Creation and Degradation ofthe Celtic Image of Galicia

Alberto Álvarez Lugrís

University of Vigo

Grupo Nós (Us): Galician nationalist intellectuals

Celtism → Galician identity

Franco Dictatorship (1939-1975)

Celtism turns into a legend

All cultures and nations choose, from their repertoire of symbols, legends and myths, those items which can be used to manipulate and build an image of themselves

Narratives are invented in order to form a founding myth or etiological myth

Appropriation of narrations

Details may be added, deleted, promoted or demoted

Paratranslation

Activities that contribute to the importation and adaptation ofcultural artifacts

The set of elements that accompany, surround, wrap, prolong, introduce and present a translation to a given culture

Paratexts (Genette)

Paralinguistic and non-verbal elements, discourses, policies

Merchandising, audiovisual productions, etc.

The process of creating and promoting one's identity implies the construction and/or manipulation of the identity or image of the Other or of a plurality of Others

many times an stereotyped and simplified image of the Other that is therefore easier to reject or to feel attached to

Due to its nature as an intercultural space but also to its paratranslatingdimension, translation is the ideal tool for the creation and presentation of identity-related images

Breogán

We are what we choose to be and we have chosen to be Celts

1930’s Leabhar Gabhala Erénnor Book of the Conquests of Ireland

Chapters XI-XIII

Scythia → Northwest of Iberia → Ireland

Galicians are not only Celts, we are the ancestors of the Irish Celts!

Pararatranslations around Leabhar Gabhala Erénn

Title: The History of King Breogán according to Leabhar Gabhala

Preface added

Dozens of papers published

Obliterarion of Histories of Galicia that did not fit with the newfigure of Breogán

After the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the new regime accepted andpromoted the Celtic myth in order to devise a Spanish national identitydifferent from the rest of European nations and endowed with antiquity and tradition

Process of vulgarization: society has been repeating and reproducing Celtic —or Celtic-like— paraphernalia and gear assuming it is perfectly and naturally Galician.

We may not be a Celtic nation, but we definitely are celtophile, or rather celtomaniac.

1980’s and 1990’s: strip the Celtic myth of its political significance

The symbol is used without its symbolic meaning, without its identitarian significance.

This practice of decontextualized repetition of the Celtic iconography ends up diluting its meaning

Without its symbolic value, Celtism enters a process of degradation

Appropriation and manipulation are far more efficient ways of fighting ideas than simple censorship or forbiddance.

[… ] this metropolis that welcomes us today is seen in my homeland as a modern version of that Ireland that Breoghan's son sighted from theGalician shores, even though we have to change sea routes for terrestrial or air routes. Galicians sail towards Ireland for founding theircountry and arrive to Madrid eagerly searching to be part of a projectcalled Spain (Núñez Feijoo 2009).

[…] esta metrópoli que hoy nos acoge, se ve en mi tierra como una versión moderna de aquellaIrlanda que el hijo de Breogán divisaba desde las costas de Galicia, por más que haya que cambiar las rutas marítimas por otras terrestres o aéreas. El gallego navega hacia Irlanda para fundar un país, y llega a Madrid con afán de ser partícipe de una tarea llamada España (Núñez Feijóo, 2009).

Thank you for your attention!

alugris@uvigo.es