Something in Between: Galician Literary Studies Beyond the Linguistic Criterion

Resumo

The history of literary phenomena is intertwined with the history of multilingualism. And yet, the study of literature is usually done within the paradigm of the national literature as developed in the 19th century which, from the premise of the existence of a single national language, rarely deals with the production in other languages. This article examines the shortcomings of the imposition of the linguistic criterion applied to the Galician context paying attention to an unexplored area of intersection between national literatures, namely the literary translation of Luis Pimentel’s poetry. It concludes by proposing a new understanding of Galician literary studies beyond the linguistic criterion that offers a more nuanced account of the literary field.