Galician literature

This article is about Literature written in Galician. For literature written by Galicians, see Literature by Galician authors.

Galician-language literature is the literature written in Galician. The earliest works in Galician language are from the early 13th-century trovadorismo tradition. In the Middle Ages, Galego-português (Galician-Portuguese) was a language of culture, poetry (troubadours) and religion throughout not only Galicia and Portugal but also in the Castile-León region.

After the separation of Portuguese and Galician, Galician was considered provincial and was not widely used for literary or academic purposes. It was with the Rexurdimento ("Rebirth"), in the mid-19th century that Galician was used again in literature, and then in politics.

Much literature by Galician authors is written in Spanish, such as by Ignacio Ramonet or Gonzalo Torrente Ballester - though such writers tend to be excluded from discussion of Galician literature and counted as Spanish-language literature.[1]

Rosalia Castro de Murguía's Cantares Gallegos (1863; Galician Songs) was the first Galician-language book to be published in four centuries.[2] Related to literature, Chano Piñeiro [gl]'s 1989 Sempre Xonxa is regarded as the first Galician-language film.[3] The intellectual group Xeración Nós, a name that alludes to the Irish Sinn Féin ("We Ourselves") promoted Galician culture in the 1920s.[4] Xeración Galaxia was established to translate modern texts that would link an independent Galician culture with the European context.[5] The Galician translation of the Bible was begun in 1968 by Editorial SEPT and published in 1989.[6]

  1. ^ Jo Labanyi Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction 2010 "An issue here is how to classify Catalan, Galician, and Basque authors who write in Castilian. They tend to be excluded from discussion of Catalan, Galician, and Basque literature. This produces complications in the case of writers who have published in both languages: for example, the poet Pere Gimferrer (1945–) who in the 1970s switched from Castilian to Catalan; or the novelist Terenci Moix (1942–2003) who in..."
  2. ^ World Literature in Spanish: An Encyclopedia: An Encyclopedia - Page 162 Maureen Ihrie, Salvador Oropesa - 2011 "Yet it was her verse collection Cantares Gallegos (1863; Galician Songs) that gave rise to that renaissance, because it was the first Galician-language book to be published in four centuries. In this sense, Rosalıa's work became the ..."
  3. ^ Film history - Volume 14 - Page 102 2002 "Chano Pineiro's 1989 Sempre Xonxa (Forever a Woman)was the first Galician-language film from Spain's northwest corner. The same year, Xavier Villaverde's ContinentaI another Galician-language work, met with more mixed reviews."
  4. ^ Geert Lernout, Wim Van Mierlo The Reception of James Joyce in Europe - Page 425 - 2004 "They were known as the Xeración Nós (Generation ourselves) — a name that alludes to the Irish Sinn Fein (We ourselves) — and they were grouped ... In August 1926, also in Nos, Otero Pedrayo gave the Galician translation of various .."
  5. ^ Kirsty Hooper Writing Galicia Into the World: New Cartographies, New Poetics 2011- Page 21 "Galician language and culture, setting them up in opposition to Spanish language and culture, in a way that in 1922 was still new ... The renewal of Galician cultural history from the early 1950s, through the efforts of the intellectual group known as the Xeración Galaxia, was ... given the estate's refusal to authorize translation into Galician, with the slightly bizarre consequence that Galician was confirmed"
  6. ^ Harald Kittel Ubersetzung, Translation, Traduction: Ein Internationales Handbuch 2011 Page 2015 "The aim of this 'Xeración' was to translate avant-garde texts that could help link an independent Galician culture with the wider European content. ... The Galician translation of the Bible was begun in 1968 and published in 1989. "