Romance Studies, Vol. 24 (3), November 2006 CATALAN LITERATURE(S) IN POSTCOLONIAL CONTEXT Stewart King Monash University, Australia The invitation to Catalan culture to be the guest of honour at the 2007 Frankfurt Book Fair has revived a polemic about what Catalan literature is and who can be considered a Catalan author. In their responses to the announcement, many Catalan cultural commentators drew on the language and discourse of postcolonialism to explain the historical and political reasons for the existence of Catalans who write in Castilian and to justify the exclusion of such writers as suitable representatives of Catalan culture. This article examines the use of postcolonial theories by Catalan intellectuals, writers and literary critics. It argues that Catalan postcolonial studies largely reinforce nationalist discourse which maintains that Catalan literature is literature written exclusively in Catalan. The article questions the very restricted understanding of postcolonial subjectivity by Catalan critics, arguing that they either ignore entirely or gloss over theories of bi-directional cultural contact, cultural change and hybridity which are a central feature of postcolonial studies. In light of these unexamined theories, the article proposes a framework for understanding Castilian-language writers from Catalonia and situating them within a broader Catalan postcolonial context. — to say that this or that book is (or is not) part of ‘our’ tradition is one of the most debilitating exercises imaginable. Edward Said1 In March 2005 the Frankfurt Book Fair announced that Catalan culture would be the guest of honour in 2007. This announcement has revived a polemic about what constitutes Catalan literature, what its function within Catalan society is and, consequently, who can be considered a Catalan author. The Fair’s press communiqué states that the invitation was extended to ‘la cultura catalana’ because it ‘stands out thanks to its unusual creativity and popular appeal [...] demonstrated by internationally successful authors such as Vázquez Montalbán, Juan Goytisolo or Carlos Ruiz Zafón and artists such as Juan Miró, Salvador Dalí or Antoni Tàpies’.2 While the offer to present Catalan culture at the world’s most important book fair was welcomed by politicians, publishers and authors as a unique oppor- tunity ‘para dar a concocer al mundo la realidad de la cultura catalana’,3 the decision to invite a ‘culture’ rather than a ‘literature’ caused some consternation among members of Address correspondence to: Stewart King, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University 3800, Australia © 2006 University of Wales Swansea DOI: 10.1179/174581506x147650