Majorcan School: A Renaissance in Mallorcan Poetry
The Majorcan School: A Literary Renaissance
The Majorcan School, a literary movement originating in Mallorca in 1870, united Mallorcan poets with a shared cultural identity. While chronologically coinciding with the broader Renaissance and Modernist periods, the school’s distinct style marked a formal beginning to 20th-century literature in Mallorca, enduring until 1950.
Generations of Poets
Several generations of poets contributed to the Majorcan School, including:
- Miquel Costa i Llobera
- Joan Alcover
- Maria Antònia Salvà
- Miquel dels Sants Oliver
- Gabriel Alomar
Characteristics of the Majorcan School
The Majorcan School emphasized:
- Poetry as an act of culture.
- Formal perfection and refined language.
- Measured tone and expressive content, reflecting 19th-century values of restraint, serenity, and balance.
Thematic Focus:
- Landscape, particularly the Mediterranean, served as a unifying element, linking the school with Italian and Parnassian influences.
Influences:
- Romantic Italian, Latin, Greek classics, and biblical texts.
Stylistic Features:
- Beauty and purity of language.
- Elegant, fluid, and simple literary style, free of barbarisms and dialectalisms.
- Idealization of reality, similar to the Noucentisme movement.
The Renaissance in Mallorca
The Renaissance in Mallorca differed from the mainland due to distinct social and historical circumstances. The absence of a bourgeois industrial revolution impacted the political and cultural revival. The term “Majorcan School” first appeared in 1873 in the Journal of the Balearic Islands, directed by Josep Lluís Pons Gallarza.
Evolution of the Majorcan School (1840-1950)
The “Majorcan School” encompassed a broad literary and cultural scope. Its evolution can be divided into several periods:
- Preceding (1840-1873): A powerful regionalist cultural movement with a distinct identity, primarily using Spanish.
- Theoretical Formulations (1873-1903): The concept of the “Majorcan School” emerged, with authors using both Spanish and Catalan. Miquel dels Sants Oliver’s 1903 book, “Literature in Mallorca,” provided a foundational understanding of the Mallorcan Renaissance. This first generation included poets like Miquel Costa i Llobera and Joan Alcover, who held conservative views and promoted a distinct Mallorcan identity, disconnected from progressive movements on the mainland. Their ideology was rooted in rural tradition, religion, and nationalist possibilism. Gabriel Alomar was a notable exception, connecting the islands with liberal and Catalan ideals.
- Consolidation (1903-1921): The term “Majorcan School” gained full acceptance as a distinct poetic expression in Catalan.
- Differentiation (1921-1936): Magazines like “The Almanac of Letters” and “Our Land” showcased the distinct personality of Mallorcan Catalan.
- New Generation (1936-1950): A third generation emerged around the Spanish Civil War, including poets like Miquel Dolç and Maria Antònia Salvà i Villalonga, who remained loyal to the school’s traditions. Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel introduced poetic renewal, but his untimely death cut short his contributions.
- Post-1950: The anthology “Postwar Island Poets” marked a departure from the school’s aesthetic orthodoxy, ushering in a new era of Mallorcan poetry.
Aesthetic of the Majorcan School
The literary aesthetic of the Majorcan School was rooted in classical restraint and balance, with a rigorous focus on landscape and nature.
Joan Alcover (1854-1926)
Joan Alcover, a prominent Catalan poet, studied law in Barcelona but spent most of his life in Palma de Mallorca. He initially wrote in Spanish, publishing collections like Poems (1887), New Poems (1892), Harmonies and Poems (1894), and Meteors, Poetry, Apologues, and Tales (1901). These formally dignified compositions are largely forgotten today. In 1909, he was proclaimed Mestre en Gai Saber and published his first Catalan book, Towards the Evening (Cap al tard), followed by Biblical Poetry (Poesies bíbliques) in 1918. These two books, along with scattered Catalan poems, established Alcover (alongside Costa i Llobera) as a leading figure of the Majorcan School. His classically structured poetry, marked by balanced serenity, reveals moments of painful intimacy and a gentle elegiac tone. Alcover’s Complete Works were published in Barcelona in 1951.