Miguel Esteves Cardoso

Miguel Vincente Esteves Cardoso (born July 25, 1955 in Lisbon , Portugal ) is an important Portuguese writer and journalist. He works as a novelist , critic, columnist, magazine founder, translator, radio play author, blogger, screenwriter and journalist.

He became a cult figure in Portugal through his music reviews, his music columns and the unusual topics he deals with in his literature. He is often affectionately referred to as "MEC" (consisting of his name, Miguel Esteves Cardoso) by his fans, opponents and colleagues in the media. The author and his work are considered very eccentric. He is also often referred to as the " enfant terrible " of Portuguese journalism.

Life

Cardoso was born to the Portuguese military officer Joaquim Carlos Esteves Cardoso and the English Hazel Diana Smith. He had an extremely happy childhood and was considered a model student in all subjects. He also discovered his talent for writing as a teenager. He studied political science at the University of Manchester , was close to the punk scene during this time and after his first attempts as a critic for Portuguese youth magazines at the end of the 1970s he even came into contact with Joy Division , whom he was able to interview. He graduated from the University of Manchester in 1979. He returned there to complete his PhD in philosophy in 1983 , which he defended there. He did his doctorate on the subject of the Saudade , Sebastianism and Portuguese Integralism . (A Saudade, o Sebastianismo eo integralismo lusitano). He then started working as a journalist for various Portuguese newspapers. In his columns he wrote about pop music such as Joy Division and Abba , but was also able to denounce the exploitation of Portugal by the EU. His columns always caused a stir and had many fans. As a journalist he worked for newspapers such as O Jornal, O Expresso and Diario de Lisboa. As a music critic also for special Portuguese music magazines such as "Se7e" or "Musica e som".

In 1988 he founded the legendary weekly " O Independente " (The Independent) together with the right-wing populist Paulo Portas . The newspaper completely turned the hitherto sleepy media landscape in Portugal upside down, partly because Cardoso managed to interview all of the prominent political and cultural celebrities who were really important in Portugal until he left the newspaper . Writers, painters, lyric poets, ministers, presidents of the republic, actors, sculptors, composers, singers, prime ministers, party politicians, fadistas, bullfighters, football gods, everything that has rank and name in Portugal was interviewed for this postille, regardless of the political attitude Person represented. As a young journalist, he had already said goodbye to his affinity to the punk scene after completing his studies and went in the opposite direction, where he was perceived as a conservative, liberal-conservative and monarchist who advocated the introduction of a constitutional monarchy modeled on Great Britain.

In 1990 he founded the small newspaper "Kapa" on his own, but it did not last long.

The novel "O amor e fodido" (Love is fucked up, 1994) made him known all over Portugal and became a cult figure with a steady fan base. The book became a bestseller in Portugal. Those who did not know him in Portugal up to now got to know him through television, in the talk show "Noite da má lingua" (Night of the blasphemous tongue) he became known to a large audience and was finally established in Portuguese show biz. As a screenwriter, he also wrote for television.

His affinity for the Anglophone world helped him as a translator and he mainly translated Samuel Beckett and William Butler Yeats into Portuguese.

From 1999 to 2002 he also had his own blog "Pastilhas" (pastilles). Then it got a little quieter around him and he announced that he would now mainly only work as a print journalist, since 2006 he has been working as a journalist for the newspaper " Expresso ". He is the father of twins.

Cardoso in German

His novel "O Cemitério de Raparigas" (The Girls' Cemetery) is the only book by the author that has so far been translated into German. The book, written in 1996, was published by Elfenbein-Verlag in 2001.

A story that shows the surreality and the unusual nature of its subject was published in a translation by Curt Meyer-Clason in 1989 in a geo-booklet about Portugal. The tale entitled "An Affair with Reality" brings three important figures in Portuguese history - Vasco da Gama , the Marquës de Pombal and the writer Fernando Pessoa - to Lisbon in 1989, where they meet with and for them at the same time deal with strange world. At the same time these historical figures meet each other and it is very interesting how the author lets them deal with each other. The story has not appeared in any other publication in Germany outside of this magazine.

Work (selection)

• Em carne cor de Rosa Escarnada, 1982.
• Escrita Pop (Written Pop), non-fiction book on pop literature, 1986.
• A causa das coisas (The reason of things), 1986, novel.
• Os homens, (The Men), 1993, novel.
• O amor é fodido (Love is fucked up), 1994, novel.
• A vida inteira (All Life), 1995, novel.
• O cemitério de raparigas (The Girls' Cemetery), 1996, novel.

Web links

• Review of El amor es jodido , in Spanish
• Miguel Esteves Cardoso on a Portuguese genealogy site
• Literature by and about Miguel Esteves Cardoso in the WorldCat bibliographic database
• Miguel Esteves Cardoso in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Infopedia.pt
• Miguel Esteves Cardoso on & otherstories.de
• World of poetry

literature

• Geo-Special, Portugal, No. 6, December 13, 1989, pages 24 to 26.