The Mallorcan School of Poets and Linguistic Context

The Mallorcan School of Poets

The Mallorcan School was a group of poets from the Balearic Islands characterized by poetry linked to Greek and Latin classics, as well as the poetic tradition of the region itself. This group is associated with various literary movements, including Romanticism, Neoclassicism, Costumbrism, Naturalism, Modernism, and Noucentisme.

The writers alternated between Catalan and Castilian (Spanish). The authors exhibited diverse characteristics, including a conservative, Catholic, rural, and traditional ideology, alongside regionalist and nationalist dissent within the Mallorcan Principality.

Dual Meanings of the "Majorcan School" (Pre-1936)

Until 1936, the term "Majorcan School" held two distinct meanings:

1. Broad Sense: The overall contribution to Catalan literature written in Mallorca.
2. Strict Sense: A specific group of poets sharing a particular poetic tendency within Catalan-Valencian-Balearic literature.

The School represents a period where Mallorcan poets preserved the language and tradition, contributing unique features to Catalan-Valencian-Balearic literature. They established a crucial link between the island and two great masters of post-war poetry in the Balearic Islands.

Key Characteristics of the Mallorcan School

• Acceptance of the mastery of Miquel Costa i Llobera and Joan Alcover i Maspons, who brought post-Renaissance literature on the island of Mallorca to its utmost perfection, inspiring the poets of the School.
• Propensity toward myth.
• Academic rigor in form and meticulous perfectionism.

Miquel Costa i Llobera: A Key Figure

Miquel Costa i Llobera was a poet born in Pollença, Mallorca, on March 10, 1854. The son of a family of rural landowners, he was motherless at age 11. He grew up strongly influenced by his uncle, a doctor in Pollença, who introduced him to the local landscape and fostered his interest in the classics.

Understanding Bilingualism

Bilingualism is a term that etymologically refers to the existence of two languages within an individual or a social group. It is a realization of multilingualism.

Types of Bilingualism

Bilingualism can be categorized into several types:

Individual Bilingualism

This occurs when an individual has the ability to master both languages. Psycholinguistics is the field responsible for studying this phenomenon.

Different forms of individual bilingualism include:

• Active Bilingualism: The individual understands and speaks both languages.
• Passive Bilingualism: The individual understands both languages but actively uses only one of them (they understand the second language but do not speak it).

Social and Territorial Bilingualism

• Social Bilingualism: Occurs when a particular social group uses two languages, whether for different purposes or due to various social factors.
• Territorial Bilingualism: Occurs when a territory is divided into two parts, and each part uses a different language. Examples include Belgium (French and Flemish) or Canada (English and French).