100 Years of Literature in the Breton Language (1920-2020)

Abstract

Literature written in the Breton language in the 20th and 21st centuries presents something of a paradox in that although the number of Breton speakers has continued to decrease throughout the 20th century and in the first decades of the 21st century (Broudic 2009), the number of works published per year has remained at a relatively stable level (Thomas 2014) and even appears to be increasing. This can be seen in the diversity of audiences targeted and genres covered, and in the increased visibility that Breton language books have received in libraries, multimedia resource centres and at book fairs in the last twenty years (Rouxel 2021). The practice of translating treasures of world literature into Breton has also gained momentum. In order to understand the reasons for this apparent paradox, it is necessary to consider the way in which Breton-language literature is perceived in a more global context of language promotion. The initial paradox can be explained in part as follows: if the volume of literary output in the Breton language is not correlated to changes in the size of its readership, it is because the readership in question is far from homogenous and, moreover, because literary output needs to be placed in a context of language promotion.