ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the change in Biel Mesquida attitude to the question of national identity which is evident when one contrasts the second work with the first. It shows that, while the issue of national identity may be but one in a long list of minority rights which Mesquida defends, one aspect of this issue is crucial to the very fabric of Mesquida's writing: 'colonization'. The chapter focuses on an issue which serves in both metaphorical and literal manifestations as a basic structuring device for L'adolescent de sal and, by extension, as an underlying force in Puta-Mares (ahí). Ultimately, it is the 'colonization' of language by bourgeois ideologies, literary and linguistic purists, and 'la falsa i alienant educacio which leads him to seek freedom from all forms of colonization in the act of expression and the possibilities of 'llengua lliure'. The decolonization of language as viewed in L'adolescent can also proceed through an agreed redefinition of certain terms or phrases.
