Catalan Culture Research Articles

Guimerà: la persistència d’un mite popular i els debats al voltant del cinquantenari de la seva mort (1909–1974)

Few authors are able to represent and exemplify in life the continuity between national literary canon and territorial identity as well as Àngel Guimerà i Jorge (1845–1924). This article sets out to trace the continuities and permanence in Catalan culture of the figure of Guimerà, but at the same to highlight the contrasting or contradictory elements that have characterized public evaluations of his legacy. Beginning with brief consideration of the monumentalization of Guimerà in the early 20th century and immediately following his death in 1924, we will go on to focus on debates around his significance towards the end of the Franco dictatorship, as it was then that new generations of intellectuals and artists who had not directly experienced the civil war would consider the continuing relevance or validity of his writings. This process culminated in 1974 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his death: when there was open debate in the press about the place of Guimerà in Catalan culture, and, more specifically, on the Catalan stage. Here we aim to contextualise these debates, elucidating both the challenges presented by different aspects of his figure and work for recovery in the Catalan society of the period and the light they shed on the ways in which literary figures are resignified over time.

Una disputa de cos present. Controvèrsies en la mort de Josep Maria de Sagarra (1894–1961)

This article analyzes the different reactions that followed the death of the writer Josep Maria de Sagarra in 1961, one of the most popular authors in 20th-century Catalan culture, for his poetic and narrative work, journalism, and especially theater. In the context of the Franco dictatorship, Sagarra’s funeral became a large-scale political act, organized and used by the authorities to show their capacity to integrate an author who had written all of his significant work in the Catalan language. Sagarra lived between two worlds, with some links to the cultural resistance, but publicly signified by his willingness to adapt to the official sphere. For this reason, the Francoist authorities took a great interest in capitalizing on the funeral, which in turn left clandestine Catalanism without a civic-political reference. The article details the clear awareness of the official initiative, widely disseminated through the press, as well as the reactions of the opposition sectors, in restricted-circulation publications and on exile platforms. These controversies about Sagarra’s civic and political role were only on a few occasions translated to the evaluation of his work.

Cap a una geografia líquida: Anna Murià i els camins i fluxos de la commemoració

This article sets out to address the presence/absence of female writers in processes of commemoration of literary figures in contemporary Catalan culture, focusing on the case of Anna Murià (1904–2002). Recently included among the ten “classic” writers presented as part of the volume Women Writers in Catalan (Huerga, 2017), the process of her recovery for a possible feminine – let alone feminist – canon has been complicated by the fact that she dedicated the majority of her life, after 1939, to consolidating the “voice” of her husband, the poet Agustí Bartra, in exile in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico and the US, and after the couple’s return to Catalonia in 1970. Considering different moments of Murià’s commemorative labour and reception – from the moment of return; through the death of Bartra in 1982; to posthumous reframings after her own death in 2002 – the article explores the debates and ambivalence surrounding her significance, as a figure which, depending on the perspective of the reader, can be employed to represent: Republican memory; the continuity of exile; the experience of being a woman; feminism and feminine creativity; and/or the subordination of her own subjectivity to that of her husband and life partner, Bartra. Rather than attempting to resolve this ambivalence, this article will show how a more attentive, genealogical reading of her work enables us to contrast the inescapably patriarchal politics of monumentalizing associated with national memory cultures with the more fluid and relational ethics that characterise her own commemorative labour and writing of the self: as a call to imagine and begin to formulate alternative practices of memorialization.

Perceived Effects of Language and Culture Suppression in the Catalan Region of Spain

The Catalan language has had a complex history. The suppression of the Catalan language had a profound impact on the Catalan culture and identity. This study addresses the interaction between language and culture according to students in a Catalan university. The purpose was to evaluate their insights and report the perceived connection between language and culture. An experimental study was conducted to investigate the interrelationship between language and culture and whether it is perceived that language loss affects cultural loss, and both are intertwined. 67 undergraduate university students between the ages of 18 and 22 years participated in this study. They responded to a questionnaire that included general questions on history, language, and culture. The results suggest that the participants feel there is an interdependent connection between language loss and culture loss. This research puts into focus people’s identification with their own language, culture, traditions, and history, which reinforces the difficulty of separating one’s cultural and linguistic history.

The spatial turn in Catalan cultural studies

In recent years several projects have emerged that address Catalan culture from a spatial point of view. This article aims to review the theoretical framework of what is known as the spatial turn in order to evaluate its main contributions, and some potential future orientations, in Catalan cultural studies. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the main approaches inside spatial studies. In the second part, a selection of studies on Catalan culture and literature is reviewed from the perspective of their connections with spatial studies. Finally, the third part presents three case studies focused on examples from Catalan poetry, film, and science fiction and interprets them from three different spatial perspectives: the first based on the phenomenological perspective, the second on the methodology of emotional and sensory geography and the concept of cognitive mapping , and the third on the spatial figurations of postmodern empire. This final section aims to broaden the applications of spatial analysis, extending it to the interpretation of an open, diverse selection of representations of contemporary Catalan culture.

Predictors of school adjustment in high school students of immigrant origin in Western Catalonia

ABSTRACTThis study explores factors influencing school adjustment in immigrant students in Catalonia, Spain. Low school adjustment levels can lead to failure or dropout, particularly among immigrant students. The research analyzes acculturation strategies, intergroup contact, perceived discrimination, and origin's impact on school adjustment. Students from African, Latin American, and European backgrounds completed a questionnaire, revealing four acculturation strategies: marginalization, assimilation to Catalan culture, integration, and assimilation to Catalan and Spanish cultures. A k-means cluster analysis identified these patterns. Linear regression highlighted intergroup contact, integration vs. marginalization, and integration vs. assimilation to Catalan culture as significant predictors. Higher intergroup contact scores correlated with improved school adjustment, while adopting integration or assimilation to Catalan culture predicted better adjustment compared to marginalization. Understanding and addressing these factors is vital for enhancing immigrant students' educational experiences and reducing the risk of academic challenges.

Beyond the Minotaur: The construction of a benign state in three Catalan cultural products

Since the late 2000s, creators of cultural products have imagined a future Catalonia with its independent institutions as the result of a collective effort driven by the citizens, rather than just the elites. In this article, I posit that the representation of the Catalan republic as benign, horizontal and modern shows tensions and omissions in aspects such as coercion, economic freedom, social protection, bureaucracy, language policies and the handling of immigration. This articulation is exemplified in the journalistic fiction Crònica de la independència (2009) by Patrícia Gabancho, the documentary L’endemà (2014a) by Isona Passola and the essay La República possible (2017) by Antonio Baños. The unproblematic and contradictory depiction of the state reveals latent fears derived from the historical difficulty to fit this political institution into the complex reality of the nation. Moreover, the cultural products analysed show the need to stabilize the new meanings related to the signifiers state and republic in Catalan culture.

The Nobel Prize in Literature in the Catalan Culture Half a Century of Debates About the Possibility of a Catalan Winner (1971-2021)

This article proposes an analysis of some of the discourses that have taken place in Catalan literature on the Nobel Prize from the end of the Franco regime to the present day. These are discourses that function as a mirror of the situation of Catalan culture during the last fifty years. They reflect two major attitudes: the desire to build a ‘normal’ Catalan culture and the humorous distancing from this ideology of normalisation.

The Foreign Action of Peripheries, or the will to be Seen: Catalan Cultural Diplomacy in the Interwar Period

ABSTRACT Much academic literature has reflected upon the powerful capacities of culture in the construction of collectivities, the crucial role of the Other in any process of identity making, and the mutually constitutive character of the national and the international. All three aspects explain the fact that foreign cultural policy is often part and parcel of the consolidation of modern nations. Within this general framework, this article focuses on the strategies of cultural diplomacy conducted by peripheral collectivities. Specifically, this article links a focus on the peripheries with cultural diplomacy through the notion of invisibility and then exemplifies it through two Catalan historical projects spearheaded by Joan Estelrich: the foundation of Oficina d’Expansió Catalana, the first institution created to promote Catalan culture abroad, and the struggle to grant representation to Catalan culture at the International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, a key body in the institutionalization of international cultural relations in the interwar period. Through the focus on Catalan cultural diplomacy, the place of peripheries in cultural institutions or organizations is problematized.

Linguistic Acculturation Preferences of Autochthonous Students Toward Their Latin American Peers in Western Catalonia

ABSTRACT Located in the province of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain), this study aims to identify and analyze the predictors of linguistic acculturation preferences of autochthonous high-school students toward their peers of Latin American descent. Autochthonous high-school students (N = 349) filled a questionnaire measuring linguistic acculturation and a series of linguistic and social-psychological variables (i.e. multicultural ideology, ethnic tolerance, attitudes toward minority languages, identification with Catalan culture and identification with Spanish culture). A k-means cluster analysis identified that autochthonous students endorse two linguistic acculturation preferences toward their Latin American peers: assimilation and multilingual preferences. Meanwhile, a logistic regression model found that participants with higher scores on attitudes toward minority languages have more likelihood to endorse a multilingual preference. The results highlight the importance and need to further work for a genuine intercultural educational model that allows the integration of Latin American students as well as of other minority groups. Particularly, this study found the importance of boosting the use of minority languages through educational approaches such as translanguaging and language architecture.

Catalan Nationalism and the Establishment of the Dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera

The dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera was marked by a struggle with the Catalanists, despite the fact that initially relations with them were extremely warm. The Catalan Regionalist League not only supported the 1923 coup d’état, but even took part in its preparation. Catalonia, as the most industrialized region of the country, felt the consequences of the post-war crisis and the resulting social discontent to the greatest extent. The wave of strikes frightened representatives of big business. The central authorities were not consistent in their policy towards the workers. Harsh repression alternated with concessions, which disappointed both the protesters and business owners and the middle class — the layers that made up the main support of the Regionalist League. As a result, a search began for an alternative, which turned out to be the military, who proved themselves in the suppression of workers' protests. The captain-general of Catalonia, Miguel Primo de Rivera, was able to receive the greatest support. He was able to win the Catalonists over to his side, convincing them of his respectful attitude towards the Catalan culture. Having come to power, he almost immediately issued a series of laws imposing serious restrictions on it.

Wkład Alfonsa V Wspaniałomyślnego w upowszechnienie katalońskich zwyczajów kulinarnych w Królestwie Neapolu w XV wieku

Contribution of Alfonso V the Magnanimous to the Popularization of Catalan Culinary Customs in the Kingdom of Napl es in the 15th century 
 The wars for Naples ended in 1442 with the victory of Alfonso V the Magnanimous, the ruler of the Crown of Aragon (1416–1458). The emergence of foreign authority in southern Italy entailed the transfer of the Catalan culture, language and customs to the area of Italian Mezzogiorno. In this process, Catalan culinary traditions which developed at the end of the fourteenth century also occupied an important place. One of them was a separate sweet snack, referred to by the Catalan term col·lació (collatio in Latin). The organization and celebration of col·lació became an important form of ostentation for the Catalan ruling and financial elites. In this article, the author discusses excerpts from historical sources whose authors include, among others, Antonio Beccadelli, Jordi de Centelles, Vespasiano da Bisticci, Giovanni Pontano, as well as the ambassadors of Barcelona and Portugal and other anonymous authors writing about the times of Alfonso V the Magnanimous. The data provided by these sources clearly indicate that this ruler followed the custom of eating sweet colazione known in Italy at this time and gave it a new meaning at least as early as in the 1440s. Thanks to this ruler of Aragon and new Neapolitan king, the sweet snack became one of the instruments of the ostentation of wealth and prestige for the new rulers of the southern part of Italy and soon after also for other princes and lords of the area.

The Intermediate Zone of Translation Part I.

Translation is a par excellence cultural communication and translators are agents of cultural transfer by means of language. Literary texts provide the translator with a higher grade of freedom than any other type of texts because of the self-referentiality of art encoded in language. Decoding the original and creating a new body in a different referential system are individual hermeneutic acts of the translator. Deciphering an author’s world is a step closer to the heart of the source culture and an ever-open language-game. The challenges I met translating Irene Solà’s novel gave me a special insight to Catalan culture and the English, Italian and Spanish translations gave me the opportunity to study other translation strategies. This essay is the first in the series of traductography essays centred on the Catalan-Hungarian intercultural communication revealing the processes in the black-box of the translator’s mind that on the one hand can serve as a guide to Catalan culture and, on the other hand, as a basis for further translatology research.

‘Linguistic safe spaces and stepping stones: rethinking mudes to Catalan through the lens of space’

ABSTRACT Previous studies of linguistic mudes in minority language contexts, this is, biographical junctures where speakers enact changes in their linguistic repertoire, have contributed to our understanding of how linguistic codes are appropriated across the lifespan using a largely temporal frame of reference. However, our research in Catalan contexts also points to a spatial dimension to these linguistic appropriations. Life history narratives often include reference to particular social contexts in which the pressure for linguistic correctness is relaxed and where individuals can try out new forms of self-presentation. In this article, we want to develop and apply the concepts of ‘safe spaces' and ‘bridge places' used in critical feminism to sociolinguistic processes based on data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork in two spaces: Voluntariat per la llengua (Volunteering for the language - VxL) and Colles de Diables (Devil's Groups, traditional Catalan culture groups). We found that the sites we studied are spaces that act both as catalysts of mudes and spaces where usual speakers of Catalan can also feel safe to subvert the prevalent linguistic accommodation norm of not addressing non-natives in Catalan. Furthermore, they act as ‘stepping stones’ to new socialisations and give rise to alternative discourses and practices.

An attempt to relieve oppression through the difficult paths of translation between Catalan and Spanish: The case of Avel·lí Artís-Gener

In the uneasy context of the Francoist regime, some authors tried to alleviate the difficult cultural situation through creation and translation. This is the case of Avel·lí Artís-Gener, commonly known as Tísner, a Catalan writer who was exiled to Mexico for more than twenty years. Translation from Spanish into Catalan played a major role in Tísner’s efforts to keep Catalan culture alive, and this article presents the major translation initiatives in this language combination throughout the twentieth century in order to provide enough context to give Artís-Gener’s endeavours their real weight. In Mexico, he wrote his most famous novel, Paraules d’Opoton el Vell (‘Words of Opoton the elder’), which describes the imagined ‘discovery’ of Europe by the Aztecs and creates a bond between the fate of the Nahuatl and the Catalan people under the yoke of Spanish imperialism. In 1992 Artís-Gener decided that the novel had to be retranslated into Spanish and undertook that task himself. In addition, Tísner translated major Latin American authors from Spanish into Catalan, an experience that gave him the chance to regain control of the language imposed by the Francoist regime and use it as a form of relief from the political oppression.

A Recovered Interview in Catalan with Michel de Certeau in Catalan

This article rescues an interview with Michel de Certeau conducted in 1972 by Olivier Mongin and published in Catalan in the Andorran magazine Posobra the following year. Given the singularity of this magazine, its context is described, as well as the channels for the reception of de Certeau’s work in the Catalan culture of the 1970s.

A Recovered Interview in Catalan with Michel de Certeau in Catalan

This article rescues an interview with Michel de Certeau conducted in 1972 by Olivier Mongin and published in Catalan in the Andorran magazine Posobra the following year. Given the singularity of this magazine, its context is described, as well as the channels for the reception of de Certeau’s work in the Catalan culture of the 1970s.

Shakespearean Performance in Catalan: Adrià Gual and the Emergence of the Theatre Director (1903–1940)

ABSTRACT From 1898, the year of the foundation of the theatre company Intimate Theatre, to his work at the New Company of Catalan Theatre around the 1910s, to his last stagings as head of the Catalan School of Drama in the early 1930s, Adrià Gual is recognized as a pioneer of Spanish and Catalan theatre direction. In this period of over thirty years, Gual produced dozens of shows that ranged from the classical plays of Greek theatre to the latest texts from European, Spanish and Catalan playwrights. And among these, strategically translated into Catalan, a few of Shakespeare’s dramas helped Gual to develop his project to renovate the Barcelona stage and provide a theatrical model that would encourage the development of Catalan culture. This article analyses the way Gual’s Shakespearean productions were intimately connected at the local level with the educated Catalan elites and the establishment of their cultural identity while, connected to a larger continental perspective, Shakespeare’s plays functioned within Intimate Theatre, New Company of Catalan Theatre and the Catalan School of Drama as an instrument to renovate theatrical practice by resorting to the models provided by European stage directors.

Poetry, Modern Architecture and Avant-Garde The Catalan Poet J. V. Foix at the V Triennale di Milano, 1933

Writer and poet J.V. Foix had a very prominent role in Catalan culture, especially in the Avant-gardes period in early 20th century. However, it is not well known his involvement in architecture shown by several articles written after he visited the V Triennale in Milan (1933) that were later published in the volume Mots i maons o a cascú el seu. Part of Foix’s work can be considered a critical interpretation of architecture from a literary point of view. Besides a general approval of modernist and Avant-garde architecture, his writings reflect a surprisingly mature conception of architecture that anticipates relevant opinion that both in Italy and in Spain would address architecture theoretical works after World War II. Most likely Foix came into direct contact with the Modern Movement while he was visiting the V Triennale and there he realized the potential of ‘crosswise’ interests between architecture and literature and especially between the international context and Spain.

Poetry, Modern Architecture and Avant-Garde The Catalan Poet J. V. Foix at the V Triennale di Milano, 1933

Writer and poet J.V. Foix had a very prominent role in Catalan culture, especially in the Avant-gardes period in early 20th century. However, it is not well known his involvement in architecture shown by several articles written after he visited the V Triennale in Milan (1933) that were later published in the volume Mots i maons o a cascú el seu. Part of Foix’s work can be considered a critical interpretation of architecture from a literary point of view. Besides a general approval of modernist and Avant-garde architecture, his writings reflect a surprisingly mature conception of architecture that anticipates relevant opinion that both in Italy and in Spain would address architecture theoretical works after World War II. Most likely Foix came into direct contact with the Modern Movement while he was visiting the V Triennale and there he realized the potential of ‘crosswise’ interests between architecture and literature and especially between the international context and Spain.