Catalan literature

Catalan literature is the name conventionally used to refer to literature written in the Catalan language. The focus of this article is not just the literature of Catalonia, but literature written in Catalan from anywhere, so that it includes writers from the Valencian Community, Balearic Islands and other territories where Catalan or its variants are spoken.

The Catalan literary tradition is extensive, starting in the early Middle Ages . A Romantic revivalist movement of the 19th century, Renaixença, classified Catalan literature in periods. The centuries long chapter known as Decadència that followed the golden age of Valencian literature, was perceived as extremely poor and lacking literary works of quality. Further attempts to explain why this happened (see History of Catalonia) have motivated new critical studies of the period, and nowadays a revalorisation of this early modern age is taking place. Catalan literature reemerged in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to experience troubled times from the start of the Spanish Civil War on. Many intellectuals were forced into exile and Catalan culture was repressed. However, this repression began to temper after the end of World War II. Many measures were introduced soon to protect and promote the Catalan language, such as the creation of official contests to award the best literary works in Catalan.

Catalan, a Romance language, evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages, when it became a separate language from Latin. Literary use of the Catalan language is generally said to have started with the religious text known as Homilies d'Organyà, written either in late 11th or early 12th century, though the earlier Cançó de Santa Fe, from 1054–76, may be Catalan or Occitan. Another early Catalan poem is the mid-13th century Augats, seyós qui credets Déu lo Payre, a planctus Mariae (lament of Mary).

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