Mallorcan School and Noucentisme: Literary Analysis

The Mallorcan School and Noucentisme

There is a fundamental difference in emphasis: the political and social situation of Noucentisme allowed for collaboration between political powers and Catalan intellectuals. However, the political situation in the Balearic Islands was very different, which made the action that took place in the Principality absolutely impossible. In short, the Mallorcan School (MS) and Noucentisme had absolutely different results because the two contexts had nothing in common.

Mallorcan School: Origins and Traits

We can define the Mallorcan School as the literary current that brought together the work of Mallorcan poets at the turn of the 20th century. Costa i Llobera and, especially, Joan Alcover are considered the masters of this movement. The Mallorcan School was an antimodernist reaction that coincided with Noucentisme both aesthetically and chronologically.

The three main characteristics of the Mallorcan School are:

• Desire for formal perfection.
• Traditionalist nationalism.
• Emotional containment.

This aesthetic is very similar to Noucentisme (the search for a well-made work, Mediterraneanism, classicism, etc.). This allows us to assert that the Mallorcan School is the Mallorcan version of the 20th-century movement.

Structure of the Evening

The Evening (Cap al tard) is a collection of poems written between 1888 and 1908, which can be divided into four parts:

1. Songs of the Landscape

These poems speak of the landscape, tradition, classicism, and a Mediterranean spirit, equilibrium, and containment of sentiments. These are the characteristics of the Mallorcan School in their purest form.

2. Elegies

Joan Alcover uses the elements of the Mallorcan School to express his pain. The elegies are characterized by the expression of a cry, pain, and longing. An elegy expresses a feeling of pain for something that has been lost, but not necessarily because someone has died; it can be about life itself. Alcover reconciles life through poetry, remembering his children, which serves as his conhort (comfort).

Within the elegies, one should emphasize the symbolism of the tree, which represents permanence amidst devastation. It serves as a justification for pain as a witness to life itself.

3. Neat

This section consists of 10 poems dedicated to significant characters, among which we find Costa i Llobera, Maragall, and Rusiñol.

4. Variant

This section contains four poems without specific classification.