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Brief chronicle of Galician medieval prose
For a long time, it has been a real constant in the works around Galician medieval literature, to grant a lesser importance - or even a very lesser one - to the whole of our production in prose during such a period. Of course, to a very good extent, the "culpable", so to speak, of said procedure is none other than the brilliance, the splendor achieved by our lyrics during that same stage that we are trying to address. Indeed, from the point of view of the present day, there is no doubt that the uniqueness, the efficiency and the sparkle of the troubadour verses, their communicative capacity constitute a treasure that is not difficult to appreciate. On the other hand, and now from a socio-cultural historical perspective - and even anthropological and/or political -, the troubadour eido, and especially the cantares de amigo, came to be considered as a true sample of the nostalgia: that is, a consistent argument when it comes to documenting certain psychological characteristics of the Galician people, within the limits of the conception of Galicia itself as "a sentimental country". The same presence in our territory of chapels, hermitages, sanctuaries..., toponyms referring to valleys, mountains, rivers, seas... which persist today would therefore constitute reliable evidence of that "persistent" Middle Ages in the depths of the spirit Galician This is, evidently, a projection of a romantic era that comes into contradiction, when we analyze the texts, with the evidence that the troubadour lyric, or an essential part of it, responds to some rules, to a rhetoric that, incorporating popular/popularizing elements in certain genres or sub-genres, refers to a peaceful world, to cultured foundations that also dialogue with other samples from different places in Western Europe.
Well; if we have to move with respect for contextualization, for historical development, the truth is that Galician medieval prose is worthy of attention. Of course, deserving of value when linguistic-archaeological criteria or even others of a historical-political nature are used and applied, even though, on the literary level, it constitutes a smaller space in relation to the lyrical one. In short, the presence of the Matter of Troy, the Matter of Brittany... give a good measure of the interrelationships between Galicia and the whole of Europe and that it becomes necessary, in short, to arrange and analyze the conjuncture in which said process took place, a cultural continuum in tune with another of a lyrical nature even though, to put it this way, the concrete results do not become - at least, in appearance - so showy like those from the space of the songs.
Xosé Ramón Pena
He was born in Betanzos, 1956, although he has been living in Vigo for many years. Graduated in Hispanic Philology and Galician-Portuguese Philology from the University of Santiago de Compostela and also a Doctorate in Romance Philology from the aforementioned institution.
He was, until his retirement, professor of Galician Language and Literature at the IES "Sta. Irene", Vigo. He was also a professor at the University of Vigo and a visiting professor at the University of California (Sta. Barbara). Currently - and for years - he continues to teach courses at UNED.
His work occupies the spaces of the essay, the history of literature, prose fiction and journalism. In the first of them, he is the author of titles such as Manuel Antonio and the vanguard (1996), History of medieval Galician-Portuguese literature (2002), the four volumes (2013-2019) of History of Galician literature or Martín Codax and the players of the sea of Vigo (2017). He also carried out the editions of In the starry night (1988), From the subdued earth (1994), the spout (2001), in exile (2010) and others poetic work by F. Delgado Gurriarán (2022). In collaboration with Manuel Forcadela, he is the author of Studies on the Eoas (2005) and, with X.Mª Dobarro, from the edition of complete poetry by R. Cabanillas (2009).
As a narrator, his work includes, among other titles: For after goodbye (1987), the age of aquarius (1997), princess fado (2004), The Battle of Heaven Sad (2008), As in Algeria (2012), all the lives (2020) e In discount time (2022).
In the field of journalism, he is a regular contributor to the pages of Faro de Vigo, a newspaper where he directed (2002-2016) the supplement "Faro da Cultura" in which he continues to work as a literary advisor.
He has the Xerais award (1997), the Losada Diéguez award (1998 and 2017), the Crítica Galicia award (2015) and the Ramón Cabanillas award (2017).
