Chair Josep Carner UB-IEC
This Chair is dedicated to one of the finest and most prolific writers in the history of Catalan literature, the scale and scope of whose oeuvre is difficult to grasp. The initiative was conceived by the Institute of Catalan Studies and a group of private patrons and receives invaluable support from the heirs of Josep Carner i Puig-Oriol, who was born in Barcelona in 1884 on the first floor of a former factory on Carrer d’Aribau. The site is now occupied by a new building belonging to the University of Barcelona that bears the name of this illustrious poet, housing lecture rooms and offices of the Faculty of Philology and Communication.
The Chair will seek to promote research into Carner’s work and the publication of critical editions of his poetry, prose, plays and translations, much of which remains unpublished. The sheer number of texts and the complexity of the language they contain are such that this promises to be an enormous undertaking. Annotated editions of some of his work will also be published. The Chair seeks to be a home for the study of this ‘prince of poets’, as he is referred to in Catalan, shining a light on his literary legacy through multidisciplinary studies that will encompass the vast array of themes and genres with which he worked.
Director
Presentation
The Chair’s core focus will be to give continuity to the publication of successive volumes in the Critical Edition of the Work of Josep Carner, the first of which was released by Edicions 62 under the title Llibres de poesia 1904-1924, edited by Jaume Coll as part of the series Biblioteca Clàssica Catalana. The second volume was released in the same series in May 2021, titled Poesia dispersa pròpia i traduïda 1896-1924, together with the supplement Directori i índexs.
The Critical Edition will comprise eight volumes published in fifteen books. Alongside this undertaking, the Chair will maintain a regular commitment to training students in general philology and the work of Carner himself, seeking to generate research contributions that broaden public appreciation of the author and his work.
With the private patronage of the Lluís Coromina Foundation, the Chair has created an official Josep Carner website that will serve as the permanent home of the author’s online presence. Visitors can read his biography, view archive images, access selected works and a full bibliography, and consult forthcoming events.
The Chair seeks to be a space for reflection on the publishing methods of other contemporary authors, where philologists and scholars from different universities and institutions in Catalonia, Spain and further afield can attended seminars and colloquiums, exchange experiences, engage in debate and find a forum for their own work.
