Urbano Tavares Rodrigues

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Urbano Augusto Tavares Rodrigues (born December 6, 1923 in Lisbon ; † August 9, 2013 there ) was a Portuguese writer . As a novelist , critic , playwright , essayist and narrator , he has created an extensive body of work. Some of his works have been translated into German. His engagement against the dictatorship of the Estado Novo made him one of the most prominent intellectuals in Portugal from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Life

Tavares Rodrigues was born in 1923 to the journalist Urbano Rodrigues . He spent his childhood in the Alentejo . He studied Romance languages at the University of Lisbon, where he also received his doctorate. Then he went to France, where he was professor of the Portuguese language at the Sorbonne in Paris , Aix-en-Provence and Montpellier from 1949 to 1955 . In 1955 he returned to Portugal. During this time he worked as a translator and journalist for the Diário de Lisboa newspaper . From 1974 to 1993 he was a lecturer in literature at the University of Lisbon.

His first book, a volume of short stories, appeared in 1952. After that he also wrote for many magazines and newspapers. In 1975 he was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). He was married to the writer Maria Judite de Carvalho until her death in 1998 .

Because of his political engagement against the Salazar and Caetano dictatorship, he was in prison because he had been involved in the election campaign for the opposition presidential candidate General Humberto Delgado . He was also massively involved in student protests. For a time he had to go underground because of his commitment to the Communist Party and lived in Czechoslovakia and Cuba . Through his work he became one of Portugal's leading intellectuals in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and which, although critical, was not banned or censored by clever camouflage .

The writer has published countless books, most recently in 2011. His first novel Bastardos do Sol ( bastards of the sun , transl .: Gudrun Hohl, Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1978) is his best known. He mainly wrote about the Alentejo and the living conditions there and the cosmopolitan Lisbon with its sunny and dark sides. He dedicated the play As Torres Milenárias to Che Guevara . The play is very popular with ufologists and ufofans, as it brings an invasion of aliens onto the theater stage and was one of the first in Portugal to deal with the subject in literature.

He was a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences and a corresponding member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras in Rio de Janeiro (cadeira 3).

Works (selection)

  • A Porta dos Limites . Stories, 1952.
  • Bastardos do Sol . Novelle, 1959. (German: Bastarde der Sonne . Translator: Gudrun Hohl, Verlag Neues Leben 1978).
  • Os insubmissos . Roman, 1961.
  • As Torres Milenárias . Theater, 1971.
  • Desta Água quivering . Roman, 1979.
  • A Vaga de Calor . Roman, 1986. (German: Die Hitzewelle . Translator: Curt Meyer-Clason , Altius-Verlag 1997).
  • O Adeus à Brisa . Roman, 1998.
  • A Flor da Utopia . Essay, 2003

An anthology with short stories in German translation was published in 1982 under the title Schwarzer Karneval by Philipp Reclam in Leipzig.

Awards (selection)

  • 1966: Prémio da Impresa Cultural
  • 1982: Prémio Aquilino Ribeiro
  • 1991: Prémio Fernando Namora

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Morreu o escritor Urbano Tavares Rodrigues. In: RTP Notícias of August 9, 2013 (Portuguese).
personal data
SURNAME Rodrigues, Urbano Tavares
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rodrigues, Urbano Augusto Tavares (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon , Portugal
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 2013
Place of death Lisbon , Portugal