Formentera seen from the outside..
The Greek Strabo was probably the first to mention Formentera in his Geography. In the 1st century BC, he calls it "Ophioussa", which Pliny the Elder - who died in 79 AD - translates as "the island of snakes". - translated as "the island of snakes". The contemporary name, which dates back to the 13th century, also retains its secrets, although it is generally thought to have originated from wheat, the variety that adorns the national flag. Be that as it may, the change of name is above all proof of an evolution: from an island that sheltered snakes (and more often than not pirates, who found it a valuable hiding place in the Mediterranean), it became a nourishing island with permanent inhabitants. But to think that life there flowed peacefully, to the rhythm of the waves and the wind blowing through the ears of corn, would be a rather presumptuous shortcut. Proof of this is the epic by Icelandic diplomat and poet Snore Sturlusson (1179-1241) - known in French as La Saga de Sigurd le Croisé Jorsalfar et de ses frères Eystein et Olaf - which depicts a horrific battle in which many of the island's natives, living in a cave, perished at the hands of Norwegian Vikings.
Four centuries later, the island once again looks a little desolate, as in La Diane amoureuse (Classiques Garnier), it is uninhabited and a refuge for the survivors of a terrible shipwreck. However, Formentera is proud to serve as the backdrop, for a few pages, to a work written by the Valencian Gaspar Gil Polo in 1564, a text he intended as a sequel to Jorge de Montemayor's Siete libros de la Diana (1559). Indeed, this pastoral novel had an immense influence on European literature, and is even said to have guided the later research of Shakespeare (for The Tempest, published in 1611) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Finally, the 18th century was hardly more flattering, as the title chosen by the prolific German playwright August von Kotzebue suggests: Der Eremit auf Formentera. The figure of the island hermit was featured in Peter Ritter's opera of the same name in 1788, but also appears as a watermark in a number of other texts, notably Gil Polo.
Paradoxically, while Formentera doesn't always seem to inspire fiction writers, it does seem to fire the imagination of scientists. After having been the subject of a geographical (and pragmatic) study by Vargas Ponce in 1768(Descripciones de las islas Pythiusas y Baleares), in the early 19th century it attracted scientists pursuing a far more ambitious project: measuring an arc of the meridian. This geodesic expedition also had an impact on literature, since it was undoubtedly thanks to it - and through the intermediary of a friend and brother of astronomer François Arago, who carried out the calculations with another Frenchman, Jean-Baptiste Biot - that Jules Verne discovered Formentera and decided to set the scene in Hector Servadac: voyages et aventures à travers le monde solaire, published in 1877 by Hetzel.
... and seen from the inside
Whether they've visited or not, the island inspires foreign authors, but what about native writers? To tell the truth, literature has not been a matter of course on Formentera for many centuries, at least not in its traditionally accepted black-and-white form. Indeed, as rich as the oral tradition is, books are rare, and there are two reasons for this, linked to the island's modest size, like two sides of the same coin. Formentera's size is more or less that of an islet, with a surface area of less than 85 km², which has slowed down the development of its infrastructure, especially when compared to Ibiza, where the appearance of the press - which gladly welcomes the writings of emerging writers - and of schools - because in Formentera, money is scarce and the future of the sons of peasants is limited, so you need the means to study far away - is much earlier. The second explanation is also linked to this small scale: when the population barely exceeds 10,000 souls, what need is there to fix in writing what can be shared orally? This is all the more true when it comes to poetry - an art that the inhabitants of Formentera are just as passionate about as those of Ibiza - and storytelling, that infinite wealth that has been passed down by word of mouth since the dawn of time during the traditional wakes. Even if not everyone has mastered the art of writing, this doesn't mean that everyone is devoid of imagination. On the contrary, the spoken word is lively and structured, even severely versified, when it doesn't become song. Indeed, cantades were a feature of collective festivities, and had the same importance as traditional dances, which followed two basic rhythmic sequences: a la llarga and a la curta. A special feature of Formentera, declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 2005, are the caramelles of Christmas (or Easter), songs sung in churches by two men, one accompanied by castanets, the other by an espasí (a typical Balearic instrument). Caramelles were based on the same technique as cantades: cantar redoblat, which involved vibrating the vocal chords at the end of a sentence to obtain a guttural sound (which sometimes drowned out the poor rhyme). This folklore began to be lost in the mid-twentieth century, as it had to contend with the civil war and its severe restrictions. Today, every effort is made to preserve it, which has led to the collection of songs and the publication of anthologies of tales and legends, generally inspired by nature, animals and landscapes - for example, Rondaies de Formentera compiled by Joan Castelló Guasch as early as 1876. Marià Aguiló i Fuster (1825-1897), for example, collected the story of Don Enric and Don Blasco in La Mola in 1853 and incorporated it into his Romancer popular de la terra catalana, published forty years later.More recently, in the 1980s, Formentera's Obra Cultural Balear decided to reward artists working to safeguard the region's intangible heritage with "Pep Simon Awards", named after traditional singers.
The contemporary era
In the mid-twentieth century, the island underwent a real evolution, both global and societal, brought on by the strong development of tourism and the wave of hippies (or beatniks, as the case may be) that created a myth, unverified and unverifiable since there are no recorded photographs and the only witness to the presence of the future 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature has since passed away, but it is said that Bob Dylan lived on the island during the spring of 1967. Anecdote aside, purchasing power increased as the cultural offer diversified, students became teachers and periodicals appeared(Poble de Formentera) which began to publish them. Finally, the political question - in the broadest sense of the term - was on everyone's lips, prompting the publication of thought-provoking works such as Santiago Costa Juan's Ecologia de Formentera (1985) and Jaume Verdera i Verdera's Formenteras a Cuba (1996), about expatriation. Awareness of social issues - raised once again by the wars at the turn of the century - and the need to forge and define an identity of one's own further explain the proliferation of books questioning History, to name but a few: Historia de una isla by José Luis Gordillo Courcières in 1981, Dos ensayos sobre Formentera by the same author in 1983 or Arquitectura defensiva de Formentera by Eduardo J. Posadas López in 1995. Juan Bautista Costa Juan was interested in the merchant navy's past, while Pius Tur i Mayans had a passion for music.
The novelistic genre does not yet seem to have taken hold among local authors, but it is nevertheless explored by adopted islanders, whether they settle in Formentera for short or long periods. The Dutchman Bert Schierbeek (1918-1996), for example, published two stories largely influenced by his new environment: Weerwerk in 1977 and Betrekkingen in 1979, as well as a collection of poems soberly entitled Formentera (1984), which was translated into Catalan, English and French (by Royaumont, but the title is unfortunately out of print). Although born on the mainland in 1908, Francesc Masdeu Giménez lived on Formentera from 1949 until his death in 1991. He wrote several novels, the most famous being Rita la hija del normando (1983), directly inspired by local folklore. This teacher also dabbled in theater, an art form that seems to appeal to the island's inhabitants, perhaps because disguise was already present in popular tradition on days of jubilation, Carnival or Three Wise Men's Nights. In the early 20th century, it became an educational tool thanks to Lluís Andreu Minguet (Valencia, 1898-Alzira, 1976), a trait that has remained with him, as demonstrated by Guasch's Rondaies, which were adapted for young audiences on stage in the 1980s. A school activity par excellence, theater also appeals to adults, so much so that at the dawn of the 2000s, local troupes began touring outside the island. Vincent Ferrer i Mayans was commended in 2006 for Carnatge, l'últim nibelung. He is also editor-in-chief of theEncyclopedia of Ibiza and Formentera and writes comic strip scripts(Història de les Pitiüses). Last but not least, poetry remains popular, and the next generation of poets appears to be Iris Palomo Ribas, born on the island in 1980, who was awarded the Art Jove prize in 2001 for Lección magistral.
