LITERATURE BETWEEN LANGUAGES: LINGUISTIC CONFLICT IN EL AMANTE BILINGÜE BY JUAN MARSÉ

Abstract

“I think a writer’s homeland isn’t a specific language, but rather language in general.” Juan Marsé’s sentence will surprise many victims of simplistic ideas, because it is very far from certain “pious lies” about what literature is, what it is made of and how it relates to the ideas of nation and language. In this article, we focus on an open wound in the relationship between language, literature and nation: the linguistic situation in Catalonia. However, conclusions may be useful for further studies in the Hispanic, Iberian and Literary Studies spheres. The focus of our analysis will be Juan Marsé’s novel El amante bilingüe. We will describe some simplified ideas about the relationship between language, literature and nation and see how these ideas are denied by Marsé’s novel.