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Language
English (en)
Date of Award
4-19-2007
Author's Department
International and Area Studies
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.)
Restricted/Unrestricted
Restricted
Abstract
The first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Switzerland in 1956; it became an institution of European culture. Each country was allowed to send one singer to represent it and its culture in competition against the other European countries ("History 1956-2007"). For the Eurovision Song Contest of 1968, Spain looked to be a strong contender. The well-known Catalonian singer Joan Manuel Serrat was prepared to represent Spain, singing a song entitled "La La La." When the singer requested that the Spanish government would allow him to perform the song in Catalan, his native tongue, the administration swiftly refused. The Francoist leaders demanded that he sing the song in Castillian, the "legitimate" language of Spain and the only language supported by its government. When Serrat refused to perform in Castillian, the government replaced him at the last minute with the Castillian singer Massiel, who went on to sing "La La La" and win the contest ("Eurovision Song Contest"). The Spanish government found the idea that a Catalan song would represent Spain completely unacceptable. Why was it so scandalous for another language to be acknowledged as the cultural representative of Spain? Furthermore, why did Serrat refuse to perform the song in Castillian Spanish, the official language of the country he supposedly represented? It would seem that the language of the song to be sung carried more weight than that of mere stylistic choice. This paper aims to examine this central question: why would a minority language be dangerous to a dictatorship? The language controversy of the Eurovision Song contest was not an isolated incident, but rather the continuation of almost thirty years of minority language control in Spain. The Francoist government's almost obsessive attention to linguistic regulation implies that the existence of minority language presented a frightening proposition to the new administration. While some scholars have raised objections to the legitimacy of using identity politics, here in the form of sociolinguistic theory, to interpret political interactions, the correlation between theory and historical record in the Spanish language conflict suggests that the body of sociolinguistic theory provides a useful set of tools to understand how the dynamic between identity, language, and power drove the course of the language conflict in post-Civil War Spain.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/hwbx-pz80
Recommended Citation
Carlson, Krista, "Minority Languages: The Complex Relationship Between Language, Identity, and Power in the Case of Catalonia" (2007). Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses. 133.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/hwbx-pz80
Comments
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