The first and only guide in English to the influential body of Catalan
literature, from the middle ages to the present day.
This book is the only one of its kind in English. Part literary history,
part literary criticism, it is above all a personal assessment of a rich
and important body of work which is still not widely known outside
Catalonia. Catalan literature, one of the three major Peninsular
literatures, reached an impressive level of excellence in the middle
ages, beginning with Ramon Llull and the chronicles, and culminating in
the two great fifteenth-century writers, the poet Ausiàs March and
Joanot Martorell, the author of Tirant lo Blanc, one of the landmarks in
early prose fiction.
After three centuries of relative eclipse, the nineteenth-century
Renaixença produced a distinctive version of Romanticism with notable
achievements in poetry, theatre and the novel. More recently, Catalan
writers have successfully assimilated a number of international
tendencies, from Symbolism to Surrealism, while remaining deeply aware
of the possibilities of the Catalan language itself. After the cultural
disruption caused by the Civil War of 1936-39 and its aftermath, Catalan
literature has once again shown its capacity for self-renewal, and the
present literary scene is one of great interest and originality.
The book does not presuppose any knowledge of Catalan; all quotations
and book titles are translated, and a list of works translated into
English is included.
ARTHUR TERRY is Emeritus Professor of Literature at the University of
Essex.
Este libro queda sin paralelo en inglés. Una combinación de historia y
crítica literarias, es ante todo una valoración personal de una
literatura rica e importante que todavía queda poco conocida fuera de
Cataluña. La literatura catalana consiguió un nivel de excelencia
impresionante en la Edad Media y, a partir de su restablecimiento a
principios del siglo diecinueve, ha demostrado una capacidad
extraordinaria de autorenovación que todavía persiste hoy en día. Este
libro no presupone saber catalán; cada cita y título de libro queda
traducido, y se incluye una lista de obrastraducidas al inglés.
