Catalan Noucentisme: Key Figures and Cultural Impact

Enric Prat de la Riba

Enric Prat de la Riba (1870-1917) was in charge of the government as President of the Diputació de Barcelona in 1907 and President of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya in 1914. He was key in the concretion of policy, class interests, and the cultural content of the Noucentisme movement. Prat de la Riba and his collaborators, along with people of diverse political affiliations, carried out a series of unprecedented actions, both in terms of volume and objectives. He became president of the Diputació de Barcelona and published La Nacionalitat Catalana (The Catalan Nationality).

International Congress of the Catalan Language

The International Congress of the Catalan Language was held at the main theater of Barcelona from the 13th to the 18th of October, 1906. Antoni M. Alcover organized and chaired it, advising several linguists. Its main objective was orienting studies on the Catalan language and writing the grammar of the Catalan language. The main objective was the rapid consolidation of the spelling and grammar of Catalan. The congress was the first major event where participants, intellectuals, and writers from around the linguistic domain attended. A first consequence of the congress's conclusion was the increase of prestige of the Catalan language. The Institut d'Estudis Catalans approved spelling rules in 1913 and the Diccionari General de la Llengua Catalana (General Dictionary of the Catalan Language) in 1932.

Pompeu Fabra

Pompeu Fabra (1868-1948) was born in Barcelona and died in Prada de Conflent. He defined the model of literary language for a cultured and modern society. From the Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Pompeu Fabra established a standard Catalan away from individual solutions, the danger of Castilianization, and excessive dialectal fragmentation. He created a Catalan suitable for all variants of the language.

Eugeni d'Ors

Eugeni d'Ors (1881-1954) was born in Barcelona and died in Vilanova i la Geltrú. In 1911, he was appointed secretary general of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. In 1915, he became director of the library, and in 1917, he took over the most senior public instruction of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya. Eugeni d'Ors worked out a very effective public illustration project, based on ideological, ethical, and aesthetic principles, supported by the Catalan bourgeoisie. He established a system of oppositions between the past and the present. He is the author of Glossari, from which other works published independently arise, with more explicitly literary or philosophical claims.

Josep Carner

Training Stage (1896-1905)

His first books used classical forms and irony. Although not influenced by Modernism, he did not participate in gatherings or in Modernist magazines.

Noucentista Stage (1906-1924)

Works such as Els fruits saborosos (The Tasty Fruits, 1906) and Verger de les Galanies (Orchard of Courtships,1911) are characterized by formal and rigorous evaluation, in the tradition of their games with language, themes from everyday life, a peaceful and orderly worldview, and irony in the manner of British humor. *La paraula en el vent *(The Word in the Wind, 1914). From 1909 to 1925, he wrote books of prose and poetry, which removed items collected in the newspaper *Bonhomies *(1925).

Symbolist Phase (1925-1939)

This represents a change in his poetry; it is more reflective, with human and moral concerns of post-symbolist aesthetics. He humanizes things, simplifying philosophical contemplation of existence and religious concerns.

Metaphysical or Exile Stage (1939-1970)

In 1935, his wife died, and the Civil War caused a change in his poetry. He makes a profound reflection on the fate of man. During many years, he dedicated himself to reviewing his work and making new editions.