Galician Narrative: Evolution, Authors, and Key Themes
The New Narrative of Galicia
Beginning in the 1960s, Galician narrative can be divided into three strands. First, the narrative of authors related to Editorial Galaxia, especially Álvaro Cunqueiro, Ánxel Fole, and Eduardo Blanco Amor, who continued to publish important works. Second, a stream of realistic narrative, focusing on themes of rural Galicia and emigration, represented by Xosé Neira Vilas. Finally, the so-called “new Galician narrative,” formed by authors such as Camilo González Suárez Llanos, María Xosé Queizán, Xohán Torres, Gonzalo Rodríguez Mourullo, Johan Young, Ferrín Méndez, and Carlos Casares.
The authors of the new narrative were inspired by writers in North America and Europe who revolutionized 20th-century narrative (Joyce, Kafka, Faulkner, Proust…), introducing new topics and techniques from postwar Portuguese narrative. Among the early highlights was the presence of anonymous, marginal characters, beset by internal conflicts and social and cultural inappropriateness. The world of the subconscious (traumas, complexes, nightmares) is extremely important. Moreover, there is a preference for urban environments, avoiding traditional rural settings, and special importance is given to objects described in detail (objectivism). Among the technical innovations are: the temporary disruption of linearity, with constant ebbs and flows over time; the multiplicity of narrative voices, which alternate and overlap in reporting; and the use of interior monologue or stream of consciousness that tries to reproduce the thoughts that arise internally.
Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín was one of the most prominent authors of the new narrative, besides having a major poetic work that falls within the so-called Generation of Festivals Minerva. His narrative work consists of novels and storybooks and can be divided into three thematic groups: first, works that respond to features of the new narrative, such as Percival and Other Stories (1958), The Twilight of the Ants (1961), and Arrabalde do Norte (1964); second, socio-themed works, such as Return to Tagen Ata (1971) and Chronicles of Us (1980); and finally, great and mythic themed works, among which are Arthur Love (1982) and Arnoia, Arnoia (1987).
The narrative work of Carlos Casares usually falls into two stages: a stage of formal renewal, to which belong works set in Portuguese society under the Franco regime, with abundant autobiographical elements and innovative techniques related to the new narrative, such as the storybook Injured Wind (1967), The Change in Three Novels (1969), and Toys for a Prohibited Time (1975); and a second stage of realistic technique, to which belong works set in a historical context and with resources closer to realism, such as the book of fantastic tales The Dark Dreams of Clio (1979) and the novels Ilustrísimo (1980), The Dead of That Summer (1987), and God Sitting in Blue Armchairs (1996).
Galician in the First Third of the Twentieth Century
At that time, significant changes occurred in São Paulo. It was the stage of agrarian reform and the redemption of the Forum, with the consequent extinction of the nobility. In cities, an industrial and commercial bourgeoisie developed, which needed a labor force. Therefore, emigration from the countryside to the city increased, and the proletariat appeared. Emigration to America was still as intense as in the previous century.
In sociolinguistics, Galicianism in the 19th century promoted the linguistic consciousness of certain groups and the creation of institutions and publications in support of Galician. Thus, for example, the RAG (Royal Galician Academy) was created in Havana in 1905. In 1916, the Brotherhood of Speech emerged, which published the weekly A Nosa Terra (Our Land) in A Coruña and drew up the Manifesto of the Nationalist Assembly of Lugo in 1918, which organized the grounds of Galician nationalism. In 1920, members of the group Nós (We) started publishing the magazine Nós. In 1923, the Seminar of Galician Studies was created, which leveraged the use of Galician in scientific and technical prose. In 1931, the Galeguista Party was established, which advocated in Madrid the postulates of Galician nationalism and promoted the adoption of the Statute of Autonomy in 1936.
In view of these normalizing initiatives, the Castilianization and loss of population continued from previous centuries, now compounded by factors such as pressure from the media, mostly in Spanish, especially the press and radio; the continuity of the formal structures of the central state (administration, justice, education…) that required Castilian; migration within rural-urban areas, with a consequent desire for social mobility within the ruling Castilian-speaking classes; and finally, mass emigration to America, with the obvious loss of altitude. Galician writing in this period is called “Galician enxebrizante” because it has two characteristics: first, that the writers try to debug Galician of Castilianisms to distinguish it from Castilian, which caused the appearance of hyperenxebrismos (*spring on, *posibre); and second, that, to overcome dialectalisms, they used medieval Galician-Portuguese (archaic: *Falesco, *cibdade) or contemporary Portuguese (Lusismo: *own, *reader).