Miguel Torga

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Miguel Torga from Bottelho

Miguel Torga , actually Adolfo Correira Rocha (born August 12, 1907 in São Martinho de Anta , Trás-os-Montes , Portugal ; † January 17, 1995 in Coimbra , Portugal), was a Portuguese writer , doctor , poet and novelist . He is considered to be a representative of the late phase of modernism .

Seminary and Brazil

Miguel Torga was born in 1907 as Adolfo Correira Rocha in the province of Trás-os-Montes. His father Francisco Correira Rocha, a simple worker, didn't want his son to have to "swing the hoe" as his father already did. He therefore presented him with the alternative of entering a seminary or going to Brazil. Faced with this choice, Torga entered a seminary in 1918. Over time, however, he realized that he did not want to become a priest and so he emigrated to Brazil in 1920, where he worked on his uncle's fazenda. His uncle sent him to a high school in Brazil.

Medical studies in Coimbra

In 1925 Torga returned to Portugal, where he finished high school and began studying medicine at the University of Coimbra . The academic life he got to know there sometimes irritated him. He had no good words for the unfamiliarity of some of his fellow students. In 1928, his first volume of poetry, Ansiedade (Anxiety, Anxiety, Desire), appeared and he began to work for the literary magazine Presença . After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a country doctor in his home country.

Writer and Oppositionist

In 1934 he published A Terceira Voz (The Third Voice) - the first publication under the pseudonym he used from then on: Miguel Torga. Miguel based on Miguel de Cervantes and Miguel de Unamuno and Torga after a tough heather that grows in the mountains. In 1936 he traveled to various European countries, then settled in Leiria as a doctor and finally moved to Coimbra, where he married the literary scholar Andrée Crabbé. Having fallen into the resentment of the Salazar regime due to his political opposition , he was arrested in 1939 and jailed for three months. More arrests followed. Torga self-published almost all of his books. He wrote poems, short stories and novels and is known as an extensive diary writer. In 1989 he was awarded the prestigious Prémio Camões for his work .

Works

Poetry

  • Rampa . (1930)
  • Tributo . (1931)
  • Abismo . (1932)
  • O Outro Livro de Job . (1936)
  • Lamentação . (1943)
  • Libertação . (1944)
  • Odes . (1946)
  • Nihil Sibi . (1948)

Novels and short stories

  • O Senhor Ventura . Novelle (1943, Ger . Senhor Ventura , 1992. From the Portuguese by Curt Meyer-Clason )
  • Vindima . Roman (1945, dt. Vintage 1997. Aus, 2nd ed., The Portug. Erika Farny)

Volumes of stories

  • Bichos . (1940, German animals , 1989. From the Portuguese by Curt Meyer-Clason)
  • Contos da Montanha . (1941)
  • Novos Contos da Montanha . (1944, German New Stories from the Mountains , 1990. From the Portuguese by Curt Meyer-Clason)

Diaries

  • Diário, Vols. I – VIII . (1941-1959)
  • Diário, Vols. IX – XVI . (1964-1993)

Autofiction

  • A Criação do Mundo . (1937–1981, German The Creation of the World , 1991. From the Portuguese by Curt Meyer-Clason)

Dramas

  • Terra firme . (1941)
  • Mar . (1941)
  • O Paraíso . (1949)

Contemporary history: travelogues, political essays

  • Portugal . (1950)

literature

  • Curt Meyer-Clason : The giant from the mountains - Miguel Torga. In: Henry Thorau (ed.): Portuguese literature. Frankfurt a. M. 1997.
  • Kian-Harald Karimi: Miguel Torga . In: Wolf-Dieter Lange (Ed.): Critical Lexicon of Contemporary Romance Literature. 1992, 18 pp.
  • Richard Wall: Miguel Torga: Portugal's Forgotten Poet ", In: Richard Wall: Small luggage. From another Europe", Kitab Verlag, Klagenfurt 2013

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Torga, Miguel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Correira Rocha, Adolfo (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 12, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Sao Martinho de Anta , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1995
Place of death Coimbra , Portugal