Carme Karr i Alfonsetti (Spanish, Carmen Karr; Barcelona, 16 March 1865 – 29 December 1943) was a Spanish Catalan

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, journalist, writer,

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and song-composer. Karr was one of the most ardent Catalan feminists of the early 20th century, together with

Dolors Monserdà Dolors Monserdà i Vidal (née, Dolors Moncerdà i Vidal; also known as, Dolors Monserdà de Macià; Barcelona, 1845 - 1919) was a Catalan writer, poet, storyteller, playwright, essayist, and columnist. She was the sister of the painter Enric Mon ...

with whom she collaborated. Her feminist philosophy, which promoted giving women the necessary tools for a profession, as well as equal rights, was frequently a subject in the journal ''

Feminal ''Feminal'' () was a feminist magazine written in Catalan and published in Barcelona, Spain. It was one of the most important feminist publications in Spain of the early 20th century. History ''Feminal'' was a Catalan language monthly suppleme ...

'', which she edited from 1907 to 1917. She frequently signed articles with the pseudonym Joana Romeu. She also wrote for ''Diario de Barcelona'', ''La Veu de Catalunya'', ''Or y Grana,''(1906–1907, where she promoted Catalan solidarity), ''Ofrena'' (1916–17), ''La Mainada'' (1922–23), ''La Actualidad'', ''Día Gráfico'' and ''Las Provincias'' of Valencia, where she sometimes used the pseudonym Xènia in reference to the name Xènius used by Eugenio d'Ors, with whom she argued in ''Joventut''.

Biography

Carme Karr's father was a French engineer and diplomat in Catalunya and her mother, who was Italian, died when Karr was an infant. She was the niece of the French novelist

Alphonse Karr Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (24 November 1808 – 29 September 1890) was a French critic, journalist, and novelist. Life Karr was born in Paris to German pianist and composer Henri Karr (1784–1842), and after being educated at the C ...

. She was raised between Barcelona and Perpignan at schools run by the Dominican order in Barcelona and Figueres. She married Josep Maria de Lasarte i de Janer in 1890 and they had four children. She is buried in the

Montjuïc Montjuïc () is a hill in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Montjuïc or Montjuich, meaning "Jewish Mountain" in medieval Latin and Catalan, is a broad, shallow hill in Barcelona with a rich history. It was the birthplace of the city, and its st ...

Cemetery in Barcelona. Though born in a foreign family, Karr was fully integrated in Catalan cultural life. She worked as a journalist, beginning with the magazine ''L’Avenç'' and later in ''Joventut''. Using the pseudonym Xènia she began a literary argument with Eugeni d’Ors, who used the pseudonym Xènius in ''La Veu de Catalunya. S''he wrote articles in Spanish and Catalan under her own name in ''Diario de Barcelona'', ''El Día Gràfico'' and in ''Las Provincias''.

Discography

* ''Compositores catalanes. Generació modernista'' (CD). Maria Teresa Garrigosa (soprano) and Heidrun Bergander (piano). La mà de guido. Dip.leg. B-45116-2008. Contains songs by

Narcisa Freixas Narcisa Freixas i Cruells (13 December 1859 – 20 December 1926) was a Catalan sculptor, painter and composer. She was born in Sabadell, Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and large ...

, Carmen Karr,

Isabel Güell i López Isabel María Francisca de Paula Luisa Clementina Güell y López (Barcelona, November 23, 1872 - Barcelona, May 8, 1956), Marquess of Castelldosrius, was a Spanish composer of religious music#Christian music, religious works, as well as a piano, p ...

, and Luisa Casagemas.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karr, Carme 1865 births 1943 deaths Women writers from Catalonia Composers from Catalonia Spanish suffragists Spanish people of French descent 20th-century Spanish musicians Feminist musicians 19th-century composers 20th-century Spanish composers 19th-century Spanish journalists 20th-century Spanish journalists 19th-century Spanish women writers 19th-century Spanish writers 20th-century Spanish women writers 20th-century Spanish writers Spanish musicologists Spanish women musicologists Writers from Barcelona Journalists from Barcelona Musicians from Barcelona 20th-century Spanish women composers 19th-century women composers 19th-century Spanish women journalists 20th-century Spanish women journalists