Urbano Tavares Rodrigues, GCIH (December 6, 1923 – August 9, 2013) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

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 __NOTOC__ Luís Filipe Lindley Cintra (5 March 1925 – 18 August 1991) was a prominent figure in Portuguese philology and linguistics. A prolific writer with over 80 published works, he was a keen student of the historical differentiation during t ...

and Antonio, brother of

Vasco Gonçalves General Vasco dos Santos Gonçalves OA (; Lisbon 3 May 1921 – 11 June 2005) was a Portuguese army officer in the Engineering Corps who took part in the Carnation Revolution and later served as the 104th Prime Minister from 18 July 1974 to ...

He graduated from the Faculty of Arts of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

, where he studied Romance Philology. He was a friend of

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, GColTE, GCC, GColL (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the 17th presid ...

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 ( pt, Partido Comunista Português, , PCP) is a communist, Marxist–Leninist political party in Portugal based upon democratic centralism. The party also considers itself patriotic and internationalist,Portugue ...

. 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, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...

, 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, GCSE (; 27 May 1860 – 18 October 1941) was a Portuguese politician and writer. He served as the seventh president of Portugal between 5 October 1923 and 11 December 1925. Personal life Manuel Teixeira Gomes was born ...

. 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 Figueiredo Sobral (1926 – 13 August 2010) was a Portuguese painter, sculptor and poet. His monumental sculptures and murals are displayed in public spaces in Portugal and Brazil. His work is held in many public and private collections. Life Jo ...

. 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

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues, Urbano Tavares 1923 births 2013 deaths Portuguese Communist Party politicians Portuguese male writers University of Lisbon alumni Portuguese communists Portuguese atheists