Galician Studies in the 21st Century: National and Transnational Dimensions

Moderator: Gabriel Rei-Doval

Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

reidoval@uwm.edu

From Joyce to Rowling: Translating Literature in Galicia Today

In Galicia, translation slowly emerged as part of a cultural program during the 1920s and 1930s, primarily through the activities of intellectuals seeking to recuperate and defend Galician language and culture. Unfortunately, both the Spanish Civil War and General Franco’s rise to power affected not only the translations of European literature into Galician, but also original literary endeavours. Since the end of the dictatorship, translation has played an important role in promoting the Galician language. Today, publishers are offering readers new editions of translations and are also embarking on both commercial and cultural projects.

My purpose is to examine the role of translation in Galicia today. Some questions that I could explore in this talk include: What is the situation of translation in the Galicia today?; how have publishers and translators decided which texts to choose for translation?; are certain countries and authors preferred to others and, if so, why?; and, finally, is there still a nationalist ideology informing Galician translation activity? In considering these questions, I hope to demonstrate that as translated literature assumes a new role by providing invigorating models in the target culture, it regenerates national culture, language, and literature.

Kerry Ann McKevitt

University of A Coruña-Ferrol, Galicia

The Immigrant’s Daughter: Back to Galicia

As a Galician raised in Switzerland who became aware of her Celtic roots in the U.S., I would like to add my voice to the current discussion of the Galician diaspora. My direct experience of immigration and all that it entails in terms of cultural identity is at the heart of my memoir. I propose to read an excerpt that deals with the retrieval of my Galician identity through scholarship. It is through the writing of a book: A Case Study of Ireland and Galicia’s Parallel Paths to Nationhood that I was able to discover Galicia. Growing up in a foreign country, I was exposed to Galego only in a limited way when I visited Galicia in the summer. At home, only my father would speak it once in a while, and only when my mother was absent as she though her native language was only for backward and ignorant people. So I grew up for the most part ignorant of my culture and my language.

Eva Roa White

William Penn University

Galician Language in Postcolonical Context: A Comparative Analysis of the Legal Situation of Galician and Minority Languages of Latin America

In this paper I shall undertake a comparative analysis of the legal status of Galician, as Galicia's ‘own language’, and other minority languages, particularly those spoken by indigenous language communities in Latin America where Spanish is the official language.

Both in peninsular Spain and the South-American colonies, Empire's public powers worked consistently to impose Castilian, the Empire's symbol, as the only valid language. However, the process of decolonisation of the American continent gave rise, in some countries (Peru, Paraguay), to the recuperation of the official use of some indigenous languages. Similarly, in the case of peninsular Spain, the approval of the current 1978 Constitution permitted the official recognition of Galician and other peninsular languages, although with a lower status than Castilian.

After having described this situation, I shall undertake a comparative analysis of the status that these languages have had throughout Spanish speaking countries. Departing from the Galician case-study, constitutional and legal texts will be compared, taking into account the recognition of language pluralism and also the public actions and policies (status and acquisition planning, language bills) undertaken to guarantee the survival of this linguistic pluralism. Finally, an analysis of the success of these policies will be approached for a more comprehensive interpretation of the Galician situation from a postcolonial point of view.

Xavier Ferreira

University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia

The Spanish Civil War in Exiled Galician Writers

The experience of the Civil War was a problematic topic for republican Galician writers in exile. In fact, its ocurrence is sporadic and quite late. This paper analizes how this subject is elaborated in diferent genres: poetry, fictional prose and diferent forms of (auto)biografic writing.

The bitterness of defeat does not favour the exercise of memory, and only a few writers are ready to use literature in order to testify about what happened. Their works demonstrate, at times, the passion of recent confrontation in satirical poems; elsewhere they show a tendency to provide a simple description of events, to testify from an objective point of view. The different perspectives and representations of the subject build a mosaic in which the receptor can see what the Civil War signified for exiled writers and how they experienced it.

On the other hand, the situation of Galician language as a minoritised one is a determinant of the very existence of this literature. Often, these works are published many years after their original composition, or produced without an awareness of a real reader, a fact that has frequently influenced the approach and productive strategies of the writers.

María Xesús Lama-López

University of Barcelona, Catalonia