Abstract
Accounts of “the decadence of Spain” tally up the errors and evils of a nation-state: inquisition; expulsions of Jews and Muslims; autocratic monarchy; colonial exactions; loss of colonies; discontent, civil war, and dictatorship. Catalans have put those accounts of decadence to good use, making it so that what applies to Spain does not apply equally to Catalonia. Catalans insist that they enjoyed a rebirth, the Renaixença, in which Catalan politics, culture, and language got nursed back to full vigor after centuries of Spanish decadence. Decadence and renaissance are essential paired concepts in the construction of Catalan identity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The literature on decadence is immense and varied. For concise introductions, see Neville Morley, “Decadence as a Theory of History,” New Literary History 35 (2004): 573–585; Mary Gluck, “Decadence as historical myth and cultural theory,” European Review of History 21 (2014): 349–361.
- 2.
Jaume Brossa “Viure del Passat,” in L’Avenç 4, no. 9 (1892): 257–264, “L’excessiu culte al passat que s’apoderà del regionalism esterilitzà tota concepció moderna, convertint el catalanisme literari en una resurrecció arqueològica.”
- 3.
Angel Smith, The Origins of Catalan Nationalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 25. Although Capmany was conservative and wrote in Castilian, his prejudices included the view that Catalans were more industrious than Castilians. Castile, he argued, had entered into decline as a result of the preeminence of aristocratic values and the disdain for manual labor. He excluded Catalonia from this malaise.
- 4.
Josep R. Llobera, Foundations of National Identity: From Catalonia to Europe (New York: Berghahn Books, 2004), 70, asserts that two views of Catalan recovery of the past were running parallel to each other. One aimed to illustrate the roots of the Catalan popular conscience, the other aimed to show the limitations of Castilianization .
- 5.
Claude Carrère, Barcelone: Centre économique à l’époque des difficultés, 1360–1462 (Paris: La Haye, 1967); Mario del Treppo, I mercanti catalani e l’espansione della Corona d’Aragon nel secolo XV (Naples: L’arte tipografica, 1972). Also Carme Batlle i Gallart, La crisis social y económica de Barcelona a mediados del siglo XV (Barcelona: CSIC, 1972). On the evolution of the term “decadence” in its application to literature and culture in Valencia, see Vicent Josep Escartí, “Nota Sobre La Decadencia,” in Les Lletres hispàniques als segles XVI, XVII i XVIII, ed. Tomàs Martínez Romero (Castellón de la Plana: Fundació Germà Colón Domènech, 2005), 59–72.
- 6.
Núria Sales de Bohigas, Els Segles de la decadència: segles XVI-XVIII (Barcelona: Ediciones 62, 1989).
- 7.
Joan Lluís Marfany, “Minority Languages and Literary Revivals,” Past and Present 184 (2004): 137–167, at 139.
- 8.
Llobera, Foundations of National Identity, 70, puts it succinctly: “By the second half of the eighteenth century, Spain appeared to foreign observers as a lazy, impoverished, brutish country, inhabited by fanatics. Spain was seen as a decadent nation that had not managed to preserve past glories, and that had made poor use of a vast and rich empire….”
- 9.
Martin Blinkhorn, “Spain: The ‘Spanish Problem’ and the Imperial Myth,” Journal of Contemporary History 1 (1980), 5–25.
- 10.
Elliott , The Revolt of the Catalans, 523–534.
- 11.
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, “The view from Brussels,” in What’s Up with Catalonia, ed. Liz Castro (Barcelona: Catalonia Press, 2013), 59–66, at 63.
- 12.
Albert García i Espuche , Un Siglo Decisivo Barcelona y Catalunya, 1550–1640 (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1998).
- 13.
Dani Cortijo, Històries de la Història de Barcelona (Barcelona: L’Arca, 2010); Lluïsa Montfort, 1001 Curiositats de Catalunya (Barcelona: L’Arca, 2011).
- 14.
Among his most contentious projects, see especially Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó and Lluís Duran, Vàrem mirar ben al lluny del desert: actes del simposi “Espanya contra Catalunya: una Mirada historica (1714–2014)”, celebrat a Barcelona el 12, 13 I 14 del desembre de 2013 (Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya: Centre d’Història Contemporània de Catalunya, 2014). This is a record of the proceedings of a conference coinciding with the 300-year anniversary of the termination of the Catalan Constitutions. The event brought leading Catalan politicians, historians and others together to discuss a history of three hundred years and more of Spanish repression against Catalonia. Outside the meeting place, the Institut d’Estudis Catalans, attendees were met with a horde of well-organized pro-Spanish state protesters. Spanish press mounted an attack against the symposium, about which Sobrequés wrote in Jaume Sobrequés i Callicó, Espanya contra Catalunya: crònica negra d’un simposi d’història (Barcelona: Editorial Base, 2014).
- 15.
Albert Balcells , Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1996), 25. The rich complexity of nineteenth-century Catalan politics is the subject of Jordi Casassas i Ymbert, Intellectuals, professionals i politics a la Catalunya contemporània, 1850–1920 (Sant Cugat: A. Romero, 1989) and Josep M. Fradera, Cultura nacional en una societat dividida: patriotism i cultura a Catalunya, 1830–1868 (Barcelona: Curial, 1992). Angel Smith, The Origins of Catalan Nationalism, offers a very helpful description of nineteenth-century Catalan viewpoints.
- 16.
Especially useful here is Magí Sunyer, “Medieval Heritage in the Beginnings of Modern Catalan Literature, 1780–1841,” in Editing the Nation’s Memory: Textual Scholarship and Nation-Building in Nineteenth-Century Europe, ed. Dirk Van Nulle and Joep Leerssen (Leiden: Brill, 2008): 169–184.
- 17.
Llobera, Foundations of National Identity, 74.
- 18.
Robert Hughes, Barcelona (New York: Knopf, 1992), 206.
- 19.
Antonio Capmany , Cintinela contra franceses: La arenga patriótica más importante de 1808 (Madrid: Encuentro, 2008).
- 20.
Charles Cerami, Jefferson’s Great Gamble: Jefferson, Napoleon, and the Men Behind the Louisiana Purchase (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2003), 57–58.
- 21.
For background on this seminal figure, see Isidor Cònsul, “Jacint Verdaguer, the Poet of the “Renaixença ,” Catalonia 17 (1990), 13–15; John Etherington, “Nationalism , nation and territory: Jacint Verdaguer and the Catalan Renaixença ,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33 (2010): 1814–1832; Francesc Xavier Altés i Aguiló, Jacint Verdaguer i Montserrat (Montserrat, L’Abadia de Montserrat, 2002).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vargas, M.A. (2018). Decadence and Renaissance. In: Constructing Catalan Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76744-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76744-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76743-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76744-4
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)