CARTS IN HIGHBROW LITERATURE
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Aut prodesse uolunt aut delectare poetae Horacio Epistula ad Pisones (vv 333-334) |
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When Horace brought forward the eternal discussion about the usefulness of literature in these verses, he probably couldn’t imagine, no matter how high his self-esteem, that his authority would be requested to justify the leisurely, hedonistic function of literature or, on the contrary, to reject utilitarism and claim the independent function of literature
These verses come in handy to justify the classification, more or less reasoned, of the selection of poems taking carts as a subject matter that follows here.
They all share some characteristics: they were written by known authors, they were written the Rexurdimento was over, and they stand out as part of a literary tradition with artistic values and a definite will to exist
We could have included many more, but this is our choice. They are all poems except for one –a prose passage by Otero Pedrayo on which we have based some of the activities-, and they can all be used as valuable teaching materials that could be exploited from different points of view (formal, thematic, léxical, grammatical, ...).
Obviously, they all make reference to Galician carts or to elements connected to them: either the draught animals that pulled them, or the other atavistic labour in agricultural work, not only in Galicia but all over the world: ploughing, a task carried out with the help of the same draught animals, joined by the same yoke with which they pull the cart or by a different one.
So, now that we know why, we are going to explain how.
When we classify this kind of literary material, it is inevitable to find obvious overlapping areas which would make it possible to take a poem from a group and include it in a different one. Literary works that are not subject to multiple interpretations, those which deal with a single subject or show one-dimensional views, do not exist or do not stir our interest. What yesterday was visible is invisible now, and what we are discovering now was not even a dream in the past. For this reason, our groups are based on one of the denotations and many connotations have been discarded.
In contemporary Galician literature, whatever its orientation may be (either realism or costumbrism), the authors who want to distinguish themselves as supporters of a Galician national identity choose poor peasants and rural workers as a symbol of that identity; they are the guardians of the language, the ones that writers love and with whom they want to indentify themselves and their interests.[2].
This way, oxen carts, so obviously characteristic of Galicia in comparison to other territories[3] were chosen as an identifying symbol of our nation and of Galician people. And not only carts, but also everything related to them
Every poet deals with the meaning of this element in his / her own personal way, but the most successful points of view are, in the first place, the vision of those who decide to go into the essence of carts as a unifying element, and, in the second place, the vision of those who see it as a weapon to fight against aggression.
We have already seen that the rural and peasant look of our authors is not an evassive look in search for paradises that take us away from tedious, displeasing reality. That is why, farm work, the peasants’ labour became a first-rate poetic object. Different authors later incorporated their particular doses of idealization
With the arrival of the avant-garde and their supposedly radical break with tradition, carts free themselves from their folk or costumbrist connotations and they reappear bare and open to multiple interpretations, as a source of groundbreaking metaphors.
From the point of view of peasant people, carts, a material possession that makes their work easier and that demands additional belongings (lands, cattle...), are used to pull and carry the life that agriculture produces. They are the ones which wealth depends on and the vehicles which transport it; the bigger number of carts, the heavier their load, and the louder they sing, the more product and money they will get. Moreover, they are also the vehicles that transport the rents which they have pay to the land owners for the use of his lands. Our poets do not forget the unfair agricultural system or the outrages and pain suffered by the peasants.
This general view becomes complete with the vision our writers have of the realities surrounding the use of carts: the domestic animals which are raised and trained for the work or which are merely a part of the rural world, and some farming implements and tools needed to do the farmwork and the tasks that correspond to someone who lives among animals so that, in a sort of communion, they all (farmer, land and animals) become one.
[1] Poets strive to either profit or delight, or express what is pleasing and at the same time suitable in life.
[2] MÉNDEZ FERRÍN, X. L. : De Pondal a Novoneyra, Ed. Xerais, Vigo, 1984. pp 21-24
[3] The fact that carts have survived in Portugal too is just a supporting argument for the alentar as correntes reintegradoras.