Joan Maragall i Gorina (1860-1911)

Works:

Poesy
POESIES (1895)
Excelsior
La vaca cega
Les minves del gener
L’Oda infinita
Paternal

VISIONS I CANTS (1900)
Cant de Novembre
Desprès de la tempestat
El cant de la senyera
El comte Arnau
El poeta
Els tres cants de la guerra Oda a Espanya
La fi d’en Serrallonga
La sardana
L’esposa parla

LES DISPERSES (1904)
Haidé
L’Ametller
Soleiada

ENLLÀ (1906)
Vistes
al mar

SEQÜENCIES (1911)
Cant espiritual
El mar
El comte Arnau
La fageda d’en Jordà
Oda nova a Barcelona
Seguit de les vistes al mar

Articles
La patria Nueva (1902)
Articulos (1904)

La ciutat del
perdó (1909)
L’església cremada (1909)

Poems
El mal caçador
Joan Garí
La ginesta
L’Empordà
Nodreix l’amor
Pirinenques
Elogi de la paraula (1903)
Elogi de la poesia (1909)

Children lectures
Tria (1909)

Theatre
Nausica

Life:

Born in Barcelona the 10 October of 1860, being the fourth son and the sole boy of a rich family involved in textile businesses.

When he finished the higher secondary studies, and against the decision of his father, he refused to work into the familial factory.

The essential work of Maragall is write in Catalan language, but he also write in Castilian.

In 1881 he win the Natural Flower in the Jocs Florals (Floral Games are in Catalonia and in Provence, literary games) of Badalona with a poesy titled “Dins sa cambra” (Into her room).

The year 1884 he receive his degree in Law, starting since that time a crisis between his literary vacation and the familiar pressure to live in a more conventional life following the burgess principles.
The year 1891 he marries Clara Noble, with who he had 13 children.

Since 1892, Maragall develop a big activity as a promoter of the new modernity currents. This is shown in his collaboration with the leader cultural magazines of Modernisme (Art Nouveau) – l’Avenç, Catalonia and Luz -, and also in journals as “Diario de Barcelona” (Barcelona journal) and “La veu de Catalunya” (The voice of Catalonia). He also take part in other Floral games, in the Modernist Fests organized by Rusiñol in Sitges and in various prestigious literary circles as the Ateneu Barcelonès (Cultural center of Barcelona) of who he was the president.
The year 1894 he presents to the Jocs Florals of Barcelona the poem “La sardana” (wich is the national Catalan dance) wining the price of l’Englantina. In “Poesies“, he published the next year, it is possible to see his decadent tendency, also present on the poems he prepare for the Modernist Fests of Sitges he later overcame partially influenced by the vitality of Nietzche works.

In 1904, he present again a poesy “Glosa” (Gloss) to the Jocs Florals of Barcelona, being proclaimed Mestre en Gai Saber (Master in the art of troubadours), wining also the Flor Natural (the Natural Flower).

The pressure of the nascent Noucentisme (the cultural movement following the Art Nouveau in Catalonia), with the leadership of Eugeni d’Ors, force Maragall to an in deep reflection ended with a return to a most combative position following his first writings. Nevertheless he also develop a self-criticism rewriting he’s work for child “Tria” (Election) previously critiqued by Ors, and improving it to achieve the rectification of Ors.

Maragall was identified with a catholic traditionalism, following the ideas of la “Lliga Regionalista de Catalunya” (a strong Catalan national party at that time), but he never accepted to be an active politician refusing the offers of Enric Prat de la Riba and Francesc Cambò to be presented in the elections of the Parliament. This conservative tendency, also present in his writings, is the reason to classify him into a group of modernist writers – Víctor Català, Prudenci Bertrana, Puig i Ferrater – placing his characters into traditional and rural atmospheres.

The year 1906 he was very active in the “Congrés de la Llengua Catalana” (Catalan Language Congress) and later he was a founder of the “Secció Filològica de l’Institut d’Estudis Catalans” (Philological Section of the Catalan Studies Institute – The Catalan language Academy).

After the “Setmana Tràgica” (Tragic week – revolutionary period in Barcelona in 1909), he developed a criticism against the Catalan burgesses, due to the responsibility they had – in his mind – in that facts. This position is clearly exposed in his last work “Seqüencies” (Sequences).

In the year 1910 he wined the Fastenrath price in the Jocs Florals of Barcelona with “Enllà” (Over there). In 1911, the last year of his life, he published the mentioned “Seqüencies” in which he show a vital exaltation, coming back to a heterodox positions softened in previous writings. In this work he include the “Cant espiritual” (The spiritual song).

His work as translator to the Catalan language is very important. He translated Greek writers as Homer and Pindar, German writers as Goethe, Novalis, Nietzche, Schiller, Reinick and Wagner and French writers as Daudet and Lamartine.

Joan Maragall died in Barcelona the 20 de December of 1911.

Other Catalan Art Nouveau Writers:

Caterina Albert i Paradís Prudenci Bertrana  Jaume Brossa i Roger Raimon Casellas i Dou  Ignasi Iglesias i Pujades Pompeu Gener  Adrià Gual i Queralt Hortensi Güell  Antoni Isern  Albert Llanas  Joan Maragall i Gorina  Alfons Maseras i Galtés Jaume Massó i Torrents  Apel·les Mestres i Oñós 
Rafael Nogueras i Ollé  Miquel de Palol Josep Pin i Soler  Josep Pons i Pagès Pere Prat i Gaballí  Joan Puig i Ferrater Alexandre Riquer i Ynglada  Santiago Rusiñol i Prats  Joaquim Ruyra i Oms Maria Antònia Salvà  Víctor Català (see Caterina Albert) 
Plàcid Vidal i Rosich  Jeroni Zanné i Rodríguez