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Occitan poetry 980-2006 by Joan-Frederic Brun
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The years 1968-1981 had been a period of awaken dream. Occitan was everywhere. Painted on the walls along the streets. Yves Rouquette said once that this was actually the most beautiful poetry... Politically minded Occitan singers (Martí, Patric, Mans de Brèish...) had gained a huge popularity. But all was apparently underlied by the hope of a success of the Socialist leader François Mitterrand and when he was so lucky to be elected, in 1981, as the new French President, political occitanism disappeared almost immediately. It was a new, sad era, when there was apparently no longer hope at all. No future. Spontaneous use of the language had at least fully vanished. There was the total triumph of the secular French effort for eradicating this hated language and all its culture....
Bernard Manciet (with a long tie and his left hand in a pocket) receiving in Montpellier the "Antigone prize" for "l'enterrament a Sabres" However, despite their very limited interest in other languages than their own (believed to be definitely that of Revolution and Progress...) Mitterrand and his colleagues succeded in something that was really revolutionary in that country: regionalization! For the first time since many centuries, a (little) part of decisions could be made elsewhere than in Paris! Peripheral countries suddenly started existing after a long, very long slumber. And the cultural politics of the new regions, gradually, included more and more support to Occitan culture. Helping both education and edition. During this while, although the faith of many was vanishing, writers continued to release their books. The language had been lost by native speakers but it became more and more practised by people who passionately learnt it. And, little by little, things evolved once again in the good way... And after 20 yr of breakdown (1980-2000), Occitan culture is thus undergoing again a little revival, as shown on the following page... Meanwhile, this period of loss of hope was for Occitan literary creation a very rich one, with, I guess, some of the most remarkable works ever written in this language. By authors of the preceding period (Rouquette, Manciet, Lafont, Gardy, Pécout, etc...) but also new authors exploring new areas with a scope of full modernity (Felip Angelau, JP Tardif, JM Pieyre, M Miniussi, JP Creissac, R Martí, JC Forêt, JC Javaloyès....) we hope that little by little we'll be able to present here all of them! |
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