Félix de Azúa

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Félix de Azúa Comella (born April 30, 1944 in Barcelona ) is a Spanish poet , novelist and literary scholar who was awarded the Herralde Novel Prize in 1987 .

Life

Studies, university professor and poetic work

Félix de Azúa initially studied philosophy at the University of Barcelona and later in journalism and political science at the Complutense University of Madrid . He was a professor at the University of Oxford and the University of the Basque Country in Donostia-San Sebastián . Later he was professor of the theory of aesthetics at the University of Barcelona and also wrote articles for daily newspapers such as La Vanguardia and El País .

He began his literary career as a poet of the so-called "Generation of the Latest" (generación de los novísimos) , which brought about a break and renewal of the poetry of Castile at the end of the 1960s . Along with Pere Gimferrer , Vicente Molina Foix , Leopoldo María Panero , Guillermo Carnero and Ana María Moix, he was one of the authors whose poems appeared in the anthology Nueve novísimos poetas españoles (1970) edited by Josep Maria Castellet and those of a rejection of the aesthetics of the previous generations of poets. This new poetic movement differed in its declared aestheticism and sensitivity for new areas as well as a freer, more playful, ideology-free conception of poetry, but also the elitist taste for foreign authors and subjects. Furthermore, this movement was shaped by metaphors as well as new mythologies or modern everyday realities that were created by the mass media. His lyrical works include Cepo para nutria (1968), El velo en el rostro de Agamenón (1970), Edgar en Stephane (1971), Lengua de cal (1972), Pasar y siete canciones (1978) and Siete poemas de la farra (1983).

novelist

His narratives were characterized by a precise, very refined style that developed through the description of scenarios, situations and characters. His novel Las lecciones de Jena , published in 1972, dealt with the question of internal division and the conflict between reflection and action, theory and fate, the polarity of the world originally embodied in the family and the expropriation of guilt. The real protagonist of the novel, however, is a language that uses effective ironic tones and hardly distinguishes between the narrator, the dialogue between the characters and the inner monologue of the protagonist. The characters, spaces and scenes are simple references to the speech that covers the structural scheme of the novel. This narrative style, which is characterized by a particular sensitivity to the culture of German Romanticism and the renewal of the influence of pauses, was influenced by the early novels of Juan Benet .

The following novels Las lecciones suspendidas (1978) and Última lección (1981) extended and deepened his search for stylistic irony and intellectual rigor. Félix de Azúas only made a change in writing with the novel Mansura , published in 1984 . In this version of Jean de Joinville's medieval chronicle of the disastrous siege of al-Mansura , he told these events from the perspective of an imaginary crusader from Catalonia in the Holy Land in the 13th century . The text, which was less fluid than the previous way of working, asked questions about the sense of the originality and plausibility, the heroes and actions, the war and the setbacks. The book is a detailed account of a city and some special years of Spanish history .

His 1986 novel Historia de un idiota contada por él mismo o el contenido de la felicidad (German: story of an idiot told by himself or about the nature of happiness ) is considered his strongest and most successful work. After that, the life story of the protagonist is nothing more than the radical refusal of any desired or promised happiness in a cruel and small world. The unnamed first-person narrator does not really know in the entire text whether one can simulate happiness or whether one has to embark on a useless, "idiotic" search for it, and therefore assumes both positions at the same time. The novel is both intentionally provocative and, in the narrator's view, at times weird without any intention. In his continuous pursuit of happiness, the protagonist undertakes an excursion into the world of politics and literature and draws a representation of the respective time and its representatives. In the epilogue written by Francesc Arroyo with the title “How unhappy one is after reading this book” ('De cómo ser infeliz tras haber leído este libro'), he tries to convince the reader that the novel is not autobiographical and the characters are imaginary.

His novel Diario de un hombre humillado , published in 1986, which tells the story of the banal intimacy of an inconspicuous man, was awarded the Herralde Novel Prize in 1987 . Then came Cambio de bandera 1991 (German: Fahnenwechsel ) and Demasiadas preguntas 1994, a story about a democrat in the time of Franquism . His novel cycle was completed in 2000 by Momentos decisivos , which told the story of life over four generations in Catalonia.

Literary and cultural criticism

In addition to his lyrical and narrative works, Félix de Azúa worked as an author and editor of culturally critical and cultural-political works such as La paradoja del primitivo (1983), in which he dealt with Denis Diderot , and Baudelaire y el artista de la vida moderna 1991, in which he dealt with the basics of contemporary art and modern aesthetics. In addition, collections of articles written by him appeared, namely El aprendizaje de la decepción (1996) and Lecturas compulsivas (1998), which were dedicated to his favorite authors.

Publications

in German language

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Azúa, Félix de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Azúa Comella, Félix de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona