Postwar Catalan Narrative and the Literary Legacy of Enric Valor

Postwar Catalan Sociopolitical Context

After 1939, the novel reappeared in Catalan slowly. Initially, writers were in exile, but soon novelists preferred to publish their work within the country.

Publishing houses began releasing works by authors such as Josep Pla, Mercè Rodoreda, and Llorenç Villalonga. This period also saw the emergence of the first generation of novelists who had not begun their literary careers prior to the war, such as Jordi Sarsanedas, Manuel de Pedrolo, and Joan Perucho.

The political circumstances of the postwar era explain why much of the narrative published until the early sixties tended to reject direct treatment of reality, choosing instead to explain it through myth and symbolism.

Some novelists, such as Mercè Rodoreda in The Time of the Doves (La plaça del Diamant), expanded the technique of psychological analysis by incorporating elements of recent history and their personal worlds. The psychological novel dominated the literary scene until the 1960s.

Authors such as the Mallorcan Blai Bonet and Baltasar Porcel joined the scene at the end of the 1950s, while Valencian literary production primarily focused on poetry.

Characteristics of the Work of Enric Valor

Born in Castalla in 1911, Enric Valor dedicated himself during the dictatorship to publicizing grammar rules through works aimed at improving the Valencian language and verbal inflection.

In the 1950s, he published Tales of Valencia, where he collected and reworked traditional folk tales. The main features of his work include:

• Theme: Revolves around a conflict raised by a fantastic element, which is resolved by the hero.
• Characters: They are flat, do not evolve throughout the novel, but are perfectly described.
• Language: Simple and rich, with plenty of lexical diminutives, augmentatives, comparisons, and onomatopoeia.
• Purpose: To entertain and teach.
• Time and Space: Real, well-described places, while the time remains indefinite.

His novelistic production began in the postwar period with The Ambition of Aleix. The novel symbolizes nature as a refuge against the destruction of cities. His most important contribution is his cycle of novels, which includes Cassana, featuring mountain scenery, complex characters, and the social tensions of the time.