Joan Maragall i Gorina (; 10 October 1860 in Barcelona – 20 December 1911) was a Spanish poet, journalist and

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, the foremost member of the ''

modernisme ''Modernisme'' (, Catalan for "modernism"), also known as Catalan modernism and Catalan art nouveau, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan culture ...

'' movement in literature. His manuscripts are preserved in the Joan Maragall Archive of Barcelona.

Life

Maragall's upper-class family was dedicated to the flourishing

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in Barcelona, and after finishing school, Joan Maragall took on his father's job. Having never liked his family's trade, he decided to go to university instead, where he studied law to his father's great disappointment. However, he dropped out of school and married Clara Noble with whom he had 13 children. In 1904 he won all three prizes awarded by the '' Jocs Florals'' in Barcelona, and was proclaimed ''Mestre en Gai Saber''. His private home in

Sant Gervasi Sant may refer to: People * Alfred Sant (born 1948), Maltese politician * Andrew Sant (born 1950), English-born Australian poet * David Sant (born 1968), Catalan director, actor and writer * Indira Sant (1914–2000), Indian poet * James Sant ...

was bought by the Biblioteca de Catalunya and can be visited. He died in 1911 and was buried at the Sant Gervasi Cemetery Barcelona. His grandson, Pasqual Maragall, would become mayor of Barcelona and then

President of Catalonia The President of the Government of Catalonia ( ca, President de la Generalitat de Catalunya, ) is one of the bodies that the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia stipulates as part of the Generalitat de Catalunya, others being the Parliament, the gov ...

Work

Maragall's poetry was based on themes drawn from human life and nature. Highly influenced by German-language authors such as Nietzsche,

Novalis Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...

and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

, all of which he translated into Catalan, his poetry went through periods of

decadentism The Decadent movement (Fr. ''décadence'', “decay”) was a late-19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. The Decadent movement first flourished ...

and

vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

. He is best known for his 'theory of the living word', or ''teoria de la paraula viva'', which advocated Nietzschean vitalism and spontaneous or even imperfect writing over colder and over-thought poetry. In addition to his poetry writing, Maragall published journalism in avant-garde magazines of the time—including L'Avenç, Catalònia and Luz—where he became the leading proponent of Catalan modernisme. Maragall supported Iberian Federalism.

Poetic works

*''Poesies'' (1895) *''Visions i Cants'' (1900) *''Les Disperses'' (1904) *''Enllà'' (1906),

Fastenrath Award Two institutions grant the Fastenrath Awards: Fundación Premio Fastenrath awards writers of Spanish nationality and their Spanish works and Premi Fastenrath for Catalan works. Both were instituted with the posthumous legacy of Johannes Fastenrath ...

1910. *''Seqüències'' (1911) **includes the poem ''

La fageda d'en Jordà LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States. La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * La (musical note), or A, the sixth note * "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...

Digitized works

Digitization is available through the porta
El món de Joan Maragall: Col·lecció visual de la vida i l'obra de l'autor
or directly a
Memòria Digital de Catalunya

References

External links

Maragall Archive at National Library of Catalonia

Digitized works of Joan Maragall
at National Library of Catalonia
Year Joan Maragall 2010-2011
*

(Spanish)
Vídeo ''Joan Maragall''
(Catalan)
Joan Maragall vist per Jordi Maragall i Noble
(Spanish) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maragall, Joan 1860 births 1911 deaths Poets from Catalonia Writers from Barcelona Modernisme architects Renaixença writers Modernisme writers German–Catalan translators 19th-century translators Members of the Institute for Catalan Studies