 |
 |
Catalan is the language spoken (along with Castilian) in Catalonia (capital: Barcelona), Valencia and the Balearic Islands. It is also spoken in Andorra, parts of Southern France and in the city of Alghero in Sardinia. A knowledge of Catalan gives access to a very distinguished literary, artistic and musical tradition, one which flourished in the Middle Ages when Barcelona was the centre of a mercantile empire which extended to the eastern Mediterranean, languished in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, witnessed a great revival in the 19th and early 20th centuries, was suppressed under the Franco regime (1939-1975), and is now once again in full flower, to the extent that Barcelona can legitimately claim to be the cultural experience of Spain. Lectures will consist of the outlines of Catalan history and seminars on contemporary Catalan culture, and on selected short texts in Catalan.
Lecturers: Mr Stephen Boyd and Ms. Mònica Jaume Martorell.