José María Álvarez (31 May 1942 – 7 July 2024) was a Spanish poet and novelist.

Life and career

José María Álvarez was born in

Cartagena, Spain Cartagena () is a Spanish city belonging to the Region of Murcia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants. The city lies in a natural harbor of the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. Cartage ...

on 31 May 1942. He studied Philosophy and Letters in the

University of Murcia The University of Murcia () is the primary institute of higher education in Murcia, Spain. With a student population of approximately 38,000, it is the largest university in the Region of Murcia. Founded in 1272 AD, the University of Murcia is ...

, Philosophy in the Sorbonne and subsequently both History and Geography in Spanish universities. The principal work of Álvarez is ''Museo de cera'' (Wax Museum), which was a work in progress for many years due to the author's endeavouring to complete a unique and all-encompassing book (''un libro único y totalizador''). In the last edition, Álvarez finally brought the cycle to a conclusion. Álvarez also translated into Spanish the work of, among others,

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, the complete works of Constantine P. Cavafy, and the poems from the years of madness of

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. Álvarez followed a number of the trends in contemporary

Spanish poetry This article concerns poetry in Spain. Medieval Spain The Medieval period covers 400 years of different poetry texts and can be broken up into five categories. Primitive lyrics Since the findings of the Kharjas, which are mainly two, three, ...

, passing from socially aware poetry to a culturalism deriving from his life experience. His protagonist is no revolutionary wishing to change lives, but a bon vivant, a disdainer of vulgarity, and a lover of lost causes. His poems are often bipartite, consisting of an introductory quote (allusions to cinema mythography, theatrical dialogues, fragments of novels, poems, essays, song lyrics, etc.) and the poem itself, which attempts to organise chaos, to explain an incomprehensible world. Álvarez died on 7 July 2024, at the age of 82.

Bibliography

* 1999, ''La lágrima de Ahab'' (The tear of Ahab)Álvarez, José María (Álvarez1999), ''La lágrima de Ahab'', Visor Libros, , 133 pages, * 2003, ''Los decorados del olvido'' (The stage sets of oblivion), a volume of his reminiscences.,Álvarez, José María (Álvarez2004), ''Los decorados del olvido'', Editorial Renacimiento a poetic work reflecting, generally in a sarcastic tone, on sex and society.

References

External links (in Spanish)

CTpedia

Poems of José María Álvarez

* José María Álvarez
El Gaviero Ediciones
Almería, 2005). {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Jose Maria 1942 births 2024 deaths University of Murcia alumni University of Paris alumni 21st-century Spanish poets Spanish male poets Writers from Cartagena, Spain Spanish expatriates in France 21st-century Spanish male writers