Adolfo Casais Monteiro

Adolfo Vítor Casais Monteiro (Porto, July 4, 1908 - São Paulo, Brasil, July 23/24, 1972) was a Portuguese essayist, poet and writer.

Biography

Graduated in History and Philosophy at University of Porto (Faculdade de Letras), where he was colleague of Agostinho da Silva and Delfim Santos, in 1933. Was also at Porto he started as high school teacher at Liceu Rodrigues de Freitas, till the time he was prevented from exercising a teaching career by dictatorship for political reasons in 1937. He would eventually go to exile in Brasil in 1954 for the same reasons.

Subsequently the removal of Miguel Torga, Branquinho da Fonseca and Edmundo de Bettencourt, in 1930, Adolfo Casais Monteiro was director of the Coimbra's literary journal Presença (journal), with José Régio and João Gaspar Simões. This journal would be extinguished in 1940, having contributed to the closure the political views of Casais Monteiro. He was arrested several times due to his political opinions adverse to the Estado Novo regime and directed anonymously the weekly Mundo Literário[1] in 1936 e 1937.

Prevented from teaching, Casais Monteiro goes to Lisbon, living as literary author, translator and editor. As Agostinho da Silva or Jorge de Sena, he would eventually leave to Brasil, due to his opposition to Estado Novo, witch he could not accept.[2] He also directed the journal Princípio[3] (1930) and collaborated with the journals Sudoeste[4] (1935) and Variante (1942–43).

Having participated in the celebrations of the 4th centenary of Cidade de São Paulo, in 1954, Adolfo Casais Monteiro fixed residence in Brasil, teaching since then Portuguese Literature in several Brazilian universities, namely at Universidade da Bahia in Salvador, till fixed in 1962 at Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Campus de Araraquara-SP. He wrote by then several essays and wrote as literary critic for several Brazilian newspapers, having contributed to the study of Fernando Pessoa and the Movimento da Presença.

Among his translations works is Germania, de Tacitus, published in 1941. His only novel, Adolescentes (Teenagers), was published in 1945.

His poetic work, which began in 1929 with "Confusão", was influenced by the first Portuguese modernism, approaching stylistically aestheticism of André Gide.[5] Their criticisms of concreteness were based on the idea that this aesthetic movement promoted impersonality, starting from the "'purest abstractions to build a new language to the service of nothing, a pure language, an invention of objects - in short: a beautiful toy". "While some authors describe it as independent of Surrealism others emphasize the influence that this had on the author's current aesthetic, as can be seen in his essays on authors such as Jules Supervielle, Henri Michaux e Antonin Artaud (designating the latter as unsustainable presence ). Much of his poetry is dedicated to the specific historical period in witch he lived, as in the poem "Europa", de 1945, which was read by his friend and colleague António Pedro in Literary World at the microphones of London BBC.

Married Mary Alice Pereira Gomes, also a writer and sister of Soeiro Pereira Gomes, with whom he had a son.

Works

Poetry

Novel

Translation

Essay

Epistolography

References

  1. ↑ Helena Roldão (January 27, 2014). "Ficha histórica: Mundo literário : semanário de crítica e informação literária, científica e artística (1946-1948)." (pdf). Hemeroteca Municipal de Lisboa.
  2. ↑ "Carlos Leone - Adolfo Casais Monteiro.". Instituto Camões.
  3. ↑ Princípio : publicação de cultura e política (1930) [cópia digital, Hemeroteca Digital]
  4. ↑ Sudoeste : cadernos de Almada Negreiros (1935) [cópia digital, hemeroteca Digital]
  5. ↑ João Mendes- "Adolfo Casais Monteiro", "Enciclopédia Verbo Luso-Brasileira da Cultura", volume XX, Setembro de 2001.

External links

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