José Rodrigues Miguéis

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José Claudino Rodrigues Miguéis (born December 9, 1901 in Lisbon , Portugal , † October 27, 1980 in New York , USA ) was a Portuguese writer. As a link in Luso-American culture, he was particularly important as a narrator and essayist . He also worked as a translator and playwright.

Life

Miguéis was born to Manuel Maria Miguéis Pombo and Maria Adelaide Rodrigues Miguéis. As a student, he attended the Colégio Francês and the Camoes - and Gil-Vicente - Lyceum in Lisbon . From 1917 he began to study law at the University of Lisbon. In 1924 he finished his law studies and went to Setúbal , where he practiced as a lawyer for a year. In 1926 he returned to Lisbon. As a teacher of geography and history he was a. a. at his previous school, the Vicente-Lizeum. In 1929 he moved to Brussels, where he studied pedagogy and education at the University of Brussels until 1933 . Travel across Europe, u. a. to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Spain broadened his horizons during this time. His first marriage was in Brussels in 1932 with a Russian teacher. After the dictator Antonio Salazar took power in 1932, he decided to go into exile in the USA in 1935 and lived in the US metropolis until his death - with a one-year break from 1949 to 1950 in Rio de Janeiro .

In New York he founded the " Clubo operario portugues ", an association of Portuguese exiles in the city. There he also wrote for various Luso-American and Hispanic newspapers and magazines, such as O Globo , La Voz (magazine of the Spanish minority) and O Diario . After divorcing his first wife, in 1940 he married his second wife, Camilla Pitta Campanella, who was a member of the Italian community in the United States. Both adopted the family's only child, Patricia, in 1946. In 1942 he finally decided to take US citizenship, but this did not prevent him from continuing to feel and think as a Portuguese. From then on he earned his living as Assistant Director at Reader's Digest , where he was responsible for editing the Portuguese-language articles for the publisher. He came back to Portugal for a few short vacations, for example 1946 to 1947 and in the 1950s and 60s. He stopped walking on Portuguese soil in the 1970s.

In 1961 he became a member of the Hispanic Society of America . In 1976 he became a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences . In 1978 he was supposed to become a visiting professor at Brown University in New York, but couldn't even give the inauguration lecture because of his very poor health. In the USA and now also in Portugal, he died in New York on October 27, 1980 after a long and serious illness.

Miguéis as an author

He was close to communism and is considered an important interpreter of neorealism within Portuguese literature. Above all as a narrator, essayist and playwright, he had publications. In addition, there are a large number of articles in Portuguese or Portuguese-language newspapers and magazines, some of which are still unedited. For many years, part of his work fell victim to censorship in Portugal. The main subjects of his subject were mostly exile, emigration, traveling in general, the political situation in his country and other parts of the world. His very first publication was in the left-wing magazine " Seara Nova "; It was followed by numerous other articles in magazines and newspapers such as O Sol , Alma Nova , Republica , O Seculo , Diario de Noticias . The travel stories and reports that he had made about his extensive travels through Europe also appeared in Seara Nova . He also worked as a translator, for example the novel The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald was first translated into Portuguese, as was the work of Stendhal , Erskine Caldwell and Carson McCullers . He was in regular correspondence with a large number of personalities, such as Raul Proença , Jaime Cortesão , António Sérgio , David Mourão-Ferreira , José Cardoso Pires , Jorge de Sena , Aquilino Ribeiro , José Saramago . In addition to English, parts of his work have also been translated into Italian, German, Polish, Czech and Russian, especially for anthologies.

Aftermath and reception

After his death, Brown University administered the writer's legacy and convened symposiums. In 1981 Brown University, where his estate is also administered in the local John Hay Library, set up the first international Miguéis symposium in New York: Under the title " José Rodrigues Miguéis-Lisbon in Manhattan ", friends met, Companions and researchers for a first exchange about the life and work of the man. In 1983 the archive was set up at the Hay Library, which is regularly visited by researchers and supporters from the USA and Portugal, but also from Great Britain, Italy, Spain and France. The second international Miguéis Simposium took place in 2001 in Lisbon. The reception of the person and author Miguéis increased sharply after the end of the dictatorship and his death in Portugal: There is a street in Lisbon that is named after the author ( Rua de José Rodrigues Miguéis ), a large documentary from 1998 worked on his life and work and let great personalities from his life have their say, u. a. Eduardo Lourenço , who researched his work and his wife Camilla, who was still very old at the time. For the program " Os grandes Portugueses ", which was looking for the greatest Portuguese, he was one of the candidates - albeit in the back seats. The American publicist and literary scholar John Austin Kerr jr . wrote his dissertation on the work of Miguéis as early as 1970 - during the author's lifetime . He received the special honor from the Smithsonian Institute , in 1961, a phonogram with poems by important Portuguese poets, such as António Nobre , António Botto , Cesário Verde , Fernando Pessoa , Antero de Quental and others. a. in order to leave a legacy of the Portuguese language and culture for future generations of scholars and interested people.

Interpreter of Luso-American culture

In addition to figures as diverse as Cardinal Humberto Sousa Medeiros , John Philip Sousa and John Dos Passos as well as Jorge de Sena, he is considered to be an important representative of the common American and Portuguese culture. The culture, which to this day has always been rather quiet and never achieved great influence in the USA, shaped the USA especially in the areas of religion (Catholicism) and literature. Miguéis' contribution to this is primarily his literature, which was written in Portuguese in the USA and was also available in English in the United States, his commitment to academic operations in New York, which earned him numerous friends and the Portuguese community in the USA, with which he was strongly connected. A reappraisal of this significance will be of eminent importance for future generations of Americans of Portuguese descent.

Work (selection)

Volumes of stories

  • Uma adventura inquietante, 1958.
  • A escola do paraiso, 1960.
  • Nikalai! Nikalai! Segredo de a mumia, 1971.
  • O pao nao cai do ceu, 1981 (posthumous).

Volumes of short stories

  • Pascoa Feliz, 1932.
  • Leah e outros historicos, 1958.
  • Comercio com o imimigo, 1973.

Play

  • O passageiro do Expresso, 1960.

Essays

  • O espelho polidornico, 1973.

Awards (selection)

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personal data
SURNAME Rodrigues Miguéis, José
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rodrigues Miguéis, José Claudino
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1980
Place of death New York City , USA