Xabier Lete: The Poet-Singer of the Homeland

Alex Gurrutxaga

Xabier Lete: The Poet-Singer of the Homeland

Alberdania 2020
262 Pages
Original title: Xabier Lete - Aberriaren poeta kantaria
ISBN: 978-84-9868-622-7
Translated into: click here

This essay looks at the poetic world and creative work of Xabier Lete, who is so beloved by the Basque people, from many different points of view. It makes up a wide perspective made up of many pieces, incorporating several elements and components. On the one hand, it connects Lete’s work to the ups and downs of his life. On the other, it links Lete’s innovative works with the context of their time. Besides all this, it details the ideas that his songs and poems hide, the experiences and landscapes which are the source of Lete´s philosophy and poetic images. Lastly, it takes into account what experts on Lete’s work have said and the studies of researchers as well as Lete’s unpublished material analysed by Gurrutxaga.

The text is made up piece by piece. It has three main sections, and there are multiple pieces within each: commentaries on books, analyses of poems, notes on the context, and so forth. Combining all these pieces, this essay reveals the importance of Lete and his work.

Alex Gurrutxaga

He holds a PhD in Basque Linguistics and Philology (2020) and has taught at the University of the Basque Country since 2016. He studied Basque Philology and Comparaticve Literature at the University of the Basque Country and at the University of Trento, and completed his doctorate, under the supervision of Lourdes Otaegi, with the thesis “Xabier Lete’s Poetics: An Analysis of Its Variations and an Interpretation of Its Evolution”.  He has published several articles, mostly on Basque poetry, historical memory and literature, and young people’s literature. In the field of outreach, he has taken part as a literary critic, both in giving talks and in leading literary workshops, as well as publishing articles. He is one of the contributors to the Literatura Unibertsala (World Literature, Year 12) (2016) textbook, and he translated the work 100 euskal sinbolo (100 Basque Symbols, by Santiago de Pablo et al.) from Spanish (2016). He developed the “Txori Kantazale” (Birdsong Lover) project and book-record together with the pianist Joana Otxoa de Alaiza (Winner of the Eusko Ikaskuntza-Laboral Kutxa Prize, 2020).

Alex Gurrutxaga