Languages..
Not surprisingly, all the languages of the regions we are interested in are of Romance origin, that is to say, they are derived from the Latin used by the Romans at the time of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula at the very beginning of our era. However, the history of Galician - Galician-Portuguese in its primitive form - is all the more interesting as it will split from the 13th century onwards and give rise to the language of the neighboring country to which it remains very close. The oldest text to have come down to us is known as the Foro do burgo de Castro Caldelas. This document, in which King Alfonso IX grants rights to the town, mentions 1228, although it is not known whether this was the year it was written or the year it was translated.
The Middle Ages were fertile, because the legend of Santiago de Compostela, whose tomb was discovered in the ninth century, according to the Latin account Concordia de Antealtares, dated 1077, made the region a place of pilgrimage and a constant flow of visitors who brought their knowledge with them. This is reflected in the literature, which is said to be living its Golden Age, thanks to the contributions of the troubadours who excel in the art of the cantiga.
These sung poems - whose music has generally not survived - responded to two precise forms - one based on the refrain, the second on stanzas - as much as to rhymes and a severe versification. In the thousand surviving works,
It turns out that love was often at the heart of the preoccupations, but the poet could also be critical of society with a sense of humor. The authors whose legacy has survived the passage of the centuries are mainly Martín Codax, Xohán de Cangas and Mendinho, who were jointly celebrated on May 17, 1998 by the Royal Academy of Galicia, which every year since 1963 has honored a personality contributing to the Galician language on this date.
A key figure is without doubt Alfonso X, also known as Alfonso the Wise in French. King of Castile in the thirteenth century, he is also known for his literary contribution, which will be done on the one hand in Galician(Cantigas de Santa Maria), and on the other hand in Castilian, a language which is estimated to have gradually emerged since the ninth century(Cartularies of Valpuesta) and which he will ensure in part the standardization and formalization by supervising in particular the Siete Partidas, Book of Laws. Castilian enjoyed a certain popularity at the Court during the Reconquista, but it was at the time of the discovery of the New World that it became the symbol of the unification of the kingdom. The publication in Madrid in 1605 and 1615 by Miguel de Cervantes ofEl ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha, a founding text written in Castilian, sounded like a consecration. This plays against the Galician whose influence declines among the nobility and which is said to enter its Séculos escuros (Dark Ages).
It was not until the beginning of the 19th century that a Rexurdimento emerged thanks to Rosalía de Castro, the romantic author (assimilated to provincialism) of Contos da miña terra (1864) and Follas novas (1880). The revival was confirmed in the 1920s with the Nós (We) generation, which included Ramón Otero Pedrayo (1888-1976), a talented essayist and writer who meticulously described life in Galicia in Os camiños da vida or O mesón dos Ermos. His best-known novel, Arredor de si, affiliates him with the regionalist, if not nationalist, and militant Galléguism. Alfonso Castelao, born in 1886 in Rianxo, was another important figure of this new golden age, but his death in exile in Buenos Aires in 1940 also marked the end of the affirmation of the Galician language under Franco's dictatorship, which lasted from 1936 to 1975.
... and writers
The Civil War did not only overshadow the effervescence of Galicia, but other regions had also offered to the Letters renowned writers, such as Leopoldo Alas, who died prematurely in Oviedo, capital of the province of Asturias, in 1901 at the age of 49. He owed his nickname of "Clarín" (clarion) to the pseudonym he had chosen when he started as a journalist, but it was with his novel La Regenta (translated into French by Fayard), which some did not hesitate to compare to Madame Bovary for the subtlety of its interior monologues, that he achieved fame.
Cantabria could also be proud of the talent of an author whose reputation went far beyond the borders of the region. Marcelino Pelayo (1856-1912), with his rare intelligence and exceptional memory, was bound to leave his mark on his era, which he did by becoming a critic. He set about publishing the works of one of the greatest Spanish writers, Lope de Vega, and wrote a landmark Anthology of Castilian lyric poets. In a dizzying Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, he also endeavored to reference all the artistic currents that had crossed his country. A prize was created in his name to partially fill the gap left by his death.
As painful as it was, the 20th century saw the emergence of exceptional writers, and in 1920 Valladolid heard the first cry of Miguel Delibes, the future writer of the Generation of '36. A humanist during the war, he often had to endure censorship, both as a journalist and as a writer. In spite of everything, his work - which is too often recognized as a rural influence, omitting the strength of his sometimes avant-garde style - has survived and can be enjoyed in French at the beautiful Verdier publishing house: Le Chemin, Le Fou, L'Étoffe d'un héros, Cinq heures avec Mario, etc. Delibes was awarded the Nadal Prize in 1947 for his first novel, La sombra del ciprès es alargada, but he did not receive the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature, which was instead awarded to his contemporary, Camilo José Cela, born in Galicia in 1912 and who died in Madrid in 2002. The author of Pascal Duarte's Family (Points), the second most translated Spanish work in the world after Don Quixote, is also published by Verdier(Faenas, L'Aficionado, Toreros de salon) and by Gallimard(Voyage en Alcarria, La Ruche).
