Overview

Enric Valor (1911–2000) is one of the most important Valencian authors of the 20th century. This third selection of his highly popular rondalles (folktales) will complete the publication of his folktales in English translation. At a time when Catalan was under threat from the cultural bulldozer of the Franco regime, which condemned the use of anything but Castilian Spanish in public communication, Valor went to great lengths to disseminate knowledge of the language, through writing grammar and linguistic studies (as well as teaching it to fellow inmates when he was imprisoned by the regime for his cultural activities). These tales, collected over a number of years in small villages in the province of Alacant, were a significant part of his ongoing efforts to safeguard the Catalan language and the culture and history of the region. The Rondalles Valencianes have been compared to Italo Calvino’s Italian Folk Tales and Henri Pourrat’s Treasury of French Folk Tales. Like them, Valor aimed in rewriting the oral material to establish a common national body of folk narratives and to make the stories more appealing to Valencian readers, young and old alike. The critical introduction provides a classification of the tales in terms of themes and motifs and also explores relevant historical and social aspects that characterize Valor’s folktale corpus.

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9781032864716

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Reviews

""The spirit of any culture is made of words. And fantasies. His profound love of words enabled Enric Valor to fashion a singular, original and seductive voice within the complex symphony of human languages. His folktales constitute a unique literary project: an essential reference in the canon of contemporary Valencian letters."" Joan Borja, Senior Lecturer, Universitat d’Alacant and Director of the Catedra Enric Valor ""There is no better medium than folklore to connect communities separated by geography and language; and this lively translation of Valor’s Valencian folktales achieves just that. The romance and human substance common to these stories is strikingly well conveyed by this fresh, energetic English version which opens up the marginalised experience of the Catalan original to a global audience."" Dominic Keown, Emeritus Professor of Catalan Studies, Life Fellow, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge ""Paul Scott Derrick and Maria-Lluïsa Gea-Valor resume their diligent work on Valencian Folktales, rendering in sprightly English these inventive literary recastings of fantastical plots and themes, encountered often in other traditions. For readers of Catalan literature and students of the folktale – and its survivals – alike, the result is captivating."" Paschalis Nikolaou, Associate Professor of Literary Translation, Ionian University, Greece

Author Information

Paul Scott Derrick earned a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in English Philology from the Universitat de Valencia, where he was a senior lecturer in American Literature until his retirement in 2017. He has published three collections of critical essays and co-edited four essay volumes. His most significant work as a translator includes four volumes, containing 13 individual books, of the poetry of Ana Blandiana into English (2014, 2017, 2021, 2025). Maria-Lluïsa Gea-Valor is a senior lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the Universitat de Valencia, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics in 1998. Her research has been published in international volumes and indexed journals. She has co-edited several books on applied linguistics, corpus linguistics and translation, and has also co‑authored an English phonology textbook.

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