Urbano Tavares Rodrigues

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 He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, where he studied Romance Philology. He was a friend of Mário Soares 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. 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, 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. 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