L'11 de Setembre en la literatura: els símbols i els mites de la derrota

Abstract

This article examines the symbolism and mythology surrounding the notion of the 11th of September defeat, which is central to Catalanism, through a look at the literary texts written by Catalans during the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It studies these texts from the point of view of the references in them. At two stages, the ones preceding and following the Francoist dictatorship, the need expressed to rememberpast events revitalizes the historical figures and places that represent resistence or aggression. It confirms the capacity for recovery among the defeated, shows the reconversion of the symbols of defeat into something positive and constructive and, above all in recent decades, demonstrates a tendency to relate the myth with similar episodes in other countries, such as the coup in Chile or the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York both by coincidence perpetrated on the 11th of September or the more recent events of the wars in the Balkans.