Robèrt Lafont (; March 16, 1923 in Nîmes – June 24, 2009 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

) was a French

intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and reflection about the reality of society, and who proposes solutions for the normative problems of society. Coming from the world of culture, either as a creator or a ...

from

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. He was a

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

, an author, an historian, an expert in literature and a political theoretician. His name in French reads Robert Lafont.

Biography

Robèrt Lafont was professor emeritus at the Paul-Valéry University of Montpellier. A professional linguist, he was a

polyglot Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Eu ...

, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist and a

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vo ...

. A versatile writer, Lafont wrote nearly a hundred books in Occitan, French,

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. The wide scope of themes he explores includes the history of literature and of society, linguistics and

sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

and the social-economic imbalance in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In the essays he wrote in French, Robèrt Lafont tackles the problems encountered not only by the people of Occitania but also the various minorities struggling for official recognition under French rule, such as

Bretons The Bretons (; br, Bretoned or ''Vretoned,'' ) are a Celtic ethnic group native to Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mo ...

Catalans Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citize ...

, Basques, Corsicans or Alsatians among others. Lafont is a key figure in the analysis of ''

internal colonialism Internal colonialism is the uneven effects of economic development on a regional basis, otherwise known as " uneven development" as a result of the exploitation of minority groups within a wider society which leads to political and economic inequali ...

'', as far as '' lo País'' is concerned. On the other hand, the Occitan side of his works stands out as a revolutionary change in the literary production in '' la lenga nòstra'', inasmuch as it completely breaks off with the more usual tradition of folklore and tales. Robèrt Lafont founded the Occitan Committee for Study and Action (COEA) and ran a number of reviews, most notably ''L'Ase negre'' (''The Black Donkey'') in 1946 and ''Viure'' (''Live'') in 1962. He also produced and sponsored social theatre. He became the chairman of the

Institut d'Estudis Occitans The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (English: Occitan Studies Institute or Institute for Occitan Studies; ), or IEO, is a cultural association that was founded in 1945 by a group of Occitan and French writers including Jean Cassou, Tristan Tzara, Isma ...

but left in 1981 following internal disagreements with Ives Roqueta in particular. In 1974, he claimed to be interested in running for French presidency but never managed to meet the legal prerequisites.

Works

Poetry

* ''Dire'' (1945–53) (''Tell'') * ''La Loba'' (1959) (''The She-Wolf'') * ''Poèma a l'estrangièra'' (1960) (''A Poem to the Foreign Girl'') * ''Aire liure'' (1974) (''Open Air'') * ''Lausa per un solèu mòrt e reviudat'' (1984) (''A Slate for a Dead Sun Born Again'')

Prose

* ''Vida de Joan Larsinhac'' (''The Life of Joan Larsinhac'') (1951

* ''L'Icòna dins l'iscla'' (1971) (''The Icon on the Island''

* ''Lo Decameronet'' (1983) (''The Little

Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...

''

* ''La Fèsta'' (1983–84), (''The Party'') ''Lo Cavalier de març'' (''The March Rider'') & ''Lo Libre de Joan'' (''The Book of Joan'') * ''L'Enclaus'' (1992) (''The Enclosure'')

Drama

* ''Dòm Esquichòte (1973) (

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

) * ''Lei Cascavèus'' (1977) (''The Male Genitals'') * ''La Croisade'' (1983) (''The Crusade''), in French

Essays in French

* ''La Révolution régionaliste'' (''The Regionalist Revolution'') (1967) * ''Sur la France'' (''On

'') (1968) * ''Décoloniser en France'' (''Decolonizing France'') (1971) * ''Le Travail et la langue'' (''Working & the Language'') (1978) * ''Nous, Peuple Européen'' (''We European People'') (1991) * ''La Nation, l'État, les Régions'' (''Nation, State & Regions'') (1993)

External links

*
Jorn Publishing House
*
Video of an Interview
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lafont, Robert 1923 births 2009 deaths Occitan-language writers Occitan linguists 20th-century French non-fiction writers People from Nîmes 20th-century French male writers