Book Description

Before Babel: A History of Basque Literatures is the first book written originally in English and directed towards a global audience. It is also a new departure from traditional literary histories, as it is not a philological tedious classification of centuries, authors, genres, and books published in Basque. This book addresses the historical conflict and violence that define Basque history and culture, and so it defines Basque literary history as that of at least two literatures: one expressed by Basque subaltern (oppressed) classes in their language, euskara, which mainly constitutes an oral tradition, and the other written by Basque elites in Spanish, Latin, French, etc. The book emphasizes that this double literature remains at the core of the Basque Country’s history and culture to our days. Even today Basque literature in euskara (Basque language) plays a symbolic role: to represent a Basque Country where the majority speaks and writes in other state languages. Euskara, used by a minority, remains subordinate. In this respect, this book is a departure from previous Basque literary histories; it redefines Spanish and French literatures, advances a new theory of what a minority literature is, and pays attention to texts, disciplines, and practices that traditional histories neglect: political discourse, anthropology, tourism, economics. This history also represents a review of most literary historical discourses (new historicism, postcolonial theory, multiculturalism, subaltern studies) and presents a new methodological and theoretical proposal. Finally, this history allows to revisit under a new light political and historical movements such as nationalism, feminism, modernity, and globalization. As a result, different authors such as Sabino Arana, Judah Halevi, Maddalen Lujambio, Axular, Hugo, Unamuno, Itxaro Borda or Oteiza are brought together.