Constructing Catalan Identity

✍ Scribed by Michael A. Vargas

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing;Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 204
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a book about how Catalans use their past, real and imagined, in the construction of their present and future. Michael A. Vargas inventories the significant people, signal events, and familiar icons that constitute the Catalan collective memory, from Wilfred the Hairy and Sant Jordi to the mountain monastery of Montserrat, red peasant caps, and human towers in town squares. He then considers how that inventory is employed to posit a brilliant political heritage at the forefront of modern European democracy—and for some, to build a powerful independence movement. As the future of Catalonia remains fraught, this book offers a lively and engaging exploration of how we draw upon history to confront contemporary challenges.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv
Introduction (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 1-16
Front Matter ....Pages 17-19
Events and Accidents (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 21-27
Princes and People (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 29-50
Patrons, Protectors, and Creative Defenders (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 51-67
Castle, Coast, and Cathedral (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 69-90
Front Matter ....Pages 91-94
Decadence and Renaissance (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 95-114
Medievalizing and Modernizing (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 115-135
Fighting Words (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 137-165
Epilogue: In an October of Another Year (Michael A. Vargas)....Pages 167-181
Back Matter ....Pages 183-197

✦ Subjects

History; History of Medieval Europe; History of Modern Europe; Memory Studies; Cultural History