Montserrat Roig
Encyclopedia
Montserrat Roig i Fransitorra (Barcelona
, June 13, 1946 - November 10, 1991) was a Catalan
writer
of novel
s, short stories and article
s.
neighborhood, the sixth of seven children of lawyer and writer Tomàs Roig i Llop and Albina Fransitorra. She was born and lived most of her life on Bailén Street.
From 1961 to 1964, she studied at the Escola d'Art Dramàtic Adrià Gual (Adrià Gual School of Dramatic Arts), appearing as an actress in multiple productions. She earned a degree in philosophy and letters from the University of Barcelona in 1968 and a doctorate in 1970.
history as a background, or El temps de les cireres (1977), starring the same characters, for which Roig received the "Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la" in 1976.
L'hora violeta (1980) is the novel which culminates her feminist positioning. From then on, her novels took a different turn. Later, she published L'òpera quotidiana (1982), La veu melodiosa (1987) and a compilation of short stories with the title El cant de la joventut (1989). The last of her publications was Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida (1991), where she conveys personal poetry as a literary will.
Montserrat Roig was a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers (Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana
) and vice-president of its Junta Territorial del Principat de Catalunya (Territorial Committee of the Catalan Principality) (1989–1990).
She worked as a lecturer in Catalan and Spanish at the University of Bristol
, England
during the academic year 1972-1973. From January to April 1983, she taught Catalan history and creative writing at the Department of Hispanic and Latin American Studies of the University of Strathclyde
in Glasgow
, Scotland
, by invitation of the Carneggie Foundation. From January to June 1990, she taught twentieth-century Spanish literature and creative writing at the University of Arizona
.
to protest the Burgos Trial in 1970.. She twice joined and subsequently left the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
. Socialist Party of Catalonia). She was active in the feminist movement and published three books about women and feminism ¿Tiempo de mujer? (1980), El feminismo (1981) and Mujeres hacia un nuevo humanismo (1981).
Her work as a journalist is also remarkable, showing her will to build a tradition of cultured, feminist journalism and recover the historical memory of her country. She gained popularity as an interviewer, both in print and on telelvision, first contributing to the the magazine Serra d'Or
with interviews later published in 1975 and 1976 as a series of books titled Retrats paral·lels ("Parallel portraits") In 1977 she began working for the Catalan division of Televisión Española
, where she produced an program of interviews called "Personatges", later collected in two books of the same title.
Roig's 1977 nonfiction book Els catalans als camps nazis ("Catalans in the Nazi Camps"), which included testimony from Catalans who survived deportation to Nazi concentration camps, was honored with the Serra d'Or
critics' prize. Her book L'agulla daurada ("The Golden Spire"), inspired by a two-month stay in Leningrad
, dealt with the siege of Leningrad
during the Second World War and earned her the National Prize of Catalan Literature (essay) in 1986.
From 1984 to 1989 she was a daily columnist for El Periódico, and from September 1990 until her death she contributed regularly to the Catalan-language newspaper Avui
. Her columns for Avui were published in the posthumous collection Un pensament de sal, un pessic de pebre (1992).
. Her final article for Avui was published the day before her death. Montserrat Roig passed away in Barcelona on November 10, 1991 at the age of 45.
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, June 13, 1946 - November 10, 1991) was a Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
of novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, short stories and article
Article
Article may refer to:*Article , articles of treaties of the European Union*Article , a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness...
s.
Biography
Roig was born in 1946 into a liberal middle-class family in Barcelona's EixampleEixample
The Eixample is a district of Barcelona between the old city and what were once surrounding small towns , constructed in the 19th and early 20th centuries....
neighborhood, the sixth of seven children of lawyer and writer Tomàs Roig i Llop and Albina Fransitorra. She was born and lived most of her life on Bailén Street.
Education
She began her schooling in 1951 at the Col·legi Mari del Diví Pastor, also on Bailén Street. At the age of 13, she enrolled at the Institut Montserrat, where she completed her pre-university education.From 1961 to 1964, she studied at the Escola d'Art Dramàtic Adrià Gual (Adrià Gual School of Dramatic Arts), appearing as an actress in multiple productions. She earned a degree in philosophy and letters from the University of Barcelona in 1968 and a doctorate in 1970.
Literary and Academic Career
In 1970, Roig won the Víctor Català prize for Molta roba i poc sabó... i tan neta que la volen, a compilation of short stories, and began to dedicate herself to writing literature. She began a literary cycle composed of works such as Ramona adéu (1972), which portrays three generations of women - grandmother, mother and daughter - who live their own stories with key moments in CatalanCatalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
history as a background, or El temps de les cireres (1977), starring the same characters, for which Roig received the "Premi Sant Jordi de novel·la" in 1976.
L'hora violeta (1980) is the novel which culminates her feminist positioning. From then on, her novels took a different turn. Later, she published L'òpera quotidiana (1982), La veu melodiosa (1987) and a compilation of short stories with the title El cant de la joventut (1989). The last of her publications was Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida (1991), where she conveys personal poetry as a literary will.
Montserrat Roig was a member of the Association of Catalan Language Writers (Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana
Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana
The Associació d'Escriptors en Llengua Catalana , also known by the acronym AELC, is a professional organisation of authors, poets, scriptwriters, translators and other writers in the Catalan language...
) and vice-president of its Junta Territorial del Principat de Catalunya (Territorial Committee of the Catalan Principality) (1989–1990).
She worked as a lecturer in Catalan and Spanish at the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the academic year 1972-1973. From January to April 1983, she taught Catalan history and creative writing at the Department of Hispanic and Latin American Studies of the University of Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, by invitation of the Carneggie Foundation. From January to June 1990, she taught twentieth-century Spanish literature and creative writing at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
.
Political Activism and Journalism
Montserrat Roig was a feminist and a Leftist. As a young woman, she participated in the student protest movements of the last years of the Franco dictatorship. She was among the many Catalan intellectuals who assembled in the monastery of MontserratMontserrat (mountain)
Montserrat is a multi-peaked mountain located near the city of Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain. It is part of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range. The main peaks are Sant Jeroni , Montgrós and Miranda de les Agulles...
to protest the Burgos Trial in 1970.. She twice joined and subsequently left the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia , was formed on July 23, 1936 through the unification of four left-wing groups; the Catalan Federation of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party , the Partit Comunista de Catalunya , the Unió Socialista de Catalunya and the...
. Socialist Party of Catalonia). She was active in the feminist movement and published three books about women and feminism ¿Tiempo de mujer? (1980), El feminismo (1981) and Mujeres hacia un nuevo humanismo (1981).
Her work as a journalist is also remarkable, showing her will to build a tradition of cultured, feminist journalism and recover the historical memory of her country. She gained popularity as an interviewer, both in print and on telelvision, first contributing to the the magazine Serra d'Or
Serra d'Or
Serra d'Or is a Catalan magazine that appeared in October 1959. It was promoted by a group of university students, and was published by the Montserrat abbey press, with a monthly circulation of 8.000 copies.- Origins :...
with interviews later published in 1975 and 1976 as a series of books titled Retrats paral·lels ("Parallel portraits") In 1977 she began working for the Catalan division of Televisión Española
Televisión Española
Televisión Española is the national state-owned public-service television broadcaster in Spain. TVE's activities were previously financed by a combination of advertising revenue and subsidies from the national government, but since it's been supported by subsidies only.TVE belongs to the RTVE...
, where she produced an program of interviews called "Personatges", later collected in two books of the same title.
Roig's 1977 nonfiction book Els catalans als camps nazis ("Catalans in the Nazi Camps"), which included testimony from Catalans who survived deportation to Nazi concentration camps, was honored with the Serra d'Or
Serra d'Or
Serra d'Or is a Catalan magazine that appeared in October 1959. It was promoted by a group of university students, and was published by the Montserrat abbey press, with a monthly circulation of 8.000 copies.- Origins :...
critics' prize. Her book L'agulla daurada ("The Golden Spire"), inspired by a two-month stay in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, dealt with the siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
during the Second World War and earned her the National Prize of Catalan Literature (essay) in 1986.
From 1984 to 1989 she was a daily columnist for El Periódico, and from September 1990 until her death she contributed regularly to the Catalan-language newspaper Avui
Avui
Avui is a Catalan daily newspaper, based in Barcelona, Catalonia . It is one of the city's newest papers, having been founded in 1976. The editorial line is Catalan nationalist.- History :...
. Her columns for Avui were published in the posthumous collection Un pensament de sal, un pessic de pebre (1992).
Death
During her stay at the University of Arizona, Roig began to feel unwell and, upon returning to Europe, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancerBreast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. Her final article for Avui was published the day before her death. Montserrat Roig passed away in Barcelona on November 10, 1991 at the age of 45.
Works
- Molta roba i poc sabó... i tan neta que la volen, 1970
- Ramona, adéu, 1972
- El temps de les cireres, 1977
- Els catalans als camps nazis, 1977
- L'hora violeta, 1980
- ¿Tiempo de mujer? 1980
- L'Òpera quotidiana, 1982
- L'agulla daurada, National Prize of Catalan Literature (1986), 1985
- La veu melodiosa, 1987
- El cant de la joventut, 1989
- Reivindicació de la senyora Clito Mestres (play), 1990
- An English translation, The Vindication of Senyora Clito Mestres, opened at the Persephone Theatre in SaskatoonSaskatoonSaskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
, Canada in 1997.
- An English translation, The Vindication of Senyora Clito Mestres, opened at the Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon
- Digues que m'estimes encara que sigui mentida, 1991