Catalan narrative 1875-2015

Modern Catalan narrative came into existence in the late 19th century, right before the onset of the crisis that was to engulf the realist novel. At the turn of the 20th century, the 'modernistes' had to deal with the crisis of the traditional genre that would be felt even more acutely during the years of Noucentisme. 1939 is Catalan culture’s year zero, after which new strands of fiction would gradually take centre stage as part of a rebuilding process carried out by writers who had remained in Catalonia and those who had gone into exile after the Spanish Civil War. They paved the way for the rich vein of fiction which emerged from post-1975 Catalonia. This volume gathers together fifteen studies from different theoretical perspectives on the work of modern and contemporary Catalan novelists and short-story writers, from Narcís Oller through Caterina Albert and Mercè Rodoreda to some of the postmodern masters, with a view to making visible a branch of European fiction made invisible by dominant discourses which marginalize the cultures of stateless nations.