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The Basque Country: A Cultural History
by Paddy Woodworth
Paddy Woodworth
The Basque Country: A Cultural History
by Paddy Woodworth
Paddy Woodworth
eBook
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Overview
The Basque Country is a land of fascinating paradoxes and enigmas. Home to one of Europe's oldest peoples and most mysterious languages, with a living folklore rich in archaic rituals and dances, it also boasts a dynamic modern energy, with the reinvention of Bilbao creating a model for the twenty-first-century city. In The Basque Country, Paddy Woodworth takes us on a sweeping tour of this enchanting land. We discover a small territory which abounds in big contrasts, ranging from moist green valleys to semi-desert badlands, from snowy sierras to sandy beaches, from harsh industrial landscapes to bucolic beech woods. The book reveals how this often idyllic scenery forms the backdrop for a land of ancient and modern culture, where Basque poets still compose spontaneous stanzas in public contests and where strange age-old sports--rock lifting, goose decapitation--are still held at fiestas. Likewise, the region has made important contributions to modern culture, through novelists like Bernardo Atxaga, sculptors like Eduardo Chillida, painters like Zuluoaga, and cineastes like Julio Medem. And of course Bilbao's flagship museum, the Guggenheim, designed by Frank O. Gehry, may be the best work of architecture of the last century. Here then is a marvelous guide to the culture and landscape of one of the most intriguing places on Earth.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780199886890 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
| Publication date: | 12/27/2007 |
| Series: | Landscapes of the Imagination |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 6 MB |
About the Author
Paddy Woodworth has written about the Basque Country for thirty years, and is the author of Dirty War, Clean Hands: ETA, the GAL and Spanish Democracy, described by Paul Preston as "one of the best books ever published on post-Franco Spain."
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xv
Introduction: Land of Stone, Iron and Glass: Land of the Basques xix
Ancient and Modern xxv
Wherixe Are We, Exactly? And What Will We Call This Place? 1
The Urban-Rural Divide 6
A Short Version of a Long History: From the Stone Age to the Civil War 13
Anthropology and the Skull of the Basque Ancestor 15
A Stone-Age Language? 18
Not One Nationalism, but Three 21
The Basque Sense of Difference 24
Sancho: The Greatest Basque Political Figure? 26
Special Rights and the Ancestral Oak 28
The Carlist Wars: The Basque Rift Deepens 29
Sabino Arana: Inventor of Basque Nationalism 32
The Civil War: The PNV Stands-Reluctantly-with the Republic 35
A Nightwatchman in Navarre, a Conquistador in Bilbao 36
Bai, Bai, Urdaibai: Cave Paintings, Painted Trees, Tree of Gernika 39
Santimamine and Farua: Palaeolithic Paintings, Roman Smelters 41
Txatxaramendi: The Fishing Industry Learns to Fly 43
Mundaka: Surfers, Ecologists, a Left-handed Wave 46
Oma's Enchanted Forest: A Threat to the Basque Nation? 51
Gernika: Democracy, Bombs and Paradoxes 55
The Fronton at the Heart of Life: The Power and Beauty of Pelota 63
More Than a Game 66
Lions, Foxes and Magic Moments 70
Cinco Villas: Pio Baroja, Flying Mari, Sword Dances and Sorcery 73
An Enemy in His Own Country? 77
Plagiarizing his Native Place 78
Etxalar: Witches, Pigeon Shoots and Carmen 82
Lesaka: River Dancers in Little Venice 87
Iganzi, Arantza: Healing Waters, Baserriak for BMWs 91
Gastronomy: Some Answers to the Most Urgent Basque Question 95
From Itziar to Washington and Back 98
A Few Snacks in Asteasu 101
Wow, Bilbao! The Transformation of a Tough City 103
A City Built on Iron, Wood and Water 107
From Ruin to Resurrection 112
Washing the City's Face, Lifting its Citizens' Hearts 116
Jokes on the Path to Spectacular Success 117
We Ain 't Seen Nothing Yet... 119
Re-imagining the River 120
Dark Heart, Dying Mines 122
The Passion Flower of Revolution 126
Seven Streets 129
The City of Iron Becomes the City of Titanium 133
From the Labour to Music as a Labour of Love 135
Saved from Extinction: The Alboka 138
Obaba in Asteasu: The Basque Village as a Literary Universe 141
Truths Wrapped in a Tissue of Fictions 146
Putting Euskera on the Literary Map 153
Serious Fun: Fiestas in Laguardia 159
The Real Gods of the Fiesta 163
A Spontaneous Chorus for the Virgin 165
Don't Mention the War: The Dark Side of Basque-and Spanish-Politics 171
A Fetish for Violence, a Fashion for Revolution 175
The Death Squads of a Democratic State 179
Socializing the Suffering: A Teenage Intifada 183
Regarding ETA as a Higher Power 184
Bay of Biscay: Whales, Belle Epoque, Decapitated Geese, Sexual Politics 189
Lekeitio: Dancing on a Casket 194
Getaria: The Aesthetics of an Egg 198
Belle Epoque: Zarautz, Biarritz, San Sebastian 200
Lekeitio II: Decapitating Geese 204
Gender Wars: Hondarribia and Irun 208
Navarre: Heartland or Hinterland? 213
The Camino de Santiago: Piety and Pleasure 218
Burguete to the Ebro: Hemingway's Hotel, a Magical Church, a Borgia's Tomb 220
The Heart of Navarre: Olite, Artajona, Ujue, Galipienzo 225
The Bardenas: Badlands Full of Life 232
Mountain High: Pleasure, Penitence and Pagan Gods 239
In Search of Sanctuary 240
Iparralde: The Basques on the Other Side of the Mountains 245
Symbols and Substance: Being Basque in Iparralde 249
Petit Bayonne: Cosy Streets, Dirty War and a Fine Museum 253
Biarritz and St.-Jean-de-Luz: Faded Glories, Pleasing Melancholy 256
Biriatou and Sara: Calvinist Catholics and the Evils of Procrastination 259
Bidarrai to Baigorri: Under the Mountains' Skirts 264
At the End of the Basque World: Saint Engrace, Larrau, Migrating Raptors and a Tribute of Three Cows 266
Afterword: The Reality of Magic, the Magic of Reality 271
Further Reading 277
Glossary 281
Index of Names & Organizations 285
Index of Places & Landmarks 288
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