Description

Explores parallels between the political impact of Welsh and Catalan writers who choose to write in English and Spanish versus Welsh and Catalan.

This book examines works by selected Welsh authors who write in English and Catalan authors who write in Spanish. Wales and Catalonia are both small stateless nations where the national language is often considered integral to the nation's nationalism and identity. Choice of language for a writer in these nations is therefore often considered to be a political choice, and writers who choose to write in English or Spanish are often criticized, accused of selling out, or not considered as part of Welsh or Catalan literature. Though the situation is changing in both places, these views are still widely held. Resistance in the 'Oppressor's' Tongue looks at some of those authors who either cannot or have chosen not to write in Welsh/Catalan and asks whether they can be said to produce "resistance literature" on behalf of their nations. Resistance literature was originally defined as literature that was written as part of a political struggle--usually an independence movement--but the definition has been expanded to include literature that exposes and protests against inequality and uneven power dynamics of all kinds. This book argues that the works examined can all be interpreted as works of resistance literature, albeit in different ways and to varying degrees.