Euskal literaturaren periodizazioa: gune itsuak eta eskasak (Euskal Literaturaren Historiografiari buruzko II. Jardunaldia)

Abstract

Since the decade of the 1960's up until the present, a single historiographical model about Basque literature has been constructed: to put it briefly, the “national model” which spread through Europe from the mid-nineteenth century onwards has been transferred to the Basque cultural sphere. In our case, it starts with Koldo Mitxelena's 1960 Historia de la literatura vasca. Since then, for 40 years, most specialists have worked to complete that model, introducing new methodologies from outside, taking into account the difficult development of Basque literature, paying attention to new audiences and demands. Even so, in the last decade the first critical discussions of that model have arisen around the following urgent questions: – What efforts and steps need to be taken to establish a stable model of periodisation? – Should an agreed “national” model be created and improved, by proposing a common interim model and gradually reducing the gap between the northern and southern parts of the Basque Country? – Should one begin from a level above that of the national model?