Catalan Literature: From Modernism to the New Song

1. Nineteenth-Century European Modernism

The transformation and modernization of culture and society were driven by the mission for total art, exemplified by the Rusiñol case.

Stages of Modernism

• 1890–1900 (1st Stage): Advance magazine. Attitudes focused on ideal regeneration.
• 1900–1911 (2nd Stage): Loss of aggressiveness. It began with the Youth magazine.

Joan Maragall

Modernist poetry is characterized by the introduction of symbolism. Maragall (1860–1911), a theoretical essayist and poet, represented the end of modernism. According to his theory of the living word, poetry must be spontaneous.

The Novel

The pessimistic and decadent novel focused on subjectivity. It was not alien to social criticism; in the ruralist novel, nature is a force that overwhelms the individual.

Noucentisme

A political and cultural movement focused on the creation of cultural infrastructure, most notably the Institute of Catalan Studies.

Josep Carner

Characterized by a return to classicism, perfection of form, harmonic measure, and order. His style is defined by wit and irony.

The Avant-Garde

In the twentieth century, European artists opposed the traditional pillars of bourgeois society. Heterodox and iconoclastic movements appeared, characterized by:

• Conceiving art as abstraction.
• Evaluating new and original ideas in subversive manifestos.
• Attaching great importance to the absurd and the dreamlike world.

Carles Salvador

He wrote poetry, storytelling, and plays. Notable works include Pàstic, Red to Higher, and Inside the Clean Air.

2. Foreign Exile

In the post-war years, intellectuals and writers were forced to leave the country; the only other alternative was silence.

Carla Ribas

An exponent of post-symbolism, she wrote Elegies of Barville during her exile.

Pere Quart

His work focuses on poetic realism, humor, and satire. Notable works: Bestiari and Vacances pagades.

Pere Calders

In his stories, he used irony from a subjective narrative point of view. His characters are often found in unusual situations. Notable work: Chronicles of Hidden Truth.

Josep Pla

One of the most prolific writers in Catalan. His writings are primarily memorialistic and diary-based. Pla emphasizes a common literary language and natural speech.

The New Song (Nova Cançó)

Born in the late 1950s, the movement grouped artists under the symbolic name Setze Jutges (Sixteen Judges). In 1962, the first records appeared. The movement gathered singers and groups around the Catalan language. Raimon served as a vehicle of protest against the dictatorship, and Ovidi Montllor became one of the primary popularizers of Catalan poets.