English subtitles for clip: File:Ikusgela – Txomin Agirre eta XIX. mendeko literatura.webm

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Good morning, good afternoon, 
good evening! 

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How are you?

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I'm feeling great!

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I come nosy, gossipy today!

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I’d like to know about 
your customs! 

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Let's see...

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What do you have for breakfast?

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Cereals 

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or toast?

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And what do you do 
on weekends?

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Do you TikTok or go hiking?

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Or do you TikTok while you hike?

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Don't worry, 
forget about it!!

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By these questions I just wanted to introduce you to 
a concept that will help us better understand today's writer:

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the "Costumbrismo",

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Costumbrismo, which comes 
from custom, usage... tradition!

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Ha, ha, now you understand 
my questions?

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But before I go through the Costumbrismo,
I have to tell you who today's writer is.

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I won't delay any longer!
His name is Txomin Agirre 

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born in the coastal town of Ondarroa 
into a humble family in 1864.

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And what did Txomin do for 
a living? A pr... pr... presenter?


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No, of course not, 
Agirre was... a priest!

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He died in Zumaia in 1920,
where he had been a chaplain for several years.

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Some consider Mr. Txomin Agirre 
to be the first Basque novelist. 

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This honour is attributed to him for  
his 1898 work Auñemendiko lorea. 

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However, the writer is best known for two 
other works: "Kresala" and "Garoa", 

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two representative 
novels of Agirre's time.

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Throughout the 19th century, the 
clash between modernisation and 

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tradition was 
at its height. 

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Society was beginning to 
modernise and industrialise, 

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and many feared the 
decline of morality.

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At the turn of the century, 
the life and institutions 

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of the Basques came under threat 
from a number of factors: 

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on the one hand,

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the historic Basque territories
south of the Pyrenees lost 

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for ever their traditional laws and institutions 
in the Second (or Third Spanish) Carlist War in 1876.

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On the other hand, from 1880 
onwards, industrialisation intensified 

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and the socio-linguistic situation was altered by the 
arrival of migrants who came to work in the factories.

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Faced with all these changes, 
many Basques rose up 

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in defence of their language,
tradition and religion.

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Led by Sabino Arana, the Basque 
Nationalist Party was founded in 1895.

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This defence of traditional values, 
in which literature also played a part,

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manifested itself in the 
“costumbrista” narrative. 

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Costumbrismo styled works reflect 
the customs and habits 

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of ordinary people, but hey, be careful! 
As you do with Instagram filters,

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they mould reality 

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as they please in order 
to promote a specific model.

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In other words, 

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this kind of novel 
does not imitate reality,

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but the ideal model of a 
previously constructed value system.

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That is to say, 

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instead of photographing 
reality, the Costumbrismo 

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shows a photo previously
arranged à la carte, 

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with photoshop and filters.

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You got it? 

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In this idealism 

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there are signs 
of romanticism.

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In the current case, in his two most 
emblematic books, Txomin Agirre devotes

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his attention to the traditional 
sectors of Basque society:

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the fishermen 
in "Kresala" ('saltpetre')

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and the farmers 
in "Garoa" ('fern').

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Agirre wrote the first in Biscayan dialect, 
and the second in Gipuzkoan. 

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He wrote both books

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in instalments,

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"Kresala" between 1902 
and 1905, in the periodical "Euskal-Erria",

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and "Garoa" between 1907 and 1912, 
in the journal "RIEV".

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Magazines were fashionable 
at the time!

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In his two novels, 
Agirre uses flat characters, 

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that is, they are 
purely stereotypical 

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and do not go through psychological development:

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a good peasant, a lost sheep 
that ignores his father,

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a daughter who is entirely 
devoted to God...

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Why on earth did he use 
characters like that? 

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He clearly didn't make 
novels more interesting!

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Actually, the novels of Agirre 
make a clear distinction between 

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good and evil, morality and immoral. 
Those who take sides with the good

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are religious, attached to native laws
and institutions, and honest characters,

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who keep a 
traditional job, 

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while the evil 

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is represented by the city dwellers, the 
returning emigrants to America, the factory workers, 

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the irreligious, the Spanish-speakers.

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"Kresala" takes place in the vicinity of a
church in the fictitious town of Arranondo. 

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It tells the love story 
between Anjel and Mañaxi, 

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which comes to a happy ending. 

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It is also a pretext to show an 
idyllic traditional way 

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of life in fishing villages.

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Some scholars assert that 
it is a rather stupid narrative, 

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still it is pioneering, representing one 
of the earliest works in the form of a novel.

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"Garoa" sticks to the same outlook, 

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this time in a rural setting inland.

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In this work, Agirre projects on a farmhouse set in Oñati 
a conception of life based on the values of Catholicism, 

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nationalism and the Basque language. 

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Agirre makes a passionate defence 
of rural life in this work, 

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at a time when it 
went through a crisis. 

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The story of Joanes' family suggests 
that life spent far removed

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from the city enjoys 
greater moral solidity. 

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It also shows that 

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life's conflicts can only be 
resolved through religion, as 

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depicted by the story of the main 
character, Malentxo, 

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who ends up in a convent.

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This pattern of Costumbrismo adopted by Basque 
literature with Agirre lasted for a long time, 

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until the middle of the 20th century.

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Basque literature 
struggled to modernise!

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Well, well, 

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that's enough for today, 

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end of it! 

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Remember, 

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don't push filters 
too far on Instagram! 

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Long live Elbira!