Post-Civil War Catalan Narrative: Evolution & Context
Vicent Andrés Estellés (1924-1993)
His works, over one hundred titles, can be related to two periods: the war and the present. The first poetic period implied a reorientation for Catalan poetry in general. He contributed to the dominant lyric poetry during the fifties with a more direct and simple language based on the colloquial register. His poetic evolution encompassed incorporating referential universes, both personal and shared, and the daily reality of war, offering a testimonial and critical vision.
Not only did he challenge the established norms and trends dictated by the authorities, but he also often sought contrast or a break with immediate tradition. He attempted to replace it by linking to the tradition of classical writers and medieval Latin authors.
He was a poet who became a chronicler of his everyday experiences, both real and imagined, in a time of disaster like the postwar era. The thematic areas of his work include love poetry, civic poetry deeply committed to the reality of his country, and everyday poetry. Among his works, The Book of Wonders stands out.
Manuel de Pedrolo (1918-1990)
This prolific writer explored not only narrative but also theater, essays, poetry, and journalism, producing a large, diverse, and meaningful body of work. His work is crucial in the evolution of Catalan theater after the war. He created a universe that leads to absurd situations and behaviors of human beings and provided technical and dramatic innovation in the unique Catalan environment.
Without directly reproducing reality, his work reflects a dual approach: a theater presenting the rebellion against oppression and defending freedom, and a theater with philosophical concerns, particularly existentialist. His most characteristic dialogues are based on repetitions and misunderstandings in the mouths of archetypal characters with often curious names.
His theatrical production can be divided into three stages:
- The Death of Our Everyday
- Last Version, Now, works with spaces and weird characters that engage in absurd dialogues
- Tonight We Close, with influential works of epic theater with stronger political intentions
Enric Valor (1911-2000)
He was born in Castalla during the Franco dictatorship. He was devoted to spreading the grammar rules of Valencian, with works such as Improving the Language and Verb Inflections. He was a contributor to the Catalan-Valencian-Balearic Dictionary and Coromines’ Etymological Dictionary of the Catalan Language and Complementary. Later, he published Tales of Valencia and Aleix’s Ambition.
In the late 70s, Enric Valor began publishing novels in the Cassana Cycle, which recounts his experiences of youth and the destruction of the social class of landowners in Valencia.
In his novels, characters appear linked to the rural world. Nature has the function of realistically describing the struggle of men to survive day to day.
Valor remained faithful to the traditional model of narrative realism. His novels can be grouped into two blocks: novels with an individual hero (The Idea and Aleix the Emigrant’s Ambition) and novels in which the hero is replaced by a collective protagonist (the three novels that make up The Cassana Cycle).
His narrative work also includes collections of stories such as Narratives of the Foia or Intrascendent Narratives of Castalla.
Mercè Rodoreda (1908-1983)
Mercè Rodoreda only went to school for two years, but she was a great reader. Aloma was published in 1938, featuring many of her signature elements: first-person narration by a female character, lyrical introspection, and psychological depth.
In 1939, she took the path of exile, but in the late fifties, she returned to resume her novel writing. Twenty-Two Stories is a work of great pessimism resulting from the desolation of exile.
In 1962, she published The Time of the Doves, the story of a woman from the popular classes. The Civil War appears only as background to the narrative, which focuses on the psychology of the protagonist in her story of depression and loneliness. She uses techniques such as interior monologue and an indistinct use of direct and indirect style that result in an evocative and poetic prose, which recreates the elaborate manner of speaking.
Broken Mirror, probably her masterpiece, presents her most tragic worldview.
Her narrative then takes on an increasingly symbolist and fantastical character. This trend culminated in How Much War We Have Seen.
To What Extent Did the Sociopolitical Context of the Years After the Civil War Until the Early 70s Influence the Narrative of the Time?
Some of the objectives of the policy changes that began in 1939 were the unification of the Spanish language and the suppression of Catalan culture. Regional governments were abolished, the Statute of Autonomy was revoked, political parties were banned, and the use of Catalan was prohibited.
The political circumstances of the war explain much of the narrative, which sometimes directly refuses to address the issues and instead explains reality through myth and symbolism: Perucho, Calder, etc.
Another trend is represented by the psychological novel: Sales, Rodoreda, Villalonga, or Capmany. This also includes more realistic novelists such as Pedrolo and Espinàs.
The publishing scene was consolidated in the early sixties with the reappearance of the “Full Wind” collection and the creation of Edicions 62. Writers who grew up after the war began publishing, causing a major impact on the literary world: Terenci Moix and Baltasar Porcel.
The process of normalization and cultural strengthening in Valencia in the sixties saw the emergence of fiction writers who joined previous literary figures such as Joan Fuster, Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, Josep Maria Palacios, and Enric Valor.
Outstanding Narrative of the 70s Until Now: Reflections on the Literary Techniques and the Sociocultural Context
1. In the seventies, historical realism had entered into crisis because of the sociopolitical changes of the 50s and 60s, the consequences of the French May, and the Franco dictatorship. In novels, fiction works as a way to bring into play a sense of memory and illustrate life. Many novels have a generational chronicle character, focusing on the theme of escape from the family environment or the sociopolitical environment. Others present a treatment of reality, and the mythical core of the novel is the presentation of a family or village. Valencian narrative appeared a little late in the Catalan cultural world and is closely linked to normalization.
2. From the eighties until now, there are two factors that have clearly marked the evolution of Catalan literature: the evolution of society towards production and consumption, and the fact that Catalan literature has gained a certain institutional support (compulsory education has created a great demand for school books). The eighties were a time of renewal and continuity in Catalan literature. The dominant genre of Catalan literature in the eighties was narrative, specifically the novel, as a privileged way to create a reading public in Catalan. Different lines can be detected in Catalan narrative today: characterized by the disintegration of the identity of the protagonists and a plot full of allegorical or symbolic connotations (Monzó); characterized by the exploration of mechanisms of collective memory and the rural atmosphere of the stories (Moncada); the historical novel (Josep Lozano); the symbolic or philosophical novel (Jordi Coca); and genre novels: detective, erotic, and science fiction (Ferran Torrent).