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A Giant Voice From Lilliput
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10618 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
4,407 Words |
| Author
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Marie-Lise Gazarian-Gautier
Marie-Lise Gazarian-Gautier is professor of Spanish and Latin
American literature at St. John's University in Jamaica, New
York. She is the author of Interviews With Spanish Writers
(Dalkey Archieve Presss, 1991), Interviews With Latin
American
Writers (Kalkey Archive press, 1989), and Gabriela Mistral,
the Teacher From the Valley of Elqui (Franciscan Herald
press,
1974, originally published in 1973 by Editorial Crespillo in
Buenos Aires as Gabriela Mistral, la maestra de Elqui). She
is coauthor with Zenaida Gutierrez-Vega of the book Carmen
Conde de viva voz (Senda Nueva de Ediciones, 1992). |
Born José Irazu, the same name as that of the volcano that dominates Costa Rica, Bernardo Atxaga stands with his pseudonym as a giant voice from the Basque country, the "Lilliputian" region as he calls it, to which he has brought fame through his writings.
Like the volcano that by sheer coincidence bears his family name, Atxaga has awakened the Euskera or Basque language, kept dormant through centuries of silence. Inspired by the tales told by his forefathers, he took upon himself the personal challenge of writing to fill that void, to tell the world that his native language was still very much alive.
Atxaga began writing in the Basque language to prove to himself, as well as to the rest of the world, that it was possible to find interlocutors even when using an idiom considered marginal or simply a dialect. Rather than writing in Spanish, he chose to revive the language writers no longer dared or cared to use. However, as he insisted on telling me during the course of our interview, conducted in April 1993, he does not stand alone in that struggle and does not want to take all the credit.
A gambler, like many people from his hometown, he was not afraid to take a chance, to isolate and even alienate himself from the rest of Spain. Atxaga wagered with himself that he would succeed in bringing attention to Euskera. His work has indeed crossed boundaries, and the literary world has taken notice.
Obabakoak, first published in Euskera in 1988, has had an overwhelming reception. Translated into fifteen languages, it was awarded the 1989 Critic and Euskadi prizes in the Basque country, Spain's 1989 National Literature Prize, and the 1992 Paris Millepages Prize. It also was a finalist in the 1990 European Literary Award Competition held in Glasgow, Scotland.
I cannot help but trace a parallel with Frédéric Mistral, the French Provençal poet who chose not to write in French but in langue d'oc, dedicating his life to the rich tradition of his people. He, too, proved that it was possible to write in a tongue spoken by few and still reach out for others to listen. In 1904, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.
Atxaga is a born storyteller. As I interviewed him, I felt drawn into his inner circle, where visible and invisible characters turn monologues into dialogues. It is a world reminiscent of that of Mexican author Juan Rulfo. Atxaga also
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