This book offers case studies and a comparative analysis of three authors writing in different European minority languages, exploring how they link national and context-marked political community with universal human requirements. The author examines their left-wing positions and how their writing speaks to the acceptance of difference as a necessary condition of such universal values. He presents, for the first time in English, an in-depth treatment of the writing of the Basque poet, novelist and essayist Joseba Sarrionandia  (1958) and the Catalan priest and civil disobedience author and activist Lluís Maria Xirinacs (19322007), whilst linking their understanding of a 'foundational universalism' with the work of Irish novelist, short-story writer and language activist Máirtín Ó Cadhain (19061970). The book is by its nature interdisciplinary in order to engage in a thoroughgoing comparative analysis of European language minorities, and responds empirically and theoretically to calls made recently in this regard from within critical Iberian Studies. It will therefore be of interest to students and scholars of fields such as Iberian and Celtic studies, International Relations theory, literary criticism, nationalism studies, political philosophy, as well as socio-legal and critical terrorism studies.

Patrick Carlin is an Associate Researcher at the Language, Policy and Planning Research Unit, School of Welsh, Cardiff University, UK. He has published research in the field of minority language sociolinguistics, language and regulation.

Chapter 1 Introduction Universal values in a partisan key.- Chapter 2 The World is a Prison: Political community in the work of Joseba Sarrionandia.- Chapter 3 Lluís Maria Xirinacs: The inside and outside of a political ontology.- Chapter 4 Máirtín Ó Cadhain: Bordering complexity.- Chapter 5 Conclusions: If we cannot move from here to there, why not find a better starting point?.