Urbano Tavares Rodrigues,
GCIH (December 6, 1923 – August 9, 2013) was a
Portuguese professor of literature, a literary critic and a fiction writer, winner of many literary prizes.
Life
Urbano Tavares Rodrigues was born in Lisbon on December 6, 1923, son of a family of large landowners of
Moura, Alentejo.
He attended primary school in Moura.
After moving to Lisbon he joined the Camões Lyceum (''Liceu Camões''), where he was a fellow student of
Luís Lindley Cintra and Antonio, brother of
Vasco Gonçalves
General Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves Order of Aviz, OA (; Lisbon 3 May 1921 – 11 June 2005) was a Portugal, Portuguese army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution and later served as Prime Minister of Portug ...
He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...
, where he studied Romance
Philology
Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
.
He was a friend of
Mário Soares
Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...
from his youth, although they did not always agree over politics.
Rodrigues was an activist in opposition to the authoritarian ''
Estado Novo'' regime, which made it difficult for him to find work as a teacher.
He was always linked to the
Portuguese Communist Party
The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...
.
He spent some time in prison in
Caxias, and for a long period he was in exile in France.
He met some of the intellectuals of the 1950s in Paris, including
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist. He was the recipient of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the s ...
, who became a friend.
He taught at the French universities of Montpellier, Aix and the Sorbonne in Paris.
He moved back to Portugal after the return of freedom of expression and democracy in Portugal on April 25, 1974.
In 1984 he obtained a PhD in Literature for a thesis on the work of
Manuel Teixeira Gomes
Manuel Teixeira Gomes (27 May 1860 – 18 October 1941) was a Portuguese politician who served as the 7th president of Portugal from 1923 to 1925.
Personal life
Manuel Teixeira Gomes was born in Vila Nova de Portimão, the son of José Líba ...
.
In 1993 he retired from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon as a full professor.
Rodrigues wrote for various magazines and newspapers, including the ''Bulletin des Études Portugaises'', ''Colóquio-Letras'', ''Jornal de Letras'', ''Vértice'' and ''Nouvel Ovservateur''.
He was director of the review ''Europa'' and theater critic for the journals ''O Século'' and ''Diário de Lisboa''.
He was a co-founder of the Minotauro publishing house with
Figueiredo Sobral.
This company published the Minotauro magazine.
Rodrigues was a member of the Lisbon Academy of Science and the Academy of
Brazilian Literature.
He received various literary awards including the Prémio Ricardo Malheiros, the prizes of the International Association of Literary Critics and of the Cultural Press, and the grand prize of Conto
Camilo Castelo Branco.
Urbano Tavares Rodrigues died at the Capuchin Hospital in Lisbon on August 9, 2013.
Selected bibliography
Novels
* 1959 - ''Uma Pedrada no Charco''
* 1961; 2003 - ''Os Insubmissos''
* 1962; 1982 - ''Exílio Perturbado''
* 1966; 1988 - ''Imitação da Felicidade''
* 1967; 1974 - ''Despedidas de Verão''
* 1968 - ''Tempo de Cinzas''
* 1974; 1999 - ''Dissolução''
* 1979; 1986 - ''Desta Água Beberei''
* 1986; 1987 - ''A Vaga de Calor''
* 1989 - ''Filipa nesse Dia''
* 1991 - ''Violeta e a Noite''
* 1993 - ''Deriva''
* 1995 - ''A Hora da Incerteza''
* 1997 - ''O Ouro e o Sonho''
* 1998 - ''O Adeus à Brisa''
* 2000 - ''O Supremo Interdito''
* 2002 - ''Nunca Diremos quem sois''
* 2006 - ''Ao contrário das Ondas''
Travels
* 1949 - ''Santiago de Compostela''
* 1956 - ''Jornadas no Oriente''
* 1958 - ''Jornadas na Europa''
* 1963 - ''De Florença a Nova Iorque''
* 1973 - ''Viagem à União Soviética e Outras Páginas''
* 1973 - ''Redescoberta da França''
* 1976 - ''Registos de Outono Quente''
* 1999 - ''Agosto no Cairo: 1956''
Essays
* 1950 - ''Manuel Teixeira Gomes''
* 1954 - ''Présentation de castro Alves''
* 1957 - ''O Tema da Morte na Moderna Poesia Portuguesa''
* 1960; 1981 - ''O Mito de Don Juan''
* 1960 - ''Teixeira Gomes e a Reacção Antinaturalista''
* 1961 - ''Noites de Teatro''
* 1962; 2001 - ''O Algarve na Obra de Teixeira Gomes''
* 1964 - ''O Romance Francês Contemporâneo''
* 1966; 1978 - ''O Tema da Morte: Ensaios''
* 1966; 1978 - ''Realismo, Arte de Vanguarda e Nova Cultura''
* 1968 - ''A Saudade na Poesia Portuguesa''
* 1969 - ''Escritos Temporais''
* 1971; 2001 - ''Ensaios de Escreviver''
* 1977 - ''Ensaios de Após-Abril''
* 1980 - ''O Gosto de Ler''
* 1981 - ''Um Novo Olhar sobre o Neo-Realismo''
* 1984 - ''Manuel Teixeira Gomes: O Discurso do Desejo''
* 1993 - ''A Horas e Desoras''
* 1994 - ''Tradição e ruptura''
* 1995 - ''O Homem sem Imagem''
* 2001 - ''O Texto sobre o Texto''
* 2003 - ''A Flor da Utopia''
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues, Urbano Tavares
1923 births
2013 deaths
Portuguese Communist Party politicians
Portuguese male writers
University of Lisbon alumni
Portuguese communists
Portuguese atheists