L’aportació de Joaquim Gonzàlez Caturla a la rondallística valenciana

Zusammenfassung

Joaquim Gonzàlez Caturla is one of the most prominent Valencian writers to work on the compilation of folktales during the democratic period. The present article analyses the whole of his folktale production and relates it to its context with the aim of determining the main features of Caturla's work and his contribution to the discipline. His two compilations Rondalles de l'Alacantí (Folktales of Alacantí - 1985) and Rondalles del Baix Vinalopó (Folktales of Baix Vinalopó - 1987) have striking similarities that show that he had two readerships in mind: infants and children, due to the format, tone and style of the compilations; and a more specialised adult audience, due to the prologues, the writer's introductions and the notes on points of linguistic and folkloric interest. This demonstrates a certain originality with regard to previous folktale writers and highlights to the author's twin role of folktale writer and folklorist. Another point of originality is that he is the only folklorist to systematically study the folktales of Baix Vinalopó and is the leading authority on the folktales of Alicante. Although several others had trodden a similar path before him, during the 1980s Caturla became one of the most important folklorists in Valencia owing to the quantity and the quality of the folktales that he compiled.