José Gomes Ferreira

José Gomes Ferreira, GOSE, GOL (July 9 1900 - 1985) was a Portuguese poet and fiction writer with a vast work of varied influences. Gomes Ferreira was also a political activist that participated in the resistance against the dictatorship of Oliveira Salazar, becoming later a member of the Portuguese Communist Party. In the late 1970s he occupied the presidency of the Portuguese Writers Association.

A native of Porto, Ferreira graduated in law in 1924 and became a consul in Norway in the late 1920s. Soon after, became a journalist and published his works on several progressive magazines. After the rising of the right-wing dictatorship led by Salazar, Ferreira acquainted himself with the democratic resistance movements. During the later years of the regime, he continued publishing and saw his poetic work recognized by his peers. After the democratic Carnation Revolution, Ferreira joined the Communist Party and continued his work until the mid 1980s.

His artistic work was representative of his concern with social problems, a mirror of his leftwing ideology. His poetry had varied influences, ranging from neorealism to surrealism, in a dialetic relation between his own ego and the need to share other people suffering.

Biography

José Gomes Ferreira was born in Porto, in the north of Portugal, in 1900, with only four years, he left his hometown and settled, along with his parents, in Lisbon. Ferreira made his early studies in the Camões Highschool, and soon started reading Portuguese poets, mainly Raul Brandão.After some time he became the director of a magazine titled "Ressurreição" (Resurrection), where he collaborated with one of the major names of the Portuguese literature, Fernando Pessoa.

Influenced by his father, a republican, Ferreira developed strong political ideas, and after completing the military service, he joined the Republican Academic Battalion, a republican organization created by university students in order to protect the young Portuguese Republic against the monarchism.

He graduated in law in 1924, after that he became the Portuguese consul in Kristiansund, Norway. After the military coup of 1926, he returned and started working as a journalist, collaborating in several magazines, such as "Presença", "Seara Nova", "Descobrimento", "Imagem" (a cinema magazine), "Kino" and others. He also became a translator, creating subtitles to several films under the pseudonym of Álvaro Gomes. His poetic work started soon after with his first poem "Viver sempre também cansa", written in 1931, being published in "Presença". In 1948, he published his first serious work, "Poesia I".

Due to his strong political positioning, Gomes Ferreira developed several contacts with the democratic resistance against the fascist regime of Salazar. He jojned several democratic movements, including the communist influced Movement of Democratic Unity. At the time, he worked along with other anti-fascist writers in composing several revolutionary songs, in a project coordinated by the prestigious communist composer Fernando Lopes Graça. After publishing several works, both fiction and poetry, he was awarded with the prestigious "Big Prize of Poetry" by the Portuguese Writers Society in 1961.

In the democratic revolution of 1974, Gomes Ferreira continued publishing and developing his work and in 1978 he was elected president of the Portuguese Writers Association and in the next year he made part of the electoral lists of the United People Alliance, a coalition of the Portuguese Communist Party with the Portuguese Democratic Movement. In that year, 1979, he officially joined the Communist Party. In 1981 he was awarded the Military Order of Sant'Iago de Espada by the President of the Republic, Ramalho Eanes.

In 1983, Gomes Ferreira was submitted to a surgery and would die two years later.

Works

Poetry

* 1918 - "Lírios do Monte"
* 1921 - "Longe"
* 1946 - "Marchas, Danças e Canções" (collaboration)
* 1948 - "Poesia I"
* 1948 - "Homenagem Poética a Gomes Leal" (collaboration)
* 1950 - "Líricas" (collaboration)
* 1950 - "Poesia II"
* 1956 - "Eléctico"
* 1962 - "Poesia III"
* 1970 - "Poesia IV"
* 1973 - "Poesia V"
* 1978 - "Poeta Militante I, II e III"

Fiction

* 1960 - "O Mundo Desabitado"
* 1960 - "O Mundo dos Outros - histórias e vagabundagens"
* 1962 - "Os segredos de Lisboa"
* 1963 - "Aventuras Maravilhosas de João Sem Medo"
* 1971 - "O Irreal Quotidiano - histórias e invenções"
* 1975 - "Gaveta de Nuvens - tarefas e tentames literários"
* 1976 - "O sabor das Trevas - Romance-alegoria"
* 1978 - "Coleccionador de Absurdos"
* 1978 - "Caprichos Teatrais"
* 1980 - "O Enigma da Árvore Enamorada - Divertimento em forma de Novela quase Policial"

Chronicles

* 1975 - "Revolução Necessária"
* 1977 - "Intervenção Sonâmbula"

Memories

* 1965 - "A Memória das Palavras - ou o gosto de falar de mim"
* 1966 - "Imitação dos Dias - Diário Inventado"
* 1980 - "Relatório de Sombras - ou a Memória das Palavras II"
* 1990 - "Passos Efémeros - Dias Comuns I"
* ???? - "Dias Comuns"

Tales

* 1958 - "Contos"
* 1969 - "Tempo Escandinavo"

Translations

* ???? - "La casa de Bernarda Alba" by Federico García Lorca
* 1926 - "The Book of One Thousand and One Nights"

References

*cite web | title=José Gomes Ferreira|url=http://www.citi.pt/cultura/literatura/poesia/j_g_ferreira/| publisher=Centro de investigação para Tecnologias Interactivas| accessdate = 2006-06-09
*cite web | title=As Tormentas - José Gomes Ferreira|url=http://www.astormentas.com/din/biografia.asp?autor=Jos%E9+Gomes+Ferreira| publisher=Luís Rodrigues| accessdate = 2006-06-09