Galician New Narrative: Authors & Features (60s-70s)

Galician New Narrative: 1960s-1970s

A heterogeneous group of authors and works from the 1960s and 1970s, including Gonzalo Rodríguez Mourullo, Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín, Carlos Casares, and Xosé María Queizán, provided a thorough review of the trends of the preceding narrative.

Common Features

The authors, often with university degrees, were closely linked to nationalist ideology and knowledgeable about European narrative trends.

Narrator

Often a first-person narrator, focusing on introspection or detailed examination.

Protagonist

Often appears uprooted and overwhelmed by their own conscience or unknown circumstances.

Space

Becomes indefinite and intangible, contrasting with specific, known locations. Rural space dominates, acquiring symbolic importance to represent situations, places, and people identifiable with Galicia.

Time

There is a rupture between discourse time and narrative time.

Themes

Dominated by the presentation of anxiety and isolation against an oppressive and suffocating world, but also rebellion and the struggle for individual and collective freedom.

Rural Epic: Xosé Neira Vilas

Represented by the work of Xosé Neira Vilas. His particular life experience, closer formal approach to traditional narrative, and focus on themes like childhood and rural emigration distinguish his work.

Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín

Méndez Ferrín became a key figure in Galician narrative over the past fifty years. His short stories and novels show multiple influences, always with a very personal style. Three phases can be described in his narrative production.

Works

• Percival and Other Stories, The Dusk and the Ants, and Northern Suburb: Show renewal of form and content, new narrative spaces (sweltering, sinister), decontextualized characters, and the irruption of the unconscious.
• Return to Tagen Ata, Ellipses and Other Shadows, and Britain, Esmeralda: Dominated by socio-political content, expressing ideological rejection of the oppressive situation in Galicia.
• Love Artur: Approaches fantastic literature, masterfully blending realism and nostalgia.

Trends

• A recreation of characters and environments in the Department of Bretaña.
• Exploration of the absurdity of human anguish and even destructive violence.
• The development of a personal mythology.

Carlos Casares

In his youth, he attended literary gatherings in Ourense where he met Vicente Risco. He moved to Santiago, became Director of Editorial Galaxia, and later, President of the Council of Galician Culture. Casares became a fundamental figure in contemporary Galician culture.

Works

• Wind Wounded, Change in Three, and Toys for a Prohibited Time: Content focuses on biographical aspects of his childhood and youth.
• The Dark Dreams of Clio, Ilustrísima, The Dead That Summer, God Sitting in a Chair, and Summer Sun: Recreate moments and characters from history, mixing reality and fantasy.

Techniques

He mastered 20th-century European and American narrative techniques: rupture of linear temporality, control over narrative rhythm, pluriperspectivism, inner monologue, etc. His techniques range from fantastic stories to innovative narration like bureaucratic reports.

Xosé María Queizán

From his youth, he actively participated in politics and cultural life, including projects in theatre and press. Since 1983, he has directed the 'Palabra Silenciada' (Silenced Word) Festival, dedicated to creation and reflection on the situation of women.

Works

• The Ear in the Hole
• Amantia
• Likeness
• Love of Tango
• The Twilight of the Cupletista