"Verdaguer ha mort, visca Verdaguer!". Dol, memòria i política en el funeral d’un referent cultural de la Catalunya contemporània

Abstract

This article situates itself in the field of historiographic studies that deal with memory, the politics of death, and the commemorative cult of public figures. More specifically, it aligns with approaches that conceive funerals as significant ritual expressions within the repertoire of collective action and in the forging of communities. The funeral of Jacint Verdaguer (1845–1902) is considered here the first great posthumous homage to the deceased and a notable moment in the construction of his afterlives. Various aspects of this episode are analysed, from the factors that lent it an extraordinary character, the forms of expressing grief, the role played by the press, the relationship between the event and memory, as well as the plural meanings attributed to the figure of Verdaguer and early evidence of the contested appropriations of his legacy. As will be shown, the event was powerfully shaped by politics, giving it the character of what we might call, following Fureix, a contestatory or opposition burial. Careful study of this rite of passage ultimately demonstrates that Verdaguer was a common reference point through which Catalan society was able to negotiate, if not resolve, consensus and dissensus.