The Legacy of the Troubadours
Active in the Middle Ages, between 1000 and 1350, the troubadours were Occitan poets who developed the art of courtly singing. At the same time composers, poets and musicians, they interpreted or had jugglers or minstrels interpret their poetic works. Written in a common langue d'oc - which they referred to as "Provençal", "Limosin" or "Romance language" - their works had two main themes: love and current events/debate. The first category was the most prestigious, as it was directly linked to "fin'amor" (courtly love). Current events were mainly dealt with in "sirventès", short and straightforward protest songs, which made it possible to talk about politics, to attack an enemy or to mourn a disappearance.
After a peak in the 13th century, the disappearance of this art began as early as the 14th century. Its decline began with the advent of censorship of certain themes, notably unfaithful love, due to religious hypocrisy. This decline was also encouraged by the Crusades, which then undermined the social stability favourable to creation: impoverishment of the courts, disappearance of patrons, etc.
Although there is little trace of the texts of the 10th and 11th centuries, works from the Golden Age of the troubadours (12th and 13th centuries) have been preserved. In total, 400 troubadours have come down to us, with them about 2,500 texts. Among the best known are Perdigon, Gavaudan le Vieux, Azalaïs de Porcairagues ("trobairitz", a term used to designate a female troubadour), Bernart Alanhan de Narbona, Bernart Sicart de Maruèjols, Guilhem de Balaun and the Biterrois Matfre Ermengau.
Occitan and Catalan language literature
In spite of the annexation to France, a literature of Occitan and Catalan language is going to persist until our days and to impregnate the culture with the red iron. During the 17th and 18th centuries, authors such as Jean Roig and Josep Jaume in Roussillon, Jean-Baptiste Favre and Antoine Fabre d'Olivet in Languedoc, maintained a poetic and theatrical tradition in the regional language.A new lease of life appeared at the end of the 19th century, in the footsteps of Mistral and the defence of Provençal. Since that time, many writers have chosen to use Occitan in their writings. One thinks in particular of Louis Roumieux in Nîmes (1829-1894) and Prosper Estieu in Carcassonne (1860-1939). More recently, the language has known among its ambassadors Henri Chabrol, André Chamson, René Méjean, René Nelli, Léon Cordes, Robert Laffont, Max Rouquette...
Catalan has also experienced a major renaissance. This was first encouraged by people such as Pere Talrich (1810-1889) and Justi Pepratx (1822-1901). Then it was the turn of authors such as Joan Amade (1878-1949), one of the founders of the Catalan Studies Society, and Josep Sebastia Pons (1886-1962). A third generation of patrons ensured the preservation of these words, with artists such as Enric Guiter (1909-1994), Joan Mas i Bauzà (1928-1992) and Jordi Pere Cerda (1920-2011) representing them.
French-language literatures
The authors of Languedoc-Roussillon have greatly contributed to the influence of French literature. The majority of them have chosen, since the 17th century, the French language. A transition that was full of successes. We note that in 1639, only four years after the creation of the French Academy, whose vocation is to promote the dissemination of the language, Jacques Esprit from Béziers entered the institution, followed by another native of Béziers, Paul Pellisson, historiographer of Louis XIV, in 1653.
The nineteenth century is more marked by the displacement and fame of Languedoc authors outside the borders of the region. At that time, the playwright Étienne Arago, born in Perpignan and brother of the scientist François Arago, enjoyed an excellent reputation in Paris, as did the Nîmes novelist Alphonse Daudet and the Montpellier philosophers Auguste Comte and Charles Renouvie. The end of the century and the first half of the twentieth are marked by the classic works of Paul Vigné d'Octon and Ferdinand Fabre; in their pages, they celebrate the Languedoc scrublands. In the Catalan country, artists such as Ludovic Massé, Arthur Conte and Hélène Legrais make their pens speak.
Throughout the 20th century, there was an attraction for new modes of expression, notably in the Sétois Paul Valéry who opened the way in this field. Jean Paulhan, born in Nîmes, influenced the literary life of the country as director of the Nouvelle Revue Française. Still in the Gard, André Chamson and Jean-Pierre Chabrol were the singers of the Cévennes, describing above all the greatness of its inhabitants, whether they were humble peasants, rebels or rebellious. And of course we must not forget Claude Simon (Nobel Prize in Literature), who died in 2005, one of the greatest French writers of the twentieth century and the emblematic figure of the new novel.
Poetry has also had its worthy representatives. We must stop on the king of the word and the verb Georges Brassens, poet, composer, singer and musician born in Sète in 1921 and died in 1981. His avant-garde poetic texts, sometimes also protesting, songs with a hidden political meaning, earned him some censorship in his post-war period. Forty years after having "broken his pipe", while the "camarde" no longer pursues him with an imbecile zeal "to have sown flowers in the holes of his nose", the bouffarde and the guitar of this great author still shine in Sète, which lives throughout the year in his universe: Georges Brassens in the Hérault and in Sète is not only an artist, he is a national anthem floating in the atmosphere. Let us also mention Francis Ponge, poet of existentialism and precursor of the new novel, and Joe Bousquet, animator with the magazine Chantiers of a "Mediterranean surrealism".
We will not mention or praise the authors of this beginning of the century, because if they are numerous and full of talent, it is still difficult to measure the importance of their work in the literary field.
