El euskara y la literatura en lengua vasca en la obra de Arturo Campión

Abstract

This article is based on the text of the speech given by the author at the conference held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arturo Campión as part of “Arturo Campión and his times: 150 years of memory and obscurity-Arturo Kanpion 150 urte pasa eta gero” organised by the Society of Basque Studies-Eusko Ikaskuntza in the spring and summer of 2004. It departs from the premise that the work and figure of Campión were the spur to Basque literary history in Navarra that Axular was to Lapurdi in the XVII century, Larramendi was to the Guipúzcoa of the XVIII century and Mogel-Astarloa were to Vizcaya in the XIX century. He studied the Basque language in depth, published important works on the subject, encouraged the creation of societies which defended the language and took part in the different debates on the Basque language which were taking place at the time, including the one centring on the literary model, becoming the first member of Euskaltzaindia from Navarra.