After Flordeneu. Fairies in Catalan Modernism

Abstract

This article examines the presence and the significance of fairies in Catalan Modernist literature. To start with, we discounted the numerous characters that could be understood to be fairies by way of metaphor such as women-angels and their negative, perverse version with its connections to prostitution and vice. Once the focus on folklore fairies has been made clear, and after providing some context on fairies in folklore, on the legend in Catalan Modernism and on Jacint Verdaguer’s poem, the article moves on to analyse the main theme. It is observed that, from different aesthetics and approaches, there are three basic characterisations: those who seduce men, those who are spirits of nature and, a subgroup of this latter type, those who belong to ecological texts.