Anauca (Catalan pronunciation:[ˈawkə]) is a genre of a story in pictures developed mainly inCatalonia.
The auca was present in some other parts ofSpain, even though it was most popular in Catalonia. It has a structure somewhat similar tocomics, but has more rigid. The auca has a number of images that can be evenly divided by 4 (usually 48), all images are of the same size, all fit on one page, and there is a small piece of text, calledrodolí (pronounced[ruðuˈli], pluralrodolins) - underneath every image, usually in theCatalan language and since the 19th century alsorhymed.
The auca began as acard game played for money. The cards were possibly also used fordivination, judging by the images that initially appeared on them: theMoon, theSun,stars andanimals, among them agoose, which gave its name to the game. (Auca means "goose" in the north-western dialects of Catalan; it isoca in modern standard Catalan.) The earliest preserved auca was created byPere Abadal in 1670 inMoià. The game was forbidden throughout the 17th and 18th centuries and gradually the auca developed into an art form in which all the images appeared on one page and had a unifying theme, initially - arts, crafts, children's games and animals.
In the 19th century the auca reached its artistic peak and developed into a complete art form and publishing niche. The themes of auca stories became more varied and includedhistory,biography,traditional moral stories andfables. It was then that text underneath the images took the form of two rhymed lines. The most important auca artists of that time wereJosep Piferrer andIgnasi Estivill fromBarcelona andAgustí Laborda andIldefons Mompié fromValencia.
The auca structure also inspiredSantiago Rusiñol's playL'auca del senyor Esteve (Mr. Esteve's auca), a down-to-earth, often humorous, story about a business-oriented family who suddenly has to deal with the artistic orientation of the young heir.
Towards the end of the 19th century the auca genre began to wane. Many new aucas were simply repeating older themes. At that time, however, aucas were brought toMadrid, where they were positively met. A series of Castilian aucas calledAleluya (Hallelujah) were produced with themes of Catholic holidays.
In the 20th century the auca continued to be a unique Catalan way of expression. Newer aucas are being regularly produced by Catalan artists, incorporating newer artistic styles, but keeping the established form of 48 images with two or four lines of rhymed text.
