La formación del imaginario histórico del nacionalismo catalán, de la Renaixença al Noucentisme (1830-1930)

Abstract

From the cultural standpoint, 19th and 20th century Catalan nationalism based all its effectiveness on a paradoxical commitment on the one hand, to a systematic recourse to tradition and, on the other, to a continuing aspiration to modernity. In this context, historiography proved itself as one of the most effective instruments of cultural nationalisation. This article explores in depth and from a historiographic perspective the different phases in the making of Catalan nationalism as the result of the two premises mentioned above. These phases are: Romanticism as a reactivator of national histories (1830-1870); positivist Scientism, which modernised the national discourse (1870-1900); and regenerationist Noucentisme of a pragmatic and institutionalising character (1900-1930). In each of these historical phases the predominance of either a synchronic or an anachronic action can be ascertained: the former where the cultural context of the time prevailed, or even adapted itself to the more avant-garde manifestations of this context; and the latter where the static referent of tradition prevailed. The result of all this process is the catalysing function of nationalism for the revitalisation of historiography, in a beneficial «return journey» very typical of cultural Catalanism, and one which could no doubt be extended to cultural spheres of an analogous kind.