Canadian into Catalan: The Translation of Anglo-Canadian Authors in Catalonia

Abstract

Although it may seem disconcerting to begin this chapter about the translation of Anglo-Canadian writers into Catalan with a comparison of Quebec and Catalonia in a book which only deals with CanLit in English, we find that the parallelism is apt because of the minority language and distinct nation status of these two constituencies, and because Quebec and English Canada are coexistent national entities, just like Catalonia and Spain. The parallelism between Catalonia and Quebec has recently been strengthened with the recent upsurge of nationalism and the demand for a referendum to decide whether to become separate from the Spanish state. The story is not new, since as a “historical” autonomous community with a language of its own, Catalan, and a distinct history88 and cultural tradition, often at odds with the Spanish ones, Catalonia presents some interesting parallelisms with Quebec, a province with its own language and cultural singularity, which sometimes are also in conflict with those of English Canada.