Narcís Oller

Bust of Narcís Oller (work by Eusebi Arnau )

Narcís Oller , from Ramon Casas ( MNAC ).

Narcís Oller i Moragas (born August 10, 1846 in Valls , Catalonia , † July 26, 1930 in Barcelona ) was a Catalan writer .

Life

His parents were Josep Oller Yxart and Rosa Moragas Tavern. After his father died early, his mother moved into her parents' house with Narcís, who was only two years old. The Moragas were one of the most important families in Valls and his mother's brother, Josep Moragas Tavern, became the father of Narcís. He grew up in an intellectual and liberal environment.

The first literature that he read from the extensive library of his uncle and later tutor were books of the French Classical period , but especially French and Spanish Romanticism . His penchant for modern French literature remained ; later also for Russian .

Following the example of his uncle, he first studied law in Barcelona. There he developed into a "convinced democrat". But the revolution of 1868 disappointed and alienated him from politics. In keeping with his origins, he now felt himself to be a moderate liberal and conservative Catalanist . In 1873 he entered the administrative service of the province of Barcelona as a lawyer . At the same time he continued his literary work.

After ten years as a writer, during which he wrote romantic works in Spanish with little success , he switched to realism writers . He had met Émile Zola and was drawn to the style of the French naturalists ever since .

He also began to write in Catalan. In view of the restrictions that the Catalan language was subject to in literature, Narcís Oller is considered to be the founder of the modern Catalan novella and is considered a symbol of the Renaixença (Catalan for "rebirth"). His change of language gave the Jocs Florals a strong boost from 1877 onwards. In this "poet contest" he received the main prize in 1879, 1880 and 1884 for his works.

In the emerging modernism with new literary tendencies and writers, Narcís Oller found no more place. His resignation was heightened by the deaths of two critics he valued, his friend Joan Sardà and his cousin Josep Yxart Moragas , with whom he grew up. Her influence had been decisive in his turning to realism.

plant

Narcís Oller is considered the most important Catalan language novelist . His first novel , La papallona (The Butterfly), published in 1882 , appeared soon afterwards in French with a foreword by Zola . His most famous work is next to L'escanyapobres (1884; in German: The Vampyr, 1920 and 1954) and Vilaniu (1885), the novel La febre d'or (1890-1892, The gold fever), which the economic dynamism in Barcelona Gründerzeit has on the topic.

• Thaw, narrative, in Catalan narrators , Zurich, Manesse Verlag 1978, new edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-7175-1558-6

He translated u. a. also works by Tolstoy , Goldoni and Dumas .

Web links

Commons : Narcís Oller  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Narcís Oller in the catalog of the German National Library