Galician literature

Literature in Galician
Cantigas de Santa Maria.
Medieval Dark Ages Prerrexurdimento Rexurdimento Intersecular 20th century Actual
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The name literature in Galician or simply Galician literature is the corpus of literary works written in the Galician language.

As with most other Romance languages, the first literary manifestations in Galician (then Galician-Portuguese) date from the Middle Ages. After this medieval stage (in which poetic production is especially relevant), there was a long period of just over three centuries of literary drought, called séculos escuros (in Spanish, "dark centuries"). which coincided with an almost total abandonment of Galician as a literary language. With the revival, since the beginning of the XIX century, literature in Galician has been cultivated again and the as well as fundamental names such as Rosalía de Castro. Already in the 20th century, before the civil war, groups of intellectuals such as the Generación Nós and the Irmandades da Fala were particularly important, including writers such as Vicente Risco, Ramón Cabanillas and Castelao. Then, two more periods can be delimited that would coincide, approximately, one with the Franco regime and the other with the period that comes to this day, from the advent of democracy in Spain. Relevant authors of current Galician literature are Xosé Luis Méndez Ferrín, Manuel Rivas and Suso de Toro.

Medieval Literature

During medieval times, the literary production of Galicia and Portugal was carried out in a common language that is conventionally known as Galician-Portuguese or medieval Portuguese (the most frequent term in Portugal). The importance that literature in Galician had for the Iberian Peninsula can be compared to the importance of Occitan literature in Central Europe and the Mediterranean.

Lyric poetry

Medieval poetry in Galician is exclusively lyrical (there is therefore no narrative poetry of the type of Castilian epic poetry, although the Cantigas de Santa María are still versified narratives); It is dedicated to singing and had musical accompaniment.

Two traditions can be distinguished: one secular (known as Galician-Portuguese lyric) and the other religious, embodied in the Cantigas de Santa María.

The chronological scope of this poetry covers the period from the end of the XII century to the second half of the XIV and the authorship corresponds to about 153 authors.

Galician-Portuguese lyric poetry

Troublers in a miniature of the Cancionero da Ajuda (sixteenth century)XIII).

The corpus of medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric is made up of approximately 1,680 poetic texts (most of them called cantigas) with love and satirical themes. The oldest known song dates from 1196 - 1198, the text “Ora face ost´o señor de Navarra”, political ridicule of João Soares de Paiva.

The texts have been transmitted through three handwritten songbooks:

• Ajuda Songbook
• Songbook of the Vatican Library
• Cancionero Colocci-Brancuti

Some outstanding poets were Bernardo de Bonaval, Airas Nunes, Pero da Ponte, Pero Amigo and Martín Codax.

The Songs of Santa Maria

This is a set of 420 (or 427) texts on a generally miraculous theme composed and compiled under the patronage of the King of Castile Alfonso X el Sabio. some of them, at least ten of them, were authored by him himself monarch. It is the only example of Marian themes and versified narratives in Galician-Portuguese medieval literature. For the rest, the richness of the miniatures contained in the preserved codices gives them an exceptional documentary value for learning about typical uses and customs in the crown of Castile.

Prose

The medieval prose corpus in Galician was produced in the chronological scope that goes, approximately, from 1200 to 1350, and was closely linked with western European literature and with the classical tradition.

Like the rest of medieval literature, prose is formally highly influenced by the oral nature of the literary experience of the time, which is manifested, stylistically, in appeals to the audience-reader, in formulas derived from verbs such as hearing, speaking, listening, and in structural imbalances (imbalance between the size of the parts, for example) accompanied by repetitions, digressions, etc

Unlike what happens with administrative documentation, which is very abundant, prose remains of a literary nature are very scarce. It is necessary to point out that this, in part, is due to the fact that the Galician language was fixed in the peninsular area as the proper language of lyrical poetry, and not of literary prose; on the other hand, the political use of the prose would advise its writing in Spanish rather than in Galician.

Conventionally, Galician medieval prose is classified into three generic areas: hagiography, historiography, and fictional prose. In none of the three cases is it an original creation in Galician, but more or less faithful translations or versions.

The hagiography of hagiographic literature that aims to record the exemplary life and miracles performed by the saints, in order to glorify them and serve as a model of behavior for readers.

The main protagonist of the hagiographic prose in Galician is the Apostle Santiago. The fundamental text is Milagres de Santiago, a reduced version of Liber Sancti Iacobi, which is preserved in a fragmentary codex from the first third of the century XV.

The fictional prose, derived from the French roman born in the second half of the century XII, in Galician its main representative is the Crónica troiana, the Galician version of the Roman de Troie. The version was commissioned by Count Fernán Pérez de Andrade based on a translation into Spanish and was completed in 1373 (it is estimated, however, that it is likely that there was a previous version in Galician from which the Spanish version would have emerged).. The Troian Chronicle

is the oldest Galician novel and the only medieval that is preserved, and it is necessary to value it as one of the greatest literary efforts developed in Galician language, both for its dimensions and for its linguistic and stylistic results.

Beyond this text, there are several loose fragments and manuscripts of uneven value, including a fragment of a Livro de Tristan of the third quarter of the centuryXIV, important because it is the translation of a textual cycle from which there is no evidence in the rest of the peninsular literature.

Galician historiography has its beginnings, of course, related to Alfonso X, who, even having opted for Spanish as the language of culture, promoted the translation into other peninsular languages of various texts.

From the end of the XIII century is a Galician translation of a Crónica de Castela, which is also preceded by a royal genealogy from Navarra, known as Liber Regum and accompanied by a summary of the reign of Ferdinand III and his successors, and other minor texts. The resulting text is known as the Crónica galega de León e Castela. It is one of the most archaic prose texts known and is the basis for important Portuguese texts such as the Cronica geral de 1344 and, above all, the Crónica de 1404 (date of its completion), one of the few prose texts originally written in Galician (although it retains the original beginning in Spanish).

An incomplete translation of the Alfonsine General storia and a Chronicle of Santa María de Iria, a translation of two Latin sources, are also preserved.

Literature during the Dark Ages

Since the beginning of the XV century, Galician and Portuguese have been losing their unity. Galician began to take a peripheral position, both with respect to Portuguese, the official and protected language of a kingdom, and Castilian Spanish, whose nobility had replaced the Galician nobility since the end of the century XIV.

Literature in Galician will enter a period of stagnation in which there is practically no literary creation in the language. They are called Seculos Escuros, "Dark Centuries" in Spanish.

After a first stage of absolute drought (15th and 16th centuries), during the 17th and 18th centuries there were some very timid attempts to elaborate some kind of literary creation in Galician.

After the opening in 1649 of the Faculties of Law and Medicine in Santiago de Compostela, it was possible to celebrate, thanks to the diversity of students, the literary contest of the Festas Minervais of 1697, which took place convened in memory of Archbishop Alonso III de Fonseca, El Grande; as a result of it, a compilation of the works presented was published: Minerval Festivals and perpetual acclamation to the Muse, in which nine romances written in Galician stand out; The presence of Galician is, therefore, a minority in the volume.

Professor Alonso Montero has called this type of composition academic poetry in Galician from the 16th and 17th centuries, and it includes, in addition to the aforementioned volume, four more works, all of them by compilation type and in which the presence of literature in Galician, even though it exists in three of them, is very brief; these are baroque-style poems, generically framed in elegy and romance, apart from some loose verses.

In addition to this academic poetry, there is evidence of other literary trends, among which stand out:

• the continuity of popular lyric poetry, in form, for example, of Christmas poetry (of which there have been manuscripts in some churches).
• a poetry of circumstances, of which would be an example Pranto de Frouseirain which an anonymous cries the death of Marshal Pedro Pardo of Cela and his son.
• a narrative poem about the looting of the village of Cangas by the Turks in 1617.
• a dramatic composition in verse of 1671 by Gabriel Feijoo de Araújo entitled Famous Entremés on Fishing No River Miño, in which fights between Galician and Portuguese husbandmen are staged for fishing rights in the Miño.

Paradoxically, it was in the 18th century, the century in which the pressure against Galician intensified, when intellectual figures appeared of the first order who defend it: Father Feijóo, Father Sobreira and Father Sarmiento, personalities who write important studies on Galician.

Fray Martín Sarmiento, for example, claimed the need for schooling in Galician and knowledge of it for those foreigners who came to work in Galicia. Especially devoted to lexicography, Sarmiento also wrote poetry (1,201 couplets from an unfinished Dialogue of 24 rustics) and a first review of medieval Galician literature. In addition, he proposed to Father Sobreira the writing of a Galician Dictionary from which only the material for the first two letters of the alphabet would be prepared.

The Prerecurrence

The Prerrexurdimento -Pre-resurgence- is a period of Galician literature that spans from 1808, the year Napoleon entered Spain, to 1863, the date Rosalía de Castro published her Cantares Gallegos. It is a literature influenced by the French conquest, which caused the autonomy of Galicia under the General Board of the Kingdom of Galicia (or Xunta Xeral do Reino de Galicia).

Until around 1840, the texts that were published were more utilitarian and informative than literary, and dealt extensively with the sociopolitical situation of occupied Spain. The first document to be studied from this period (as long as the study of correspondence is considered literary) is a representation-letter of Pedro Cima de Vila, where the residents of Puentedeva ask King Carlos IV to soften taxes on the wine trade. There are also texts that try to attract soldiers for the war, such as the anonymous poem A farmer who was sarxento aos soldados do novo alistamento (1808).

From 1840 the poems published in Galician newspapers became numerous. Special mention should be made of the trilingual work by Xoán Manuel Pintos A Gaita Gallega, Tocada polo Gaiteiro, ou Carta de Christus para ir Deprendendo a Ler, Escribir e Falar Ben a Lengua Gallega (1853), popularized simply as A Galician bagpipe and written in Galician, Spanish and Latin, with annotations in French.

The Recurrence

Literature in Galician was reborn in the second half of the 19th century, the so-called Rexurdimento, with writers such as Rosalía de Castro, Eduardo Pondal, Curros Enríquez and others.

The great figure of the Rexurdimento is undoubtedly Rosalía de Castro. Rarely can an author be said to have contributed with her genius to the resurgence of literature in two languages, as is the case with Rosalía. In Spanish she is she, together with Bécquer, the precursor of modernity and initiator of a new Castilian metric with her work On the banks of the Sar . In Galician Galician Songs is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of literature in the language.

The transition to the 20th century

After the relative period of splendor of the Rexurdimento, which, at least, reincorporated the Galician language as a vehicle of cultural expression, the Galician intelligentsia diversified its activity in order to open new paths for the sensitivity and Galician claims. In addition, certain institutional efforts are made to consolidate Galician as a language of culture, as can be seen in the didactic literature that is developed: some summaries of the history and geography of Galicia, editing of medieval texts, attention to spelling and, above all, everything, the foundation in 1906 of the Royal Galician Academy under the presidency of Manuel Murguía, who immediately published a bulletin with historical, genealogical, etc. content.

Literally, due to the above, it is a time of certain sterility. A certain number of writers make up what has been called the "Antre dos séculos" (between two centuries), characterized by an attempt to amalgamate the Pondalan heritage with the new idealisms in vogue in European literature of the moment; the results, however, were rather discreet, many of them preferring to follow movements that are closer to each other geographically, such as the Portuguese saudosismo. In this regard, Antonio Noriega Varela stands out.

In poetry, basically, the three great trends of rexurdimento are continued: ruralist costumbrismo, prophetic historicism and civic poetry.

1. The Ruralism, based on the identification of the social and literary use of the language, originates especially in Galician singingRosalía de Castro, whose followers do nothing but accentuate the deformed vision of the Galician rural world. The poet who in this tendency struggled more to renew the heritage received is Manuel Leiras Pulpeiro, an experienceder of novel poetic lines such as civil, seamstress, landscape, etc. Other authors, although minors, were Evaristo Martelo Paumán, Florencio Vaamonde Lores (followers both of Eduardo Pondal) and Filomena Dato (follower of Rosalía de Castro).
2. The call prophetic historicalism It seeks to establish the Galician identity in the past; it originates from the work of Eduardo Pondal, but it develops through a narrative poetry, not lyric, with epic pretensions, seeking its themes not only in the mythical Celtic world but also in the Middle Ages and modernity. In addition to cultivating the Pondal itself in his poem Eoasother authors who frequented it were Evaristo Martelo Paumán (1853-1928), Florencio Vaamonde Lores (1860-1925) and Francisco Tettamancy (1854-1921).
3. as to the Civil poetryIt is more of a theme shared by almost all writers of the time, who are interested in social issues and national demands. In many cases, on the other hand, they are clear followers of Curros Enríquez, mixing a progressive and republican ideology, with the denunciation of social injustice and obscurantism; they are writers like Manuel Lugrís Freire (1863-1940) or Eladio Rodríguez González (1864-1949).

20th century literature: before the civil war

The Fala Brotherhoods and the Nós Group

Literature around the Brotherhoods

The cultural program of the Irmandades was focused on the dissemination of Galician and the encouragement of knowledge of Galician culture in general; To this end, the creation of the weekly A Nosa Terra, in addition to its importance as an ideological spokesperson, led to the appearance of a publication where it was possible to develop intellectual prose in Galician that turned out to be one of the main interests of the group.

Literally, the renewing role corresponded to Ramón Cabanillas, considered the synthesis and definitive overcoming of the Rexurdimento, by embracing the most valuable elements of romanticism and updating Galician poetry at the same time.

For its part, narrative was represented by the popularization of short novels during the 1920s, which served as a field of exploration for authors and which made possible a path of modernization for Galician narrative.

Literature around the Nós group

For the history of the group, see Grupo Nos.

For the members of Nós ("We"), the elaboration of fictional and non-fictional prose constituted a strategy for their attempt to modernize Galician culture.

The essay is used to search for the differential features of Galicia with the ultimate goal of legitimizing the national idea; The cultivation of national themes is therefore central in works such as Terra de Melide (1933) by the Seminario de Estudos Galegos (cultural organization of singular importance), Geographical Synthesis of Galicia (1933) by Ramón Otero Pedrayo and Santa María de Moreiras. Monograph dunha parroquia ourensán (1925-1935; published in 1969) by Xosé Ramón Fernández-Oxea, better known by his pseudonym Ben-Cho-Shey.

As central figures in Galician literature of the moment, mention must be made of Vicente Risco, Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao and Ramón Otero Pedrayo.

Other trends and authors

The rest of the writers who began to develop their literary work at the time and who are not located in the Irmandades or in the Nós group, have been cataloged with the most diverse labels: noucentistas, generation of 1925, generation of 1922... These are writers like Manuel Antonio, Luis Amado Carballo and Luís Pimentel.

Regarding the presence of the avant-garde, they are manifested through traits such as a dehumanized concept of literature (fleeing from the sentimental and the intimate), an approach to the banality of the everyday as poetic matter, and for a commitment to a non-literal language, based on symbolism and suggestion. However, the triumph corresponded to the more moderate proposals, in the form of two specific literary currents: hilozoísmo and neotrovadorismo (Álvaro Cunqueiro).

In another order of things, during these years an unclassifiable writer began his literary work and who occupies a prominent place in the Galician literature of the century XX: Rafael Dieste.

Galician literature during the Franco regime

Beyond some minor texts, the publication in 1947 of Aquilino Iglesia Alvariño's collection of poems Cómaros verdes signifies the starting point of Galician literature after the long hiatus of the civil war and its immediate years of strong cultural repression.

At the same time, at the end of that decade several bilingual literary magazines also began to be published, among which Mensajes de poesía and Alba stood out. Some editorial endeavors also appear, such as the Benito Soto poetry collection and the Bibliófilos Gallegos and Monterrey publishing houses.

As for the media, the cultural supplement of the Santiago de Compostela newspaper La Noche, coordinated by Francisco Fernández del Riego and Xaime Isla, is for a brief period a public platform for Galician intellectuals, although it was closed very soon.

Of exceptional relevance is the founding in 1950 of Editorial Galaxia, "the true architect of the process of cultural reconstruction that Galicia had to undertake in the postwar period.", which in addition to the publication of books, would also undertake from 1963 the publication of the cultural magazine Grail.

On the other hand, a fruitful intellectual activity in Galician began in Spanish America as early as 1940 on the part of exiled writers. In addition to Castelao's political work, Eduardo Blanco Amor and Luís Seoane carry out important journalistic and social work. The magazine Galicia, which they both directed, edited by the Centro Galego de Buenos Aires, became a means of disseminating Galician culture and raising Galician awareness.

Poetry

Galician poetry during the Franco regime began several years after the end of the war. This temporary parenthesis supposes that, when the publication begins to be regularized, several groups of generationally heterogeneous writers come to coincide temporarily.

Thus, in the 1950s, four main lines or tendencies appeared that dominated the poetic panorama until well into the democratic period and that, in some way, articulated among themselves:

• First, it is possible to identify a first group of poets who were already active during the Second Republic and who write strongly influenced by the war tragedy; sometimes known, under the banner of generation of 1936, it is writers such as Fermín Bouza Brey, Luís Pimentel (one of the most important ones), Aquilino Iglesia Alvariño, Luís Amado Carballo, Ricardo Carballo Calero and, above all, Alvaro Cunqueiro. It is the last heirs of the Galician tradition that goes from the Irmandades da Fala to the activity of the Group Nos, and that in some way allow the appearance of the Galeguist Party in 1931. Its culture therefore comes from the Second Republic, and is a dynamizer of Galician culture.

There are also, in parallel, writers with a more conservative style, model continuists like the Neotrovadorism (Xosé María Álvarez Blázquez) and the imagining; and others, followers of a formal classicism and an intimate vein like Maria Mariño and, even, with a religious nuance in the case of Xosé Díaz Castro.

• Secondly, the cultivation of a poetry of a social type begins, directly linked to the historical situation of the moment before which the writers react individually. The most outstanding figure is Celso Emilio Ferreiro.

• Next to the previous ones, the trajectory of a group of poets that are known, conventionally, with the membership of Promotion of liaison.

Unlike the previous ones, these authors are characterised by their self-taught, by mature in full dictatorship and, therefore, isolated from the European culture of the moment. In addition, they are writers who abound production in Spanish and only very sporadically frequent the use of Galician. It is therefore a promotion that functions as an appendix to the previous ones and which, at the same time, opens way to the following.

The most outstanding poets of this group are Luz Pozo Garza, Antón Tovar and Manuel Cuña Novás.

• Fourthly, there is the first generation of poets that would be in post-war. Unknown to the direct experience of the war, they are also the first to approach Europe and the scope of freedoms it represented, both in terms of expression and sexuality and other aspects. They are also characterized by an exclusive use of Galician and a clear political commitment to Marxism and Nationalism.

As an event that served to create a certain group consciousness, those restored in 1953 Festas Minervais they gave the last name to this generation, historically called Festas Minervais.

The characteristics of its poetic production are hermeticism, in the formal, and pessimism, anguish and tenebrism, in the thematic.

In addition to Festas Minervaisother elements served to create a certain group awareness among these writers; it can be pointed out, especially, the call group Brais Pinto. It was a group of university students influenced by the movement beatnik and with multidisciplinary interests, ranging from plastic to editorial work. Two poets who militarized the group were Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín and Bernardino Graña.

In general, the poetic trajectory of this generation das Festas Minervais goes from the existential and intimistic to the commitment to immediate reality, generating a social-realist current that is initiated by Manuel María in Documents person (1958) and which extends until the end of the seventies, also contributing to it Bernardino Graña.

Other authors, Uxío Novoneyra and Antón Avilés de Taramancos, developed very personal trajectories linked to specific elements of their respective biographies (health problems, in the first case, and emigration, in the second); Xohana Torres, for her part, worked on the landscape and temporal symbology in several of his works.

Narrative

Galician narrative during the Franco regime has its nerve center in the renovating collective project that has been called New Galician Narrative, which consolidated in the transition from the fifties to the sixties the discourse narrative in Galician and updates it in accordance with the innovative techniques that had permeated international novels throughout the century.

• Previously, the rebirth narrative in Galician after the war was a rather based construction of individualities than in currents or tendencies, leaving the thematic or formal link to the sphere of poetry.

The first Galician novel published after the war was A xente da Barreira (1951), by Ricardo Carballo Calero, Bibliophilos Gallegos Award. Carballo Calero is followed by the figures of Ánxel Fole, focused on deep Galicia, and of Alvaro Cunqueiro, mainly focused on the world of cultural fantasy.

• Outside of Galicia, in exile, it is essential to quote two authors: on the one hand, Eduardo Blanco Amor forms one of the most popular and valuable narrative trajectories of Galician literature, with works like Smooch. (new published in 1959 in Buenos Aires) and Biosbarred (chuckles, 1962). Technically, White Love is a precedent of New Galician narrative. On the other hand, Xosé Neira Vilas, a frequenter of the theme of the opposition of opposite realities: the child versus the adult (of which is a relevant example the novel Memories dun neno labregoand the Galician atmosphere in front of the American.

• In this context, it is when a group of novels appear over the 1950s and 1960s that constitute the first collective attempt of radical technical and thematic renewal of the Galician narrative discourse, works that make up what has been given in denominating "nova narrative galega".

• Over the 1970s, the new developments introduced in the previous decades are consolidated and the distances are marked with some overly experimental trends, and, on the contrary, greater attention to critically focused social issues.

In this regard, the accounts of a memorial type focused on childhood and adolescence are particularly frequented, in the form of initiatic narratives in the line of a certain Neira Vilas narrative. So, they are remarkable works like Xente ao lonxeof White Love, and Xoguetes for a forbidden tempoCarlos Casares. On a more symbolic level, with implicit political references, is the short novel by Méndez Ferrín, Return to Tagen Ata1971.

The theater

The theatrical panorama in Galician during the Franco regime is especially bleak and it is only possible to review the work of certain writers who, individually, maintained a certain activity as playwrights, although always parallel to their frequentation of other genres.

• Until 1965 the figure of Alvaro Cunqueiro stands out without discussion, which, as in his narrative, permeates his theatre of literary myths, humor and lirismo, as shown by works such as Or incert Mr. Don Hamlet, prince of Denmark (1959) or Noite's eating a river. (1965, 1974).

In addition to Cunqueiro, we must quote Ricardo Carballo Calero, who frequents a wide stylist spectrum, from the realism of O fillo (1935) to the alegorism of In the shadow of Orfeu (1958); and Xenaro Mariñas del Valle, author of a symbolic work entitled A riotin which the problem of emigration is dealt with with universally.

• In the mid-1960s, there are some attempts to promote certain theatrical bets, such as the consolidation of some theatrical contests, the foundation of the Circo Theatre in La Coruña (first Galician group of independent theater) the celebration of theatrical shows, etc.

Throughout the 1970s, on the other hand, a social theatre begins to germinate, thanks to works like Process in Jacobusland of Blanco Amor, and a theatre of mythical themes, in which Manuel Lourenzo stands out.

The writing of O velorio by the playwright Francisco Taxes (La Coruña, 1940-2003) dates from 1971, represented in 1978 by the Professional Theater Group Troula with enormous public and critical success (the praise for the text and the editing by José Monleón in Triunfo and El País stands out). Manuel Rivas referred -following the publication of the complete works of Taxes in Ediciones Xerais de Galicia (2008)- to this Galician theatrical classic as "masterpiece, avant-garde entroido, counterculture, ethnographic subversion, Dionysian vengeance" in an article collected in his book Episodes galegos (Xerais, 2009).

Galician literature during democracy

Poetry

The first sign of the arrival of opening times is the abandonment of the social-realist line frequented during the dictatorship and the imprint of Álvaro Cunqueiro on many of the new poets (especially through his work Herba aquí e acolá). The collections of poems that opened the new stage were already published in 1976 and were Con pólvora e magnolias, by Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín, and Mesteres, by Arcadio López-Casanova; culturalism and denunciation in the first, and formal innovations in the second, are sufficient traits to inaugurate a new era, although his influence on other writers was rather discreet due to its exceptionality.

In addition to individual work, groups of poets with a common identity also began to appear, such as Cravo Fondo (Xesús Rábade, Xavier Rodríguez Barrio, Ramiro Fonte...), Alén , Loia and Rompente, all encompassing multiple tendencies, from linguistic innovation to aesthetic radicalism, passing, as is the case of Rompente , for a definitive digestion of the Galician poetry of the avant-garde and for a programmatic activity that gave rise to the poetic manifesto Fóra as vosas suxas mans de Manuel Antonio, vindicating the figure of Manuel Antonio, admired for his non-conformist attitude and innovative aesthetic.

At the beginning of the eighties, a series of elements that would configure the framework of the Galician literary system also began to consolidate:

• a series of magazines that will serve as a platform for the publication of the poetry of the youngest poets: these are publications as Nord, Coordinates, Cen augas and, the most important of all, Dorna;
• creation of several literary awards, highlighting among them the Ski;
• publication of anthologies of the new poetry, which in the case of Give to word, twelve voices (1985) by Luciano Rodríguez, will serve as spokesman for the known as generation of the 80s.

The poetry of the group of poets known as the generation of the 80s is characterized by culturalism and formal experimentalism, and by the influence it reflects of Anglo-Saxon and Portuguese poetry. Thematically, they approach reality from an external point of view, to avoid subjectivism and collective enunciation; themes of love (sensual and transcendent), the passage of time and death, the metaliterary perspective and the cosmic vision of nature are frequent. Notable writers such as Vítor Vaqueiro, Xosé María Álvarez Cáccamo, Xavier Rodríguez Baixeras, Manuel Forcadela, Ramiro Fonte, Xavier Rodríguez Barrio, Miguel Anxo Fernán-Vello, Pilar Pallarés, Claudio Rodríguez Fer, Luis González Tosar, Román Raña, are part of this generation. etc

For the rest, in the eighties there are also voices without a clear affiliation that, in some cases, had already begun their trajectory in the seventies, as is the case of Darío Xohán Cabana, who evolved from socialrealism (progressively abandoned by most of the authors) to a certain formal classicism.

The decade of the nineties reflects the multicultural interest typical of the theoretical currents of the moment and a continuous attention to the great problems of contemporary times: environmentalism, antimilitarism, feminism, etc.

In this sense, there is, first of all, a progressive prominence of the feminist/feminine discourse in the poetry of the time: authors such as María Xosé Queizán, Chus Pato, Marta Dacosta, Yolanda Castaño, María Lado, Olga Novo, etc.., they not only face a radical deconstruction of the traditional poetic discourse, but also incorporate the new concerns and the new role of contemporary women into the subjects of their poetry.

Secondly, attention to the everyday, a sort of poetry of experience, is manifested, for example, in the work of Fran Alonso.

Thirdly, certain authors (especially Antón Reixa) are facing a formal revolution in the form of postmodern experimentalism, incorporating resources from the audiovisual field into poetry.

Finally, there is a trend called poetry of knowledge that bets on thematic transcendentalism and a highly worked form from a more classical point of view; Poets such as Miro Villar or Martín Veiga are part of this current.

The Narrative

The novel that opens the Galician narrative production after the Franco regime is, significantly, Dos anxos e dos mortos (1977) by Anxo Rey Ballesteros, since it exposes the identity crisis of youth Galician of the moment It is a precursor novel of a new aesthetic that, moreover, has assimilated the formal renovations of the new narrative. For the rest, the commercial success of A nosa cinza (1980), by Xavier Alcalá, materializes the depth of Galician narrative in the new Galician society.

Institutionally, there are two prizes that were decisive for the consolidation of the narrative: the Blanco Amor (1981), which promoted the long novel, and the Xerais (1984), which opened the doors to different narrative subgenres, by awarding the prize for the detective novel Crime in Compostela by Carlos Reigosa in its first edition.

On the other hand, the reissue of classic storytellers in Galician, such as Álvaro Cunqueiro or Ramón Otero Pedrayo, is also highly effective for the normalization of narrative discourse, serving young people as models to imitate or of to turn away

There are also authors such as Concha Blanco who create mainly children's literature, although they also address other fields. This author achieved a certain renown by obtaining a Second Prize in the Lazarillo Prize in 1997 for the work What does it matter to me! (translated into Spanish) and for being a finalist in the Xerais Prize in 1996, 1999 and 2003. Finally, there is also a revitalization of the genre "story" compared to the novel, as a more appropriate means of reaching the general public and as a field for different experimentations, both technical and thematic.

• In addition to the subgener of the police novel (reported, for example, by Aníbal C. Malvar), the erotic subgener (for example, the erotic subgener) are outstanding.Anel de melXulio L. Valcárcel, Beatum corpus, by César Cunqueiro, the novel of Cunqueirian filiation (in Darío Xohán Cabana), the historical novel (O triangle inscribed na circumferenceVictor Freixanes, the novel of historical memory (Xavier Alcalá), etc.

• But perhaps the element that symbolizes above others the Galician literary normalization is the appearance of some writers who have come to transcend the Galician literary space and have become known in the rest of Spain. Such is the case of novelists such as Manuel Rivas, Alfredo Conde, Marina Mayoral or Suso de Toro, all of them authors of works of difficult frame in specific tendencies, but who like to address the topics always from a Galician perspective, in the sense of concrete in their land of origin is a literary space where the actions of their works are developed.

• On the other hand, the writers who had starred in the new Galician narrative consolidate their trajectory during these years, to the point of becoming literary referents for the new generations, such is the case of Carlos Casares and Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín.

The theater

It is often noted that the Galician theater written in a democracy tends to abandon awareness-raising or mobilizing interests in favor of a more autonomous and self-sufficient production in terms of its aesthetic values. An initial consequence of this lack of interest in influencing the viewer would be the appearance of works more directed towards reading than towards staging, singled out by the use of symbolic language and the adoption of metatheatrical approaches to universal themes, even acknowledging that there were authors who opted for a more realistic writing, attentive to the course of the history of contemporary Galicia. The interest of many of these authors in abandoning a traditional theatrical practice, adopting avant-garde and even experimental techniques in their works, which would add to the persistent difficulties in getting theatrical works to the public, led to the prizes for dramatic literature (the Álvaro Cunquerio, the one from the Biblioteca Arlequín, the Rafael Dieste, etc.) became practically the only way to publish theater in Galicia during these years. However, other approaches consider that this point of view does not grant due literary value to the creation of texts directly conceived for the stage by authors linked to the theater groups themselves, texts that are sometimes collectively created. It is surely the figure of Roberto Vidal Bolaño, founder of the Antroido theater company in 1975, in which he worked as director, set designer, lighting designer and interpreter, who best represents that other type of literary creator who, breaking with the separation between literary author and scenic creator, in a certain way recovers a long-term figure in the history of the theater. To Roberto Vidal Bolaño, who died prematurely in 2002, the Royal Galician Academy dedicated the Day of Galician Letters in 2013.

The first class of playwrights of the time had a privileged place in the Cadernos da Escola Dramática Galega to see their texts published. These are authors interested in culturalism, lyricism and symbolism, such as Miguel Anxo Fernán-Vello, Inma A. Souto, Luísa Villalta, Henrique Rabunhal and Joao Guisán, all of them authors of irregular theatrical production and with more or less common characteristics.: Apart from the aforementioned, the use of metatheater, the avoidance of referentiality, absurd humour, etc. Other writers, more determined to distinguish themselves as playwrights, opted to distance themselves from that culturalism and approach the expression of intimacy, such as the cases of Xesús Pisón, Manuel Riveiro Loureiro and others. Certain writers, such as Antón Reixa, Xosé Carlos Cermeño and Roberto Salgueiro, opted for a playful and iconoclastic theater, more attentive to its possible stage representation.

These first attempts to bring the texts closer to the stage saw their expectations consolidated in the nineties; basically, there is a revaluation of the author who is at the same time a director, playwright and translator, and an incessant interest in theatrical production techniques.

Likewise, the final decade of the XX century saw the existence of a theatrical system in Galician definitively normalized, as It manifests itself with the consolidation of some companies (Teatro del Atlántico, Teatro del Noroeste, etc.), with the creation of the Galician Dramatic Center, the creation of new awards, festivals, subsidies, etc.

Some of the most relevant artists of that time were Lino Braxe, cultivator of a symbolist line; Francisco Souto; Cándido Pazó, interested in the phenomenon of intertextuality; Miguel-Anxo Murado, interested in the past; Xavier Lama; Raul Dans; etc

As a synthesis, it can be concluded that in the work of the authors of the nineties it is perceived

a less symbolic burden, a clear preference for the use of intertextuality, and a great care of the structure of the piece, which in many cases approaches what we usually call 'pièce bien faite'; (...) there is a rediscovery of comedy as a generic model [and] the desire to facilitate a scenic output to their texts makes the dramatists feel a certain legitimate concern to facilitate the assembly.

See also: Writers from Galicia

Bibliographic sources

• Bernárdez, Carlos L. et alii, Galega literature. Twice XXA Nosa Terra, Vigo, 2001.
• Pena, Xosé Ramón, "History da Literature galega I. Das orixes a 1853", Xerais, Vigo, 2013.
• Pena, Xosé Ramón,"History da Literature galega II. From 1853 to 1916. O Rexurdimento", Xerais, Vigo, 2014.
• Pena, Xosé Ramón, "History da Literature galega III. From 1916 to 1936", Xerais, Vigo, 2016
• Late, Anxo, Galega literature. Contributions to a critical storyXerais, Vigo, 1994.
• Vilavedra, Dolores, History of Galega Literature, Galaxy, Vigo, 1999.