Madrygal. Revista de Estudios Gallegos (ISSN 1138-9664, ISSN-e 1988-3285) is an annual journal of a scientific nature promoted and edited by the Center for Galician Studies of the Complutense University (Philology School), and subsidized by the General Secretariat of Language Policy of the Xunta de Galicia. Madrygal admits research articles related to all areas of humanistic knowledge (philology, language, literature, history, philosophy, geography, sociology, art, anthropology, communication, documentation, digital humanities, etc.), with a theoretical, methodological or comparative approach, as long as they are focused or have an interest in the field of Galician studies. Madrygal is composed of several sections with academic-scientific contents (Articles, Notes, Chronicle, Interview and Reviews), whose articles are refereed by an internal and external evaluation committee. Besides, Madrygal also has a small literary section of creation and translation (Lyrical Poetry, Narrative, Drama and Translation). Madrygal Revista de Estudios Gallegos has, since 2015, a series of special issues in which specific and overall studies are collected.
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The Translation to Catalan of "A esmorga", an Engaged Journey
The aim of this article is to analyse the translation to Catalan of A esmorga by the Galician author Eduardo Blanco Amor. This project came to an end in 2014 when the publishing house El gall Editor launched A esmorga. Hence, our endeavour is to contribute to the dialogue with the Galician writer from the translation and cultural studies scope. There is a growing interest in the dialogue with the author’s ouvre, as it is made clear with the A esmorga film adaption in 2014, or the translations to Asturian (1998), Italian (2006 and 2007), to French (2007) and to English (2012), and finally to Catalan (2014). Consequently, we will consider this Galcian-Catalan transferral, from an intercultural point of view, in order to highlight the challenges of the translation. Firstly, it is necessary to analyse the relationship between Blanco Amor and Catalan culture to show the relevancies of the aforementioned translation. Secondly, we will trace the words or expressions that have shown more resilience to the translation. We will mention the options given to these culturemes, so tied up to the Galician reality. Finally, we will make a brief reference to the content of the novel, which will help to link Galician and Catalan cultures. We will also explore the concept of the carnivalesque as described by M. Bakhtin. This will demonstrate the linguistic bond between Galician and Catalan cultures regarding linguistic and cultural oppression and diglossia.
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Immigrant Castaways in the United Kingdom: Comparative Analysis of Virtudes (e misterios) by Xesús Fraga and Wilcza rzeka by Wioletta Grzegorzewska
The article carries out a comparative and contrastive study of two autofictional novels, centered around the migratory experiences of two women: Virtudes (e misterios) (2020) by Xesús Fraga and Wilcza rzeka (2021) by Wioletta Grzegorzewska. It examines and compares the world and the experiences of immigrants (their spaces, social environment, language, the ethos of hard work, etc.) and the codification of the image of the host country. To achieve these ends, three methodological perspectives are used: literary comparativism, the sociology of migrations and studies on migrant literature. Likewise, the objective is to investigate to what extent the novels analyzed encode negative attitudes towards immigrants. In addition, the resistance and survival strategies that the protagonists are forced to adopt are discussed.
Copyright (c) 2026 Madrygal. Revista de Estudios Gallegos
An Overview of the Urban and the Rural in Contemporary Galician Poetry
The aim of this contribution is to show the presence of the urban and the rural in contemporary Galician poetry. The poems themselves will take centre stage in order to reveal these trends and to demonstrate that both urban and rural realities are part of the lives of the people who inhabit those spaces. It also points to the existence of a neo-ruralist trend that is clearly in keeping with the times in which we live.
Transhuman Reproduction: A Comparative Analysis between Natura, by Iolanda Zúñiga, and The Growing Season, by Helen Sedgwick
This article offers a comparative approach to the novels Natura, by Galician author Iolanda Zúñiga, and The Growing Season, by British author Helen Sedgwick, to analyse the critical interpretation that both authors make of the use of artificial wombs in future societies. To this end, transhumanism is used as a theoretical framework, a philosophy which postulates the need to take advantage of current scientific and technological advances to create bio-enhanced beings. In the works, reproductive sexuality is replaced by in-vitro reproduction and artificial wombs, which, far from liberating women from the dangers of natural pregnancies and births, represent a further step in their oppression and repression. In this way, both Zúñiga and Sedgwick contradict one of the main arguments of second-wave American feminism, such as the ones postulated by Firestone and Pateman, which suggested that the confiscation of women’s reproductive sexuality through the use of artificial wombs would end patriarchy and, therefore, free them from any type of oppressive system. The result of this comparative analysis indicates that both Natura and The Growing Season, despite being works written in two different languages and belonging to two distinct literary traditions, have in common the bioconservatist reading they make of any type of Manichean use of scientific and technological advances due to their potential for both patriarchal and capitalist
Dichotomies, Canons, and Queer Perspectives in Galician Literature
The issues discussed in this article address the role, trajectory, and challenges of queer studies in relation to Galician culture and literature, understood as part of a peripheral reality undergoing a process of emergence. The analysis examines general methodological aspects that have shaped the development of the idea of the canon within queer studies and contrasts them with certain strategies and specific cases in the history of Galician literature, paying particular attention to the difficulties of articulation posed by some of its classical assumptions. At the same time, the article assesses the role of documentation and the biographical trace of authorial voices, considering the compensatory function between an idealized objectivity that inhibits structural critique and the legitimate role of subjectivity in research. In this regard, it also gives room to the perspectives opened by textual hermeneutics and to the potential role of interpretation, suspicion, and informal knowledge.
A cultura e a lingua galegas en Madrid: o labor do Centro de Estudos Galegos durante o curso 2024-2025
The Presence of Gueada and Geada in the Place Names Featured in José de Villarroel’s Diccionario nomenclatór (1810)
José de Villarroel’s Diccionario nomenclatór (1810) is a catalogue of names of the main sites and centres of population in Galicia at the start of the nineteenth century; one of his main models was the Bernardo Espinault Garcia’s Direccion General de Cartas en Forma de Diccionario (1775). Published prior to the standardisation of Galician, at a time when place names were transcribed according to Spanish orthographic conventions, the work reveals the presence of a number of popular, dialectal features of Galician among the items listed. Two of these, the voiced, back occlusive gueada and the normally voiceless, fricative geada phenomenon, are observed in some place names, reflecting local and/or structural forms of pronunciation still found in the language spoken in those areas today. This article examines the presence of these two apparent variants in the place names featured in Villarroel’s Diccionario nomenclatór, and their equivalent pronunciation and rendering today.
On Defectors and Melancholic Migrants: Life and (Post)Memory Writing in "Árbol de familia" by María Rosa Lojo
Árbol de familia, by the Galician-Argentine author María Rosa Lojo, is a meditation on the persistence of memory and the impact of migratory narratives on the life and identity of various generations, as well as a tribute to her relatives, who had to adopt strategies as outcasts, defectors, rebels, and melancholic migrants (Ahmed). This community, which has not fully undergone the mourning process, is characterised by a resistance to acknowledging and processing ungrieved losses from the past. These wounds continue to exert a persistent and silent influence on individual and collective identity. In this sense, melancholia is not an individual emotional condition, but rather a collective phenomenon that transcends generations (Butler, Ahmed, Hirsch). According to Freud, melancholy differs from mourning in that the former involves an inability to detach from the lost object, leading to a prolonged and pathological identification with the loss. In the case of forced migration first, and the republican exile afterwards, which affects the auto(bio)graphical narration of the migrants and their descendants, this melancholia –both individual and collective– manifests as a frozen memory, an incomplete mourning of profound political implications that disturbs collective happiness
Needed Epistemic Alliances: Gender, Sexuality, and Nation
This article defends the alliance between gender and sexuality theories and discourses on nationhood, not as an accessory skills, but as a form of knowledge that addresses the national community’s constitutive singularities and provides critical knowledge. The aim is to offer some notes on issues to be considered to establish this alliance ­successfully. An overview is provided of the initiatives that launched gender and sexuality studies in Galicia since 1976. It demonstrates the theoretical power of studies based on the body, sex and sexuality, and some relevant contributions to reconceptualising not only dissident subjects, but also global issues, overcoming acosmia (worldlessness). It argues that feminist/queer skills is developed as a tripod of knowledge that comes from social movement, creation, and theory. It then questions the appropriateness of applying Harding’s theory of standpoint and the figure of the epistemically privileged subject. It provides a list of issues to be considered at the confluence of gender, sexuality, and nation, and explores the challenges posed by current debates on race and intersectionality. In summary, this article argues for the need to think about the national community from the singularity of bodies using the theoretical tools offered by critical gender/sexuality studies.
Presentation. Polyphonies of the Indomitable: New Literary Studies of ­Gender and Sexualities
This article presents the monograph Polyphonies of the Indomitable: New Literary Studies of Gender and Sexualities, which emerged from an academic dialogue initiated at the conference “Saberes en alianza” (University of A Coruña, May 2025). The volume brings together a carefully selected set of original contributions that combine theoretical reflections on gender, sexuality, nation, and canon with case studies focused on erotic poetry and contemporary dystopian narrative. Taken as a whole, these contributions propose new critical approaches that place bodies, subjectivities, and sexo-affective relations at the centre of current Galician literary studies.
Subverting Poetic Eroticism: Raising Awareness of the Word which Excludes the Monogamous System
This article studies the influence of the "monogamous system" (Vasallo, 2018) and the biography of the authorial figure as ideological mediators in the process of reading erotic poetry. Poetic voices appear to be sexualized according to the sex-gender system (Lauretis, 2013), as well as the sexual orientation (always interpreted as monosexual) and the interpersonal relationships (in most cases assumed to be monogomous) of the author. The analysis focuses on the critical reception of six poetry collections by different authors published between 2000 and 2010 to gain an in-depth understanding of the discourse around pleasures and affects that circulates in the field of literature. At the same time, it directly engages the poems to reveal the new poetic meanings that could be obtained if one were to truly accept the fictional pact (Eco, 1985, 1987) of literature. These rereadings will dialogue with the proposals of authors such as Rich (1996), Esteban (2011), Mogrovejo (2016), among others. They will confirm how the deconstruction of the reading vision and the adoption of a non-monogamous feminist perspective can shed light on the existence of a multi-affective Galician erotic poetry, one that remains hidden due to a thinking founded on hegemonogamia (Rosso, 2009) and on a monosexism that refuse bisexual reality (Lucio, 2019)
Dous poemas de Iosif Brodskii e Velimir Khlebnikov traducidos ao galego
Ramón Otero Pedrayo in Latin America: Homo Viator
Ramón Otero Pedrayo, a key figure in prewar and postwar Galician literature, traveled to Latin America three times (1947, 1956, and 1959). These trips meant the possibility of meeting old friends, such as Castelao, and the reestablishment of communication, in the midst of the dictatorship, between the Galician supporters who stayed in Galicia and those who went into exile.
Teaching Standard Galician to Vernacular Speakers: Reflections and Strategies
Most language planning models identify four steps: the selection and coding of a standard variety, its implementation in society and the functional development of the new variety (Haugen 1983: 275). The efforts aiming at revitalizing a minority language will only be successful if they count on the involvement of the community of its real and potential users. In this document we will analyze how the ideological principles behind the planning of the Galician language relate to those that underlie the tensions among the different language models. We will pay special attention to the relationship between traditional speakers and standard Galician, often influenced by the ideologies of standard language and ­purism. We must acknowledge that the competence in and the use of standard Galician is one of the keys that will determine the future of our language and, therefore, we will need to highlight the importance of the media and the educational system as the agents in charge of the implementation of this new variety. Finally, we will propose some general guidelines for the adoption of the critical awareness approach (Siegel 2006) in teaching practice. We firmly believe that introducing this perspective into the classroom will allow students to develop their competence in standard Galician by critically exploring the ideologies about languages and language models pre­sent in our society and establishing comparisons between their home variety or language and standard Galician. We will consider the main goal of our work to be achieved if we manage to bring into the debate the need to recognize the urge that the different profiles of users acknowledge each other so we can together, as a stronger community, towards the revitalization of our language.
The Wine from Cabanelas: Documents of the Monastery of San Pedro de Ansemil in the Arquivo do Reino de Galicia
The intervention of the secular patrons and, more broadly, the local aristocracy, has an important relevance in the historical course of the monasteries throughout the Middle Ages and, significantly, in the configuration of their assets. San Pedro de Ansemil (Silleda, Pontevedra), a double monastery in origin and a small nunnery in the middle and late medieval period, is no exception to this fact. The aim of this article, besides offering a brief historical characterization of the monastery, is to present the transcript of a set of diplomas kept in the Arquivo do Reino de Galicia related to the nunnery's heritage. These refer to a significant donation made to Ansemil by his benefactor Diego Gómez de Deza, in the form of an income in wine from the town of Cabanelas (in the region of Ribeiro), previously acquired for himself, as well as a series of documents, collected in a tomb, linked to the management of the modest monastic patrimony.
The Profile of Galician-as-a-Foreign-Language Teachers: an eGrid-Based Ap­proach
This article presents the results of an investigation whose aim is to describe the profile of teachers of Galician as a foreign language based on the eGrid self-assessment grid. The analysis carried out is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected through an online questionnaire that was distributed through emails and social networks. The results offer a first picture of the profile under study and confirm that teachers of this group, who perform their work in different countries around the world and various educational levels or teaching-learning contexts, are mostly female with a high knowledge of the Galician language and culture. The community is very divided between teachers who have more years of experience and those who are new. In addition, Galician studies have a limited presence compared to other subjects. The lack of visibility of the Galician language together with the geographical dispersion make the association of teachers necessary to create joint actions and offer teachers training.
Exclusion, Power, and Gender in Daniel Asorey: Toward the Utopian Dimension of the Dystopian?
This article analyses Daniel Asorey’s dystopian novel As mulleres da fin do mundo (2018) in light of Hannah Arendt’s (2004) and Eleni Varikas’ (2017) theories of exclusion. According to those philosophers, figures of exclusion who emerge on the margins are not just “the outcasts of the world” (Varikas 2017), but figures who assert themselves in non-belonging and non-obedience to dominant discourses and practices. As this article demonstrates, Asorey’s novel embodies these figures and the underlying mechanisms of exclusion. As mulleres da fin do mundo is part of the dystopian boom, since it has many of the constituent elements of this genre (a degenerate world, technocratic, dictatorial structures that deny individuals the exercise of their rights, subaltern and repressed realities, etc.). At the same time, with its incentive to rebellion, the text dreams of a utopia: a (trans)matria without binarisms and discrimination based on any ground such as sex, class or race. This analysis focuses in particular on the means used by dystopias to denounce the mechanisms of exclusion operating in the capitalist and heteropatriarchal system; with the traditional family, infinite economic growth, consumerism and religion as pillars.
From Landscapes and Villages to Celebrations and Legends in Rosalía de Castro’s Cantares gallegos
Cantares gallegos by Rosalía de Castro is a landmark work not only for the aesthetic quality of its poems, but also for the impact of producing a literary book in Galician in the nineteenth century – a development that signaled a revival of letters and culture in this historical language. What stands out in Cantares is the presence of elements characteristic of Galicia interwoven throughout the volume, belonging to the traditions, customs, and folk knowledge of the Galician nation. This article examines references to settlements, music, dance, festivities, religious beliefs, legends, and everyday activities, as well as the recurrent strain of melancholy – features that, although rooted in nineteenth-century settings, remain part of Galician cultural identity. The principal aim of this reading is to demonstrate that Cantares gallegos is not merely a compilation of poetic glosses on popular cantigas, but a journey through Galicia and its ancestral customs.
Variation in the Verbal Morphology of Galician in the Region of O Ribeiro
This study analyses a series of linguistic variables that have in common their belonging to the field of verbal morphology. The data for this study was obtained through questionnaire-based interviews with thirty people from ten different places. This data was complemented with the transcription of semi-structured interviews with the same individuals. The purpose of this research is to establish how the variants studied are subject to processes of linguistic change, observable in the linguistic usage of three groups of people of different ages. The appearance of different variants is due both to internal factors (analogy or simplification of the system) and external factors (contact with other linguistic varieties); the expansion of some of them is attributable to contact with Castilian or with other similar Galician varieties.
Migrations to Southern Patagonia: Reconstructing the Trajectories of Galician Families (1902-1940)
This article analyzes how social networks and family history shaped migration to Southern Patagonia, Argentina, between 1902 and 1940. Drawing on a comparative reconstruction of three trajectories of Galician families, it examines the mechanisms of mobility, settlement, and rootedness in Puerto Deseado, Puerto San Julián, and Ushuaia, in connection with the Atlantic nodes of departure and transit (Vigo and Santos). The temporal scope corresponds to the full cycle of the trajectories under study, from the initial arrival (1902) to definitive settlement (ca. 1940). The study offers an account of regional migratory processes and their articulation with transnational circuits, contributing to a more precise understanding of the demographic and social dynamics of Southern Patagonia in the first half of the 20th century.
Halfway to Nowhere: Migration as Exclusion in the Comic Book "Freda"
The comic book Freda (2002) by Kike Benlloch and Alberto Vázquez tells the story of a Galician family that emigrated to Central Europe during the mid-1950s. The exact location of the story is ambiguous, as it is a German speaking country which could be either Germany or Switzerland. Forced to leave due to the lack of work in Galicia, the parents become part of the group of migrants who, via the Instituto Nacional de Emigración (National Institute of Emigration), were exploited in the destination countries. While his parents show little interest in integrating into the new society, since they see their stay as temporary, their son Manu (who arrives at the age of ten) begins to establish emotional ties with the host culture. Especially thanks to the help of his friend Freda, with whom he will later have a sentimental relationship, Manu will feel that his home is no longer in Galicia but where her girlfriend is. Six years later, back in Galicia due to the physical problems caused by the hard work on his father’s health, it is Manuel who is unable to readapt. Drawing on a multidisciplinary theoretical framework (migration studies, affect theory, gender studies and comics studies), this article analyses the representation of the consequences that the migratory policy of the dictatorship had on the mental and emotional health of the migrants. It proposes to examine Manu as a figure of exclusion, who ends up “halfway” (in his own words), not fully belonging to anywhere.
Entre fenómeno y proceso: sobre la "História Global da Literatura Portuguesa"
Review of the book Global History of Portuguese Literature, edited by Annabela Rita, Isabel Ponce de Leão, José Eduardo Franco, and Miguel Real, with coordination by Carlos F. Clamote Carreto, Isabel Morujão, Micaela Ramon, Maria Luísa Malato, Luísa Paolinelli, Dionísio Vila Maior, and Maria do Carmo Cardoso Mendes (Lisbon: Temas e Debates, 2024), by Nefatalin Gonçalves Neto.
Cousillas, Paula et. alii (2024): "Dun poema ás ardentes estrofas. Visión arredor da obra de Eduardo Pondal. Carballo: Espiral Maior, 147 pp.
Review of Dun poema ás ardentes estrofas. Visión arredor da obra de Eduardo Pondal, by Paula Cousillas, Dolores González de la Peña, Marcial Tenreiro-Bermúdez, Miguel Ángel Martínez Quintanar, María Teresa Angeriz Agrelo, Antonio Andrade Figueiras, Afonso Xavier Canosa Rodriguez, and Luís G. Soto (Carballo: Espiral Maior, 2024), by María Sonia Cruz Pérez.