New Worlds of Fiction: Contemporary Basque Women Writers

Abstract

This special issue focuses on the work of contemporary Basque women writers with four articles dedicated to the study of selected narrative fiction by Katixa Agirre, Karmele Jaio, Edurne Portela, and Eider Rodriguez. A change in the traditionally male canon of Basque literature, represented by figures such as Bernardo Atxaga and Ramon Saizarbitoria, is underway, and female writers are offering new explorations of topics linked to their sociopolitical and affective contexts.

Keywords:

• Contemporary Basque women writers
• Katixa Agirre
• Karmele Jaio
• Edurne Portela
• Eider Rodriguez

This special issue of Symposium dedicated to contemporary Basque female writers could not be timelier. As several critics have pointed out (Kortazar 175; Olaziregi 2022), contemporary Basque female authors are currently receiving a great deal of attention as they have won some of the most prestigious literary prizes, enjoy the recognition of the readers, and are subjects of unprecedented scholarly interest. This situation of extraordinary literary success would not be so remarkable if the presence of women novelists in the history of literature for adults in the Basque country had not been defined by its scarcity until almost the last decades of the twentieth century. In this context, it is necessary to inquire as to what these creators are putting forward in their works that has garnered such a consensus about their quality.

In a recent newspaper article on this topic, “Las narradoras vascas en la cima de la ficción” [Basque Women Narrators at the Height of Fiction], cultural critic and poet of El Cultural Jaime Cedillo lists writers born in the Basque Country that have achieved unprecedented levels of success not only in Basque letters but also in the history of Spanish literature. The list includes Karmele Jaio, Uxue Alberdi, Edurne Portela, Katixa Agirre, Txani Rodríguez, Eider Rodríguez, and Aixa de la Cruz. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, the reader will find a critical appraisal of some of these writers’ works included in this volume. Basque critic Jon Kortazar attributes the success that this group of Basque female writers has achieved to two principal reasons: first, to the fact that several have been awarded the Euskadi Award in Literature (Premio Euskadi de Literatura), the highest recognition given by the Basque Ministry of Culture to literary creation, and second, that the translations of these works have had a wide reception outside of the Basque literary context, particularly in the Spanish literary industry system with some of these authors achieving remarkable popularity considering that they all write in Basque (175). In fact, in 2018 Eider Rodríguez won the award for Bihotz handiegia [Too Big a Heart]; in 2019 the award went to Irati Elorrieta for Neguko argiak (2018) [Winter Lights], and in 2020 Karmele Jaio won the award for her novel Aitaren etxea [The Father’s House].¹ Kortazar states that rather than speaking about “a group” or “a school,” he feels it is necessary to refer to an effective and notable presence within the field (176).² Although Cedillo also maintains that it is not possible to speak of a “generation” of writers when describing this group, the contributors of this monographic volume point to a series of common elements that apply to this cohort of writers. It is true that some of the criteria to establish what will be considered a “generation” do not necessarily apply, as there is a fourteen-year gap between the birth of the oldest, Karmele Jaio (Gasteiz, 1970) and that of the youngest, Uxue Alberdi (Elgoibar, 1984) (Cedillo), but it is also true that despite the range in age, there is a self-awareness common to all these writers of their social position as women that cannot be overlooked. This aspect expands to the manner in which the themes of their narratives are engaged in their fiction, including the violence experienced in the Basque Country. It also explains the incorporation of some of the recurrent self-reflective narrative strategies they utilize to express the difficulties and dilemmas of asserting their voices as women in the gender dynamics that have governed both the Basque sociopolitical and literary landscapes. Thus, if age cannot group these authors completely under a generational label, their shared and unashamedly feminist angle does. In that regard, one of the writers included in this volume, stated in a recent interview that the group shares “a feminist outlook that is reflected in the themes that we treat in our novels”³ (Portela quoted in Cedillo).

This defining perspective becomes more significant in understanding this group’s vision in narrating the years of terrorist violence endured in the Basque Country. The range in age of this cohort of writers implies that some of them have experienced those years of terrorist violence firsthand during their youth, while others have only few memories or recollections. As such we will find that rather than presenting a terrorist act or a perpetrator of violence as the central element of their narratives, their fictions turn to explore the intimate consequences of the legacy of violence, exploring vulnerability, fear, and terror in its innermost workings. Thus, these fictions engage with the complex entanglements between the world of affect and the political and social context in which those affects are molded, narrating the intertwinements between the private and the public, the political and the domestic, and how decades of conflict have taken a heavy toll on social as well as on family interactions. In doing so these works of fiction forefront specific ways in which violence as a continuum extends from the street to the household, from the public to the private and into the affective lives of their protagonists. Moreover, while the end of ETA activity was announced in the Basque Country in 2011, other forms of violence remain present. As such, these narratives confront common preoccupations toward the aggression, rape, or homicides that women continue to experience for the simple reason of being women. In that regard, Jasone, one of the female characters in Karmele Jaio’s novel Aitaren Etxea [The Father’s House], considers that violence against women “is a war” (19). Violent acts against women currently occupy a prominent place in public opinion, media, and political discourses in Spain and by engaging with these specific forms of violence in their narratives, these works of fiction establish a strong connection between the fictional world and current social and political issues. Thus, while acts of terrorist violence per se do not drive these narratives, shinning a light on forms of domestic violence and on what critic Annabel Martin defines in her article included in this volume as the “micropolitics of violence,” compels the reader of these stories to consider what it means to describe the Basque Country as a “post-violence” context from a gendered perspective.

In an earlier work, the editors of this special issue analyzed some of these topics in their book Affective Landscapes: Representations of Terrorism and Violence by Basque Female Authors, in which they analyzed the specific ways in which Basque female artists represented terrorist violence in their creations also from this gendered perspective. In that study, earlier works of literature were studied in addition to some of the writers included in this monograph, thereby tracing a line of evolution to the present day and analyzing how shared preoccupations among Basque female artists have emerged. The theoretical scholarship that has developed around the affective turn theory was the interpretative lens to consider the specific ways in which the works of film and literature by Basque artists explored the legacy of violence. In Affective Landscapes, the theoretical works of Martha C. Nussbaum, Sarah Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, and Victoria Camps, among others, were used to highlight how affect circulates in particular contexts as essential components of social and political life.

Following the critical appraisal of the unique contributions of Basque fiction authored by women, this monograph furthers that discussion in important ways. The selection includes four articles on Basque women writers born after 1970, whose works have achieved wide recognition in the Basque Country and beyond. To the previously mentioned literary prizes awarded to Jaio and Rodriguez, others should be added, such as the 2018 Madrid Bookshop Guild Prize awarded to Edurne Portela for Mejor la ausencia [Absence Is Better]. Rather than focusing exclusively on writers who decide to write in Basque, the spirit of this issue aspires to provide a limited representation of the most talented contemporary women writers who have approached fiction and have been able to create a personal style. They are transforming the canon of Basque narrative and providing innovative ways of portraying diverse approaches to present and past experiences in the Basque Country. There is no doubt that new lines of research are open to further develop the study of these and other contemporary Basque female writers. This is one of the first efforts to consider their work in a collective manner; many others will follow because the strength of these new narratives provides a fertile territory for exploration.

Following are summaries of the main contributions found in the four articles. The first essay, authored by Larraitz Ariznabarreta, is titled “On Eider Rodriguez’s Fiction: Gender, Anger, and (Basque) Politics.” The work of Basque short story writer Eider Rodriguez (Errenteria, 1977) has earned remarkable acclaim from contemporary critics and readers alike. In the realm of Basque literature—which often rolls into the common sea of politics and/or sentimentality—Rodriguez’s stories slickly swim their way between both waters; and fly inland as the Basque witches’ old saying goes, sasi guztien gainetik, hodei guztien azpitik [above all bushes, beneath all clouds]. Awarded with the Basque National Literature Prize in 2018, Rodriguez is the author of four short story collections: Eta handik gutxira gaur [And Shortly After That, There Was Now] (Susa, 2004), Haragia [Flesh] (Susa, 2007), Katu jendea [Cat People] (Elkar, 2010), and Bihotz handiegia [Too Big a Heart] (Susa, 2017). Without resorting to the apparel of great events, Rodriguez’s bare sketches explore the everyday, small world of unnamed cities, in small circles from family to local ambiance. Plainly focused on such a microcosm, the author portrays a nuanced milieu of pervasive violence within the characters’ interactions with families, neighbors, friends, lovers, and—none the least—themselves. Bereft of any political correctness, Rodriguez represents a rich universe of frustrated, bored, fearful, and angry characters. The article examines the author’s fictional world of ubiquitous anger and resentment and explores the origin and scope of such violence by interpreting it as metaphor for the personal and social anxieties triggered by politics in the—allegedly peaceful—contemporary Basque Country.

The second article, written by Jon Kortazar y Paloma Rodriguez-Miñambres, is titled “Katixa Agirre y Los turistas desganados: las dos caras del País Vasco” and analyzes the novel Atertu arte itxaron [The Listless Tourists] by Katixa Agirre. Ulia and Gustavo embark on a journey to get to know the Basque Country better with disparate objectives. The trip reveals their differences, culminating in the revelation of their secrets: the hidden identity of Ulia’s father and Gustavo’s adultery. The novel has a complex structure and the topics explored include the use of violence, the power of the media, father-daughter, mother-daughter relationships, criticism of consumerism, and the construction of identity.

The third contribution in this special issue, written by Annabel Martín under the title “Understanding Metabolized Violence: Intimate and Socio-Affective Ties of Terror in Basque Writer Edurne Portela’s El eco de los disparos (2016) and Mejor la ausencia (2017)” studies the writing of Basque author Edurne Portela (1974) and its sensitivity toward the micropolitics of violence. Rejecting Basque society’s immunity to the tragedy of ETA violence, ignoring the call to “turn the page” after ETA’s permanent disarmament (2012) and disappearance (2018), Portela’s fiction betrays Basque and Spanish society’s ignorance and inattentiveness toward the ways trauma infiltrates the fabric of societal, familial, and interpersonal relationships. This essay focuses on how Portela looks inward, on how her creative universe begs readers to understand that violence is more than blood and fire, elements that can be cleansed or washed away. The author analyzes the ways in which the crisis she materializes in her writing is above all a metabolized process that operates under the skin, within and in-between individuals, a process that mutilates the affective life of her characters in unsurprisingly gendered ways. Martín explains that they are fictionalized individuals who are “disabled” and who can do little more than survive.

The last article in this volume, written by Marijo Olaziregi, offers some important considerations on the peculiarities presented by current Basque narrative that recalls ETA terrorism and then focuses on the novels Amaren eskuak (2006) [My Mother’s Hands] and Aitaren etxea (2019) [The Father’s House] by the Basque writer Karmele Jaio. Olaziregi reflects on the mechanisms that the author deploys, especially on the preeminence of fantastic poetry, of that spectral presence that threatens the daily life of the protagonists. The analysis emphasizes gender politics, emotions, or renewed masculinities and femininities, as well as the nationalist symbolism that the aforementioned novels deconstruct.

The articles offer a representative sample of the work that female authors are carrying out in the panorama of the Basque literary canon. Their voices provide new approaches around topics linked to the public sphere previously explored in Basque literature such as political violence and social turmoil and add significant insights into the realm of the affective world by focusing on the private worlds of the family and intimate relationships. This area of study will undoubtedly benefit from new research efforts to expand knowledge and to offer a more inclusive view on contemporary Basque fiction.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cristina Ortiz-Ceberio

Cristina Ortiz-Ceberio (PhD, University of Cincinnati) is Professor of Humanities and Global Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (USA) and Chair of Humanistic Studies. She received the Patricia W. Baer Professorship in Education (2015-2019). Cristina has numerous articles published on cinema and contemporary literature in academic journals in Spain and the United States. Among her most recent publications is Ellas cuentan: Representaciones artísticas de la violencia en el País Vasco desde la perspectiva de género (Madrid: Dykinson, 2020)—co-authored with María Pilar Rodríguez—which has been translated into English as Affective landscapes: Representation of Terrorism and Violence by Basque Female Authors (New York, Berlin: Peter Lang, 2021). Her current lines of research focus on gender and nationalism in contemporary literature.

María Pilar Rodríguez

María Pilar Rodríguez is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Deusto (Spain) and Director of the PhD program in Leisure, Culture and Communication for Human Development. She holds a PhD from Harvard University. Until 2002 she taught at Columbia University (New York, USA). She has published extensively on communication, film, culture, gender studies, and Basque and Hispanic studies (over one hundred publications). She is the Principal Investigator of the Communication research team, recognized by the Basque Government. She is regularly invited to teach in North American universities such as Dartmouth College, University of Chicago, and Columbia University. In 2015 she obtained the Koldo Mitxelena Chair by the Basque Government. She is an evaluator of research projects at the European level (NORDFORSK). https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5905-9152.

Notes

1 The translations of the works by the authors that are included in this special issue include the following: Karmele Jaio’s Amaren eskuak has been translated into Spanish: Las manos de mi madre (Ttarttalo, 2010), English: My Mother’s Hands (Parthian, 2018), and German: Mütters Hände (Pahl-Rugenstein, 2009), among other languages. Also by Jaio, Aitaren etxea has been translated into Spanish (La casa del padre, Destino, 2020). Katixa Agirre’s Atertu arte itxaron has been published in Spanish under the title Los turistas desganados (Pre-textos, 2017). Eider Rodríguez’s Katu jendea has been translated as Un montón de gatos (Caballo de Troya, 2012) and has also been translated into French and German. Her Bihotz handegia has been translated into Spanish as Un corazón demasiado grande (Random House, 2019). In most cases the authors have translated the works into Spanish themselves.

2 “No hablamos de grupo, ni de escuela, pero sí de una presencia efectiva y notable dentro del campo.”

3 “Compartimos una mirada feminista que se ve reflejada en los temas que abordamos.”