Vicente Aleixandre
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Vicente Aleixandre | |
|---|---|
 Aleixandre in 1977 | |
| Born | Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo 26 April 1898 Seville,Spain |
| Died | 14 December 1984(aged 86) Madrid,Spain |
| Occupation | Poet |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 1977 |
| SeatOof theReal Academia Española | |
| In office 22 January 1950 – 14 December 1984 | |
| Preceded by | Félix de Llanos y Torriglia |
| Succeeded by | Pere Gimferrer |
Vicente Pío Marcelino Cirilo Aleixandre y Merlo(Spanish pronunciation:[biˈθentealejɣˈsandɾe];26 April 1898 – 14 December 1984) was a Spanish poet who was born inSeville.[1]Aleixandre received theNobel Prize for Literaturein1977[2]"for a creative poetic writing which illuminates man's condition in the cosmos and in present-day society, at the same time representing the great renewal of the traditions of Spanish poetry between the wars".[3]He was part of theGeneration of '27.
Aleixandre's early poetry, which he wrote mostly in free verse, is highlysurrealistic.It also praises the beauty of nature by using symbols that represent the earth and the sea. Many of Aleixandre's early poems are filled with sadness. They reflect his feeling that people have lost the passion and free spirit that he saw in nature. He was one of the greatest poets of Spanish literature alongside Cernuda and Lorca.[4]The melancholia of his poetry was also the melancholy of failed or ephemeral love affairs.[5]
Aleixandre's bisexuality was well known to his circle of friends, but he never admitted it publicly. He had a long-term love relationship with the poetCarlos Bousoño.[6]
He died on 14 December 1984 inMadrid,aged 86.[7]
His works[edit]
His early collections of poetry includePassion of the Earth(1935) andDestruction or Love(1933). In 1944, he wroteShadow of Paradise,the poetry where he first began to concentrate on themes such as fellowship, friendliness, and spiritual unity. His later books of poetry includeHistory of the Heart(1954) andIn a Vast Dominion(1962).
Aleixandre studied law at theUniversity of Madrid.Selections of his work were translated into English inTwenty Poems of Vicente Aleixandre(1977) andA Longing for the Light: Selected Poems of Vincent Aleixandre(1979;Copper Canyon Press,2007) translated byLewis Hyde.
During theCivil WarAleixandre was among the contributors ofEl Mono Azul,a Republican cultural magazine.[8]
Pure poetry[edit]
His first book,Ámbito,written between 1924 and 1927 and published inMálagain 1928, is the work of an incipient poet who has not yet found his own voice. The assonated short verse andart for art's sakeaesthetics ofJuan Ramón JiménezandJorge Guillénprevail, in addition to theultraisticechoes of classical Spanish poetry from theGolden Age,especiallyFray Luis de LeónandGóngora.
Surreal poetry[edit]
In the following years, between 1928 and 1932, there is a radical change in Aleixandre's poetic conception. Inspired by the predecessors ofsurrealism(especiallyArthur RimbaudandLautréamont) and byFreud,he adoptsprose poetry(Passion of the Earth,1935),free verse,and plainly surreal methods such as free verse and the visionary image (Swords like Lips,1932;Destruction or Love,1935;Shadow of Paradise,1944) as his form of expression. The aesthetics of these poems are irrational, and the expression comes close to "flow", even without accepting it as a dogma of faith. Along with surrealism, the poet does not take on any tradition, not even the metric, and frees himself.Luis Cernudacould say: "Your verse is like nothing else." And in effect his style brings unpublished stylistic novelties such as the invertedsimile(Swords like Lips) or the equivalent disjunctive nexus (Destruction or Love), thehyperboleadds, the uncoded dreamsymbol,enriching without question the stylistic possibilities of the Spanish poetic language, just asGarcilaso,GóngoraandRubén Darío,each one a great renovator of lyric language, did in the past. The poet celebrates love as a natural, ungovernable force that breaks down all human limitations and criticizes the conventionalism with which society attempts to conquer it.
Popular culture[edit]
- A sculptural monument to Aleixandre, designed by the Spanish artist Juan López Ballesteros, is installed in la plaza mayor in Madrid, Spain.[9][10]
- The Spanish government has issued several postage stamps featuring portraits of Aleixandre, including a centenary series in 2001.[11]
- Poesin blev min räddning (1977), documentary directed by Humberto López y Guerra about the Spanish Literature Nobel Prize Winner Vicente Aleixandre produced for Swedish Television TV1-Kultur
References[edit]
- ^Vicente Aleixandre Criticism.enotes
- ^"Biografía español. Vicente Aleixandre, poeta español. Biblioteca español. Instituto Cervantes".cervantes.es.Retrieved21 May2023.
- ^The Nobel Prize in Literature 1977,Nobelprize.org
- ^Vilaseca, David (2003).Hindsight and the Real: Subjectivity in Gay Hispanic Autobiography.Oxford, bern, Berlin, New York: Peter Lang. p. 30.ISBN9783039100095.
- ^William Foster, David (1999).Spanish Writers on Gay and Lesbian Themes: A Bio-critical Sourcebook.Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 26–7.ISBN0313303320.
- ^Fernández, Víctor (6 March 2016)."Las cartas de amor de Vicente Aleixandre a Carlos Bousoño".La Razón.
- ^Sorela, Pedro (14 December 1984)."Vicente Aleixandre será enterrado hoy en el cemneterio de la Almudena".El País(in Spanish).ISSN1134-6582.Retrieved21 May2023.
- ^Silvina Schammah Gesser; Alexandra Cheveleva Dergacheva (2018)."An Engagé in Spain: Commitment and Its Downside in Rafael Alberti's Philo-Sovietism".In Raanan Rein; Joan Maria Thomás (eds.).Spain 1936: Year Zero.Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. p. 194.ISBN978-1845198923.
- ^días, Chamberí 30 (17 September 2018)."TRIBUNA ABIERTA: Sobre la autoría del monumento a Vicente Aleixandre".chamberi30dias.es(in Spanish).Retrieved23 October2020.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^"El busto de Aleixandre será colocado en la plaza Mayor".El País(in Spanish). 11 November 1978.ISSN1134-6582.Retrieved23 October2020.
- ^"Philatelia.Net: The literature / Stamps / Vicente Aleixandre".philatelia.net.Retrieved23 October2020.
External links[edit]
- Vicente Aleixandreon Nobelprize.org
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- Nobel laureates in Literature
- Spanish Nobel laureates
- Writers from Seville
- Members of the Royal Spanish Academy
- 1898 births
- 1984 deaths
- Generation of '27
- Complutense University of Madrid alumni
- LGBT Nobel laureates
- Spanish LGBT poets
- Spanish male poets
- 20th-century Spanish poets
- Surrealist poets
- Spanish surrealist writers