LITERATURA ENTRE LENGUAS: EL CONFLICTO LINGÜÍSTICO EN EL AMANTE BILINGÜE DE JUAN MARSÉ

Abstract

“I think a writer’s homeland isn’t a specific language, but rather language in general.” Juan Marse’s sentence will surprise many victims of simplistic ideas, be-cause it is very far from certain “pious lies” about what literature is, what it is made of and how it relates to the ideas of nation and language. In this article, we focus on an open wound in the relationship between language, literature and nation: the linguis-tic situation in Catalonia. However, conclusions may be useful for further studies in the Hispanic, Iberian and Literary Studies spheres. The focus of our analysis will be Juan Marse’s novel El amante bilingue. We will describe some simplified ideas about the relationship between language, literature and nation and see how these ideas are denied by Marse’s novel.