Catalan identity has been evolving for centuries, starting in early medieval ages (11th and 12lve centuries). It is not a modern phenomenon. The emergence of imperial Spain in the 16 c. and the French Ancien Régime in the 17 c. correlates with a decline of Catalan culture, which was politically absorbed by the Spanish state after the conquest of Barcelona in 1714. However, Catalan language and culture flourished again under the stimulus of the European Romantic Nationalism movement (known as the Renaixença in Catalonia). During the first Dictatorship (Primo de Rivera, 1923-1930), the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and the long Francoist era (1939-1975), Catalan language and culture were repressed, yet refurbished and reconstructed at the same time.
This rise of a plural, complex, and non-homogeneous Catalan identity constitutes the subject matter of this volume. National conflicts that emerged later in the Spanish democratic state leant heavily on the life engagement and vital commitment experienced by the entrenched intellectual movements of the twentieth century in Catalonia, Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands. This book reveals the cultural and literary grassroots of these conflicts.
Vicent Salvador (Paterna, l'Horta, 1951) is Professor of Catalan Philology at Jaume I University in Castelló (Valence). He has been member of the Patronato de la Biblioteca Nacional de España (2005-2008) and Vice-president of the Catalan Pen Club (2007-2015).
He has worked mainly in the field of discourse analysis and stylistics as well as in the field of contemporary literature studies. He has published numerous articles, books, and book chapters as well as essays and poems. Among his books are La frontera literària (The literary borderline, 1988), Fuster o l'estratègia del centaure (Fuster or the Centaur's Strategy, 1994), Elements de lingüística per al discurs literari (Elements of lingüístics for literay discourse, coauthored with Dominique Maingueneau, 1995), Poesia, ciutat oberta (Poetry, Open City, 2000), Els arxius del discurs (The Archives of Discourse, 2001), Figures i esbossos (Figures and Sketches, 2013). He has supervised so far 21 Doctoral Thesis in different Spanish universities.