1. Nacion, Identidad y Nacionalismo: comparaciones de Juan Marse y Merce Rodoreda con el discurso catalanista de la identidad catalana
- Author
-
Lewellen, Evan D.
- Subjects
- Literature, History, European History, Comparative Literature, Catalunya, Cataluna, Catalonia, National, identity, catalanismo, Rodoreda, Marse, Pujol, Identidad, nacional, identitat
- Abstract
This work explores the concept of national identity in modern Catalonia in a nationalist context. The nationalist discourse of identity has become increasingly prominent in the government and everyday life of Catalonia, leading to one of the most well-known independence efforts in modern day Europe. In this study, I explore the perspectives of two prominent Catalan authors: Juan Marse and Merce Rodoreda, and the way in which they portray the discourse on Catalan identity given by an equally prominent catalanist politician, Jordi Pujol. I begin with a presentation of the theory that allows us to define Catalonia as a nation, such as Benedict Anderson’s theory of “imagined communities”. Then, I continue by looking at the way in which Catalan identity, nation and nationalism formed throughout history. Through analysis of novels from each author before and after 1975, a pivotal year in Spanish politics, I find that the authors do not agree with Pujol in all aspects of his definition of Catalan identity. In fact, I find that Rodoreda, celebrated author of the nation of Catalonia, provides examples that serve as evidence to the critiques set forth by Marse, one of the nationalism’s harshest critics. I conclude this work with a look to the current state of Catalonia’s politics, with a nationalist government that, according to statistics and the authors’ representations, may not necessarily represent its people. As such, I suggest at the end of this study that the theory of the nation as an imagined community, as proposed by Anderson, does not correspond with the 20th and 21st century social and political realities.
- Published
- 2017