Mastering Passive Voice, Conditionals, and Literary Analysis

Active to Passive Voice Transformations

Active to passive

• Many people enjoy shopping → Shopping is enjoyed by many people (Present simple)
• A Canadian invented buy nothing day → Buy nothing day was invented by a Canadian (Past)
• Millions of people will celebrate buy nothing day → Buy nothing day will be celebrated by millions of people (Future)

Modal Perfect and Conditionals

• Modal perfect: Spending so much money was a mistake - I shouldn't have spent so much money.
• Third Conditional: I fell off my bike, so I didn't finish the race - If I hadn't fallen off my bike, I could have finished the race.

Relative Clauses

• Defining relative clause: Clothes shopping is a popular hobby - Clothes shopping is a popular hobby which I don't enjoy.
• Non-defining relative clause: Bradley Wiggins, whose professional cycling career began in 2001, is the first British winner of the Tour de France.

Linkers and Past Continuous

• Linker of addition: Snowboarding is an expensive hobby - Snowboarding is an expensive hobby; moreover, it can be dangerous.

Passive Voice in Different Tenses

• Past continuous: She was listening to that song → The song was being listened to by her.
• Past perfect: She had listened to the song → The song had been listened to by her.
• Present continuous: She is listening to the song → The song is being listened to by her.
• Present perfect: She has listened to the song → The song has been listened to by her.

Post-War Literary Panorama

Panorama literari de la postguerra (situació dels intel·lectuals)

Catalan Literature After 1939

Literatura en català a partir del 1939: exili o clandestinitat

• Republicans exiled in France: Carles Riba
• World War II: South America (Josep Carner, Joan Oliver, Pere Calders, Mercè Rodoreda)
• Spain: writing in Spanish (Josep Pla). Work in silence: Salvador Espriu

Literary Reconstruction

1942: End of World War II. Catalan religious works could be written, specific authors: under censorship and restrictions.

Reconstruction of Catalan institutions: publishing houses, awards, and authors emerge.

Authors before the war: Salvador Espriu, Carles Riba.

Cultural Recovery

1960s: Cultural recovery → opening of the regime, the church helps the clandestine struggle: Nova Cançó

Key Novels and Poems

Great relevance at the time: novel: Bearn (Llorenç Villalonga), La plaça del Diamant (Mercè Rodoreda, 1962)

Important poems: La pell de brau, by Salvador Espriu

Novel Structure

Structure: The novel is externally divided into 49 chapters.

Chapter Breakdown

• Chapters I - V: Introduction: Natàlia meets Quimet and starts dating him.
• Chapters VI - XLIV: Development: they get married, rent a flat, have children. Quimet dies in the civil war. She marries Antoni.
• Chapters XLV - XLIX: Resolution: her life changes, Rita marries Vicenç. She is happy with Antoni.

Literary Style

Style: prose, naturalist novel, objective and empirical representation of the human being.