Catalan Identities: Language, Power and Political Pactism from a Historical Perspective

P. Casanovas, M. Corretger, V. Salvador, eds., The Rise of Catalan Identity. Social Commitment and Political Engagement in the Twentieth Century, pp. 19-48. Springer, Cham, 2019

Posted: 9 Mar 2020

See all articles by Pompeu Casanovas

Pompeu Casanovas

La Trobe Law School; Autonomous University of Barcelona - IDT

Date Written: September 30, 2018

Abstract

‘Pactism’ is the legal doctrine that grounds the ancient Catalan public law on political deals. In this chapter, we distinguish between three kinds of pactism — early, late and political pactism — to frame the construction of institutional identities in the Catalan culture from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. How is the lack of political power that has characterised contemporary Catalonia related to the engagement with language which characterises much of Catalan literature from the 20th century? This chapter links the answer to this question to the morphology of political pactism, the building of Spanish modern nation-state, and the ‘reverse nationalism’ adopted by many writers and political thinkers at the decline of Novecentism.

Keywords: identity, commitment, legal pactism, political pactism, Catalan language, Catalan jurists, nationalism, state, nationalism

JEL Classification: Z11, Z13, K10

Suggested Citation

Casanovas, Pompeu, Catalan Identities: Language, Power and Political Pactism from a Historical Perspective (September 30, 2018). P. Casanovas, M. Corretger, V. Salvador, eds., The Rise of Catalan Identity. Social Commitment and Political Engagement in the Twentieth Century, pp. 19-48. Springer, Cham, 2019, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3534502

Pompeu Casanovas (Contact Author)

La Trobe Law School ( email )

La Trobe University
Bundoora, VIC 3083 3142
Australia

Autonomous University of Barcelona - IDT ( email )

Institute of Law and Technology
Faculty of Law, Cerdanyola del Valles
Barcelona, Barcelona 08193
Spain
34-93-581 2235 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://idt.uab.cat

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