far as literature is concerned, she had a completely self-taught education. She read a lot of novels and works by great realistic writers, especially French and Russians. Her friendship with Joan Maragall and Narcís Oller was also very important.
Solitude: The Plot
Mila, a sensitive and outgoing young woman, begins the ascent of a wild and lonely mountain with Matthew, the man she recently married, who is apathetic and lazy and has accepted a job in a hermitage.
Then, Gaietà, a friendly shepherd who has all the qualities that her husband lacks, appears. In the mountains, Mila also meets “l’Ànima,” a monstrous-looking hunter.
Mila is in the midst of this struggle between Gaietà, a symbol of goodness, and “l’Ànima,” representing evil and violence. It is a symbolic struggle between beneficent nature and destructive forces.
The shepherd, Gaietà, slips and falls down the mountain: “l’Ànima” causes his death. Finally, Mila leaves the hermitage and her husband. Her descent from the mountain symbolizes freedom and maturity.
This is the last fragment of the novel, in which Mila bids farewell to her husband:
Now, as tho gods think … I, in there, never again …! But I did not want to go-men without saying tho … The Dell is dislocated absolutely cadaverous face under new action of those words. What! whispered terrified voice. Ten to go? Where …? […] I do not know … Where God wills … So far as can from here! Then he, like hours ago, shaken from head to toe, which also surprised the unexpected storm. For a moment, seemed to vacillate, as if to beg or revolt, but suddenly he lacked spirits and without protest, lowering his head […] […] Never again …! Do not try to follow my step … I’ll … kill you! I resolved, selection worked to fit in fit, as if to make him penetrate to the terrible threat. After and descended slowly, without adding another word, no face, with nothing but the clothes back, women, and severe with no right and gloomy eyes, undertook the single drop.
Caterina Albert, Solitude, Edicions 62, Barcelona, 2008.
Themes of Solitude
Mila is a heroine who could well be compared to Flaubert’s Emma Bovary or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. These characters, doomed to hopeless social marginalization, suffer and struggle to find happiness, but their physical and social environment is so oppressive that it is impossible for them to overcome this situation.
The theme of the novel revolves around the inner conflict that Mila, unsatisfied with her life, experiences as she begins a process of personal growth to break the conventions of her environment. Loneliness is the main theme; hence the title of the novel.
However, she finds the courage to continue. Her life and spiritual journey give the work its unity.
The novel was published in installments in the magazine Joventut. After binding all the installments, the first edition resulted.
Other Modernist Catalan Writers: Raimon Casellas and Prudenci Bertrana
Raimon Casellas (1855-1910)
He was from Barcelona, but his novel The Wild Assistant (the first modernist novel) is set in the mountains. It was also published as a series of stories in the press, specifically in La Veu de Catalunya.
Casellas was one of the most crucial figures for the consolidation of modernist aesthetics in Catalonia. Before writing The Wild Assistant, he had stood out as an art critic and journalist in publications such as L’Avenç, La Vanguardia, and La Veu de Catalunya, where he defended and spread the artistic trends that were being discovered in Paris, the cultural and intellectual center of the moment, during a trip with the painter Ramon Casas and the writer Santiago Rusiñol in 1893.
Despite the remarkable influence and success of The Wild Assistant (1901), Casellas did not write any other novels and, until his death, apart from his writings on art, he only published two more volumes of short stories, a genre rather cultivated by modernists, entitled The Crowds (1906) and Paper d’històries (1909).
Santiago Rusiñol (1861-1931)
Rusiñol was one of the most fascinating, funny, unpredictable, and multifaceted figures of Modernism and one of the most popular, both for his turbulent life and for his role as a cultural agitator and overall artist, although his greatest vocation and passion was always painting. In fact, Rusiñol could dedicate himself to art and letters because he belonged to a wealthy bourgeois family in the textile industry. As a young man, he went to Paris to learn to paint and became interested in the new artistic and intellectual trends that were brewing in the French capital. The collection of newspaper chronicles of these experiences formed his first book, From the Molí (1890-1892).
Rusiñol continued his work as a columnist, began to do translations, and organized the first Modernist Festival of Sitges (between 1892 and 1897). In his early literary works (Oracions, Fulls de vida), he showed his preference for Symbolism and Decadence and the synthesis of genres, and he became a popular playwright. But his greatest success was the famous novel titled L’auca del senyor Esteve (1907), later adapted for the stage and premiered in 1917. The novel tells, in the usual symbolic way, the conflict between the modernist artist and society in three parts. The first part explains the life of Esteve, son of the owner of the “Fil a l’agulla” shop, Mr. Ramon, from his birth to his wedding. The second part narrates the adventures of his early marriage and the birth of his first child, Ramonet. Finally, the third part tells of the confrontation between Ramonet and his father. Family harmony is broken when Ramonet, a sculptor, decides not to continue the family tradition of the shop.
Without achieving the resonance of L’auca del senyor Esteve, Rusiñol continued cultivating the novel genre with works in which, basically, he criticized Noucentisme, such as La niña gorda, El català de la Manxa, or El Josepet de Sant Celoni.
Prudenci Bertrana (1867-1941)
Like many other representatives of Modernism, Bertrana was a man with multiple concerns: he tried to be a painter, he worked as a journalist, and he stood out, especially, as a writer. He started writing very early (his first work was the novel entitled Violeta). However, he did not begin to make a name for himself until Josafat (1906), a short novel in which a weak, isolated, and, in certain aspects, bestial bell-ringer is driven to murder by the impossibility of controlling his erotic impulses and his feelings towards a prostitute, “la Finet,” with whom he had a relationship.
Shortly after, he published another novel titled Nàufrags and, finally, several collections of short stories such as Els herois or El meu amic Pellini.
During the last years of his life, he devoted himself to writing an autobiographical trilogy, entitled Entre la terra i els núvols, which consists of the following volumes: L’hereu, El vagabund, and L’impenitent.
Joaquim Ruyra (1858-1939)
While studying law, he was soon attracted to writing. He stood out as an author of short stories collected in the volume entitled Marines i boscatges. Later, he published two more volumes of short stories, Pinya de contes and Entre flames, with a markedly Christian tone and close to Noucentisme.