Galician literature is literature written in Galician, an official regional language of Galicia, an autonomous region in northwest Spain. The language is also spoken in the Trás-os-montes region of Portugal. Galician language has been treated in DDC as a dialect of Portuguese, and Galician literature has been classed as Portuguese literature, with use of the period table for Portuguese. Now that we are now preparing to introduce a new number in Table 6 Languages for Galician as a separate language (T6—699 Galician), we need a literary period table for Galician literature.
Since Galician literature has less literary warrant than Portuguese literature, we could give a less detailed period table for Galician than for Portuguese. There would be some advantage, however, to paralleling the Portuguese table to facilitate reclassification.
Most sources speak of a medieval period of Galician literature, ending at various dates, usually between 1400 and 1500 (Fernández del Riego 1978, 17–57; Pena 1992; Tarrío 1994, 19–68). Often they speak of the medieval period as a Galician-Portuguese period, where it may be difficult to distinguish Galician authors from Portuguese authors—yet some authors and works are identified as Galician. The first-of-two rule should lead classifiers to put comprehensive works on medieval Galician and Portuguese literature with Portuguese.
Most sources describe a period of obscurity for Galician literature for the 16th through 18th centuries (Fernández del Riego 1978, 58–74; Tarrío 1994, 71–94). Most sources describe a rebirth or revival in the second half of the 19th century, and some describe a pre-revival starting near the beginning of the 19th century (Fernández del Riego 1978, 75–119; Tarrío 1994, 97–187).
For the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the suppression of Galician during the Franco regime (1939–1975) are important for marking the periods of Galician literature (Tarrío 1994, 191–532). There is a period of exile literature during the Franco regime, based in Latin America, especially Buenos Aires (Maceira Fernández 1995). World War II does not seem important for marking periods of Galician literature.
For literary periods for Galician, we tentatively recommend keeping the same dates as for Portuguese, but not subdividing the 20th century. We recommend putting a class-here note under the 19th century for the period of revival, so that subdivisions may be added for Galician literature of that period. Here is how the proposed entry for Galician literature would look:
869.9 *Galician literature
Class here Gallegan literature
Use the following period table for literature in Galician language from all countries and continents, for comprehensive works on literature in Galician language
PERIOD TABLE
1 Early period to 1499
2 1500–1799
3 1800–1899
Class here period of revival
4 1900–1999
5 2000–
*Add to base number as instructed at beginning of Table 3
We are asking for comments on the proposed literary period table. Please reply directly to this blog entry (or alternatively to [email protected]) by December 31, 2008. The comment period has been extended to March 31, 2009.
Trás-os-Montes doesn't speak Galician at all!
The only proximities are accent and the way as some
few syllables are pronounced, like "ch" sounding "tch", but only in the northern borderlines of Trás-os-Montes with Galicia.
Otherwise, since from North (Minho and Trás-os-Montes) to South (Algarve) Portugal is a linguistic continuity, where only accents and some expressions, differ, we should assume all Portugal speaks Galician, which is totally wrong.
It would be much more true to say that southern Galicia speaks Portuguese - even they accept and assume it!
Posted by: Miguel.M | 09 January 2009 at 02:19 PM