As soon as I got to a bookstore, I began to read voraciously Jo confesso, the latest book (and sure to be a blockbuster) by Jaume Cabré. This novel, the result of decades of long, hard work by the author, once again places Catalan literature decidedly on the map.
There are many differing opinions on the current state of Catalan literature, and even more on the situation of the Catalan language, as ever under threat by the powerful influence of neighboring Spanish. Historically, it is absolutely clear that our cultural production has been tightly bound to the political situation, to our ability to defend our interests using the most appropriate institutional tools. The times of political plenitude have gone along with our most outstanding creativity. Times of crisis and besieging have led us to an immediate reduction in our contribution to universal culture.
The forging of the medieval and modern Catalan state brought us to our zenith. Its destruction at the hands of Castile in the early eighteenth century, to literary insignificance and legal siege. As of the Spanish occupation, the building of the new Spanish state in Catalonia was based, among other things, on a continuous series of attacks on the country's language, with the aim of replacing Catalan with Spanish. Generation after generation suffered attacks on all fronts, institutional, social and economic, with successive bans on the use of Catalan in the High Court of Justice (1716), education (1768), accountancy books (1772 ), the theater (1801), cemetery epitaphs (1838), notarial deeds (1868), the Civil Registry (1870), the public telephone service (1896), the teaching of catechism (1902), in public telegraphy (1904), printed matter for pharmaceuticals (1924), municipal institutions (1930), place names (1938), names of legal entities (1938), signs and advertising (1939), films (1940), names of ships (1945) and labeling (1978). That is why Joan Sola, the distinguished linguist awarded the Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes (Honors Award to Catalan Literary Lifetime Achievement) who passed away a few months ago, came to the conclusion that to fully defend our language, there was no alternative but bear the armor a state provides. In his legendary testamentary speech to the Parliament of Catalonia in July 2009, he bestowed upon us these emotive, eloquent words: "The vernacular language of our country [...], an ancient and powerful language to which has been translated the greatest world literature and that has contributed significantly to aggrandize that literature, does not and cannot wish to feel any longer a degraded language, politically subordinate and relentlessly attacked by the media in a thousand ways, viscerally rejected by the other peoples of Spain. This language does not and cannot wish to feel inferior to any other, any longer." And, as all other world languages, Catalan also needs defense, at least, of a State. Now that Spain has launched a fresh offensive against teaching in Catalan, this is clearer than ever.
About the author of this article for Help Catalonia
Miquel Perez Latre
@granollacs
Doctor of History, Archivist and Blogger@granollacs
Other articles by this author: Catalonia: Spearheading Constitutionalism in Europe
Read other Spacial Colaborators articles here
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