Geographical classification

Europe > Spain

Socio-cultural movements

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Literary and cultural movements since the end of the 19th century > Literature from the first third of the 20th century

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Feminism > Suffragism

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Socio-political movements > Republicanism

Groups by dedication

Popularisers / Cultural promoters > Cultural agents

Musicians > Instrumentalists > Pianists

Writers > Poets

Writers > Story writers

Writers > Translators

Writers > Orators

Writers > in > Catalan

Writers > Dramatists / Playwrights

Activists > Feminists (activists)

Writers > Journalists / Chroniclers > Columnists

Character

Carme Montoriol i Puig

Barcelona 25-06-1892 ‖ Barcelona 26-07-1966

Period of activity: From 1920 until 1939

Geographical classification: Europe > Spain

Socio-cultural movements

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Literary and cultural movements since the end of the 19th century > Literature from the first third of the 20th century

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Feminism > Suffragism

Late modern period / Contemporary period > Socio-political movements > Republicanism

Groups by dedication

Popularisers / Cultural promoters > Cultural agents

Musicians > Instrumentalists > Pianists

Writers > Poets

Writers > Story writers

Writers > Translators

Writers > Orators

Writers > in > Catalan

Writers > Dramatists / Playwrights

Activists > Feminists (activists)

Writers > Journalists / Chroniclers > Columnists

Context of feminine creation

Carme Montoriol represents one of the paradigms of the model of the woman of letters of the twentieth century before 1939 in Catalonia, in accordance with the parameters of modernity. A key figure in the attempt to renew the Barcelona scene of the 1920s and '30s, in which she stood out for her unconventional approaches, she is one of the few playwrights in the history of Catalan literature prior to the 1990s to have seen her plays successfully staged.

Her career was linked to a favorable moment for the creation and public presence of women, especially with the event of the Second Republic in 1931. As a pianist, she performed as a soloist and in the trio formed with Lina Montoriol and Montserrat Casadó in a context of special flourishing of the Catalan musical culture. As for her activity as an article writer and lecturer, it has to be understood in relation to the increase of written press in Catalan during the 1920s, which favors the growth of active female artists - such as Rosa Maria Arquimbau, Irene Polo, María Luz Morales, Anna Murià and Llucieta Canyà.

On the other hand, Montoriol was a member of the enlightened and progressive women's circles of the time, alongside Aurora Bertrana, Maria Carratalà, Enriqueta Sèculi, Elvira Augusta Lewi and Anna Maria Martínez Sagi, among others, and was a very active member of the Club Femení i d'Esports and the Lyceum Club de Barcelona. The latter was a group that responded to the need of many women, intellectuals, writers and artists, to build institutions and cultural, educational and political spaces to share, make visible and discuss specific concerns and experiences. Carme Montoriol participated there as founder, president (1932), lecturer and also as collaborator of the theatrical events organized there by Maria Carratalà.

She was concerned about the education of women, because she believed in the need for equal intellectual preparation compared to men, and in an interview with Anna Murià for La Rambla (1932) she declared: "Both have to walk together, they have to be partners and, therefore, they have to understand each other and that one does not block the other".

In the theatrical field, Montoriol broke out at a time characterized by the graying of the stage, the imitation of foreign models far removed from the avant-garde and the limitation of certain arguments in the name of morality. Works such as L'abisme (The abyss) and L'huracà (The hurricane), although they were not exempt from controversy, were widely celebrated by critics, and over the 1930’s his figure acquired unquestionable recognition.

It is therefore not banal that many of the dramaturgical productions of women of that time were after the premiere of L'abisme in 1931: it seems that Montoriol's success led to an increase in confidence and more women were presented in theatrical contests, while theatres saw more manuscripts of female authorship arrive. In this sense, it is co-ed by other theatre authors such as Rosa Maria Arquimbau, Maria Carratalà, the sainetera Pilar Monzó and Lola Anglada, dedicated to children's and youth theatre.

As for other contemporary figures, such as Maria Carratalà and Rosa Maria Arquimbau, the republican defeat meant for Montoriol the sudden stop of an ascending trajectory. With the dictatorship, the female public voice had o place in the framework of a regime that promulgated the return to the domestic space for women became extinct.

Her work is integrated into the tradition of Catalan-language dramaturgists, where we can include Caterina Albert, Carme Karr, Dolors Monserdà, or Palmira Ventós, and also some women active during the dictatorship, such as Cecilia A. Màntua; in the 1980s, such as María José Ragué Arias and Victoria Gras; and the plethora of dramatists that began to increase from the 1990s (Lluïsa Cunillé, Beth Escudé, Àngels Aymar, Marta Barceló, Clàudia Cedó or Guadalupe Sáez, to name just a few).

Review

Carme Montoriol (Barcelona, 1892–1966) is a Spanish translator, playwright, writer and pianist. A very active cultural figure in Barcelona in the 1920s and 1930s, she founded and directed the Lyceum Club, also became a Republican activist during the war and served as secretary of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (Institution of catalan letters). She is highly cultivated and polyglot, and she is known as a concert pianist and translator of Shakespeare's sonnets. Her plays “L'abisme” (The abyss) and “L'Huracà” (The hurracaine) are conceived as renewing to the Catalan theatre. She also writes prose, poetry and articles in the press. Her work is ascribed to psychologism, that is, the philosophical current that tends to reduce ethical, logical, aesthetic, metaphysical, etc. problems to psychic factors.

Justifications

Playwriter: author of successful works such as L'abisme and L'Horrica, as well as the only woman to have premiered on the Catalan professional stage during the Second Republic.
Translator: author of a celebrated translation in verse of Shakespeare's sonnets, as well as translations of her own plays and also other theatre, poetry and novel authors.
Writer: author of the novel “Teresa o la vida amorosa d’una dona” (Therese or the love life of a woman), of short stories and poems that begin her vocation as an author.
In her works she addresses the place of women in family structure, and addresses issues such as motherhood and female desire, from an advanced discomplexed viewpoint for the time, especially in theatre.
Founder of the Lyceum Club of Barcelona and president of the entity in 1932. She worked as a lecturer and cultural dynamitor in this and other athenians and associations.
As a pianist, she performed from a young age both solo and with Lina Montoriol and Montserrat Cassadó.

Biography

Carme Montoriol i Puig (Barcelona, 1893-1966) was a musician, translator and writer. Born into a bourgeois and liberal family of Empordà origin. She grew up in a culturally rich environment that formed the basis for her great intellectual background. In addition to Spanish and Catalan, she was fluent with English, Italian, French and German.

Her career as a pianist began when she was twenty years old, and until the end of the war she performed as a soloist and in the trio formed by her sister Lina on violin, Montserrat Cassadó on violoncello and herself, with whom she played, among others, at the Palau de la Música Catalana. In addition to her musical activity, she was also interested in poetry composition (she recited and published some texts in perdiocial publications) and the translation activity.

With the translation of Shakespeare's Sonets (1928), which she completed following the advice of Pompeu Fabra, she received public recognition and made a great impression on the Catalan literature scene. In addition, she also translated Cimbel-lí and La nit de Reis o El que vulgueu by William Shakespeare, and many texts that remain unpublished: she translated from English into Catalan works by Lord Byron, John Milton, Oscar Wilde and Ruyard Kipling, from French and Italian into Catalan Alexandre Dumas, Anatole France and Luigi Pirandello. She also translated from Catalan into French poems by Maria Teresa Canals, Carme Guasch, Josep M. De Sagarra, Josep Carner and Francesc Pujols. During the war she published the Catalan version of “No passaran! Una història del setge de Madrid” by Upton Sinclair.

Montoriol is noted for its dramaturgical production, which stands out at a time when the Catalan theatre lacks innovative proposals. She premiered as a theatrical author with L'abisme (The abyss), first presented to the public on 20 January 1930 at the Teatro Novedades in Barcelona, and achieved considerable success. Her most recognized work is The Hurricane, which, premiered on January 25, 1935, and also raised a lot of controversy, partly because of the theme: the love of a son to his mother. Then, premiered also Avarícia, on 26th April 1936 at the Teatro Novedades, and the lyrical comedy Tempesta at the Teatre Nou in Barcelona, with music by Joaquim Serra and that premiered on the 7th November 1936, already in the middle of the Civil War.

In addition, she wrote poetry, which she published in public recitals, and published the novel Teresa or the love life of a woman in 1932. Her literary output is accompanied by a prolific article’s writing activity in magazines such as La veu de Catalunya, Mirador, La Revista, La Dona Catalana and D'ací and d'à, as well as La Publicitat and La Rambla, where she had a fixed section.

In addition to her writting production, she was an intense lecturer and gave lectures on Ibsen, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt, Dant and theater (the manuscripts are kept in the Carme Montoriol collection, in the Fages de Climent Library, Figueres, Catalonia). This activity is closely linked to two organizations in favor of women: the Club Femení i d'Esports, founded in 1928, and the Lyceum Club de Barcelona, founded in 1931, of which Montoriol was the founder and president in 1931. During the war, she also presided over the Grup Sindical d'Escriptors Catalans and became involved in the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes. She was close friends with Aurora Bertrana and corresponded with Prudenci Bertrana, Carles Rahola, Agustí Calvet and Eduardo Marquina, among others.

At the end of the Civil War, Montoriol went into exile in Lyon, to his sister's house, and returned after a year to take care of her mother. From that moment on, her career was in a doldrums and she never published again, although privately she continued to play the piano and write poetry.

Carme Montoriol’s biography is on the AELC website.

Works

Poetry:

(1921). Quaresma. Presented in the Jocs Florals de Barcelona.

Novel:

(1932). Teresa o la vida amorosa d’una dona.

Short narrative:

(1936). Diumenge de juliol.

La vídua, inèdita.

Primavera a Florència, inèdita.

Theatre

(1930). L'abisme. Premiered at the Teatre Novedades in Barcelona on 20 January 1930.

(1935). L’huracà. Barcelona: Llibreria Millà. Premiered at the Teatre Poliorama in Barcelona on 25 January 1935. Tarragona: Arola, 2019.

(1936). Avarícia. Barcelona: Llibreria Millà. Premiered at the Teatre Novedades on April 26, 1936.

(1936). Tempesta esvaïda. Lyrical comedy in three acts. With music by Joaquim Serra. First performed on February 7, 1936 at the Teatre Nou in Barcelona (unpublished work).

Published translations from English

(1928). Shakespeare, William: Els sonets de Shakespeare. Barcelona: Llibr. Verdaguer (preface by Alexandre Plana). Includes "Breus notes d'introducció a la traducció completa dels sonets de Shakespeare" assaig de Carme Montoriol / Figueres: Banc Industrial dels Pirineus, 1980. (Curated by Montserrat Vayreda, preface by M. A. Anglada).

(1930). Shakespeare, William: Cimbel-lí [Cymbeline]. Barcelona: Publicacions de La Revista.

(1931). Baring, Maurice: Daphne Adeane. Badalona: Proa.

(1935). Shakespeare, William: La nit de Reis o el que vulgueu [Twelfth Night, Or What You Will]. Barcelona: Publicacions de La Revista.

(1937). Sinclair, Upton: No passaran! [No Pasarán!: A Novel of the Battle of Madrid]. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya.

Unprecedented translations

La vita che ti diedi (The life you died for) by Luigi Pirandello, from Italian into Catalan

Works by Alexandre Dumas and Anatole France, from French into Catalan

Works by Lord Byron, John Milton, Oscar Wilde and Ruyard Kipling, from English to Catalan

Poems from Catalan into French, by Maria Teresa Canals, Carme Guasch, Josep M. De Sagarra, Josep Carner i Francesc Pujols

For other unpublished works, see the corresponding section of the Escriptores republicanes website: https://filcat.uab.cat/gelcc/escriptores/novelistes/Montoriol/index.html

Articles and short essays

She has published many articles in magazines and newspapers such as La veu de Catalunya, Mirador, La Revista, La Dona Catalana and D'ací i d'allà, La Publicitat and La Rambla. Here are some representative examples:

"Enric Ibsen", published in the Carme Montoriol’s Teatre reunit. Arola Editors / TNC, 2020.

"Les relacions entre l'home i la dona",1 published in the Teatre reunit de Carme Montoriol. Arola Editors / TNC, 2020.

"Presentation". A: Una visió femenina del moment present, by Maria Pi de Folch. Barcelona: Edicions Lyceum Club [3-4] [Assaig].
"La novel-la de guerra"; "L'escriptor i el moment actual". A: Escriptors de la Revolució. Barcelona: Edicions Grup Sindical d'Escriptors Catalans [G. S. E. C.], 147-161 [Assaig].

For an exhaustive list of the texts published in the press, see the section corresponding to the web site Escriptores republicanes.

Bibliography

Anglada, Maria Àngels (1988). «Carme Montoriol». A: Literatura de dones: una visió del món. Barcelona: La Sal.

Bertrana, Aurora (196?). «Carme Monturiol i Puig: una mujer extraordinaria» [Documents about Carme Montoriol i Puig]. Manuscrits d’Aurora Bertrana. Girona: Universitat de Girona: Fons Aurora Bertrana.

Fransitorra, Albina (1984). «El teatre de Carme Montoriol i Puig». Estudis escènics (Barcelona), núm. 25 (juny 1984), pp. 95-123.

Fransitorra, Albina (1983). «Introducció» a L’abisme, L’huracà. Barcelona: La Sal.

Foguet, Francesc. «Lyceum Club de Barcelona, una aposta per a un teatre intel·ligent (1934-1937)». Serra d’Or (Barcelona), núm. 465 (setembre 1998), pp. 62-65.

Marín-Dòmine, Marta (2020). Pròleg al Teatre reunit de Carme Montoriol. Arola Editors / TNC, pp. 1-37.

Montoriol, Carme i Serra, Joaquim (1936). Video of the lyrical work Tempesta esvaïda by Carme Montoriol, Youtube.

Montoriol, Carme (2019). L'huracà. Tarragona: Arola Editors.

Montoriol, Carme (2020). "Sobre L'huracà", published in Teatre reunit de Carme Montoriol. Tarragona: Arola Editors, pp. 1-4.

Montoriol, Carme (2020). "Enric Ibsen", published in the Teatre reunit de Carme Montoriol. Tarragona: Arola Editors, pp. 1-13.

Montoriol, Carme (2020). "Les relacions entre l'home i la dona", published in the Teatre reunit de Carme Montoriol. Tarragona: Arola Editors, pp. 1-32.

Pagès Jordà, Vicenç (2018). "Elogi de l'abnegació", Girona’s Magazine, pp. 1-2.

Pujol, Dídac (2005). "Carme Montoriol, traductora dels sonets de Shakespeare", Gèneres i formes en la literatura catalana d'entreguerres (1918-1939). I Simposi sobre traducció i recepció en la literatura catalana contemporània. Lleida: Punctum, pp. 26-40.

Real, Neus (2009). “Carme Montoriol i Puig”, website Escriptores republicanes.

Real, Neus. «El cas singular de Carme Montoriol en la limitada escena femenina». Dona i literatura a la Catalunya de preguerra. (2006). Barcelona: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat.

Tarrés, Irene (2022). A dues veus: de Carme Montoriol a Maria Vila, Girona’s Magazine, pp. 1-4.

Velaz, Anna M. «Aurora Bertrana i Carme Montoriol: dues escriptores, dos feminismes?». Revista de Girona, núm. 193 (març-abril 1999), pp. 74-77.

Velaz, Anna M (2000). «Aproximació biobibliogràfica i aspectes de la narrativa de Carme Montoriol: dos contes inèdits». Literatura, AIEE (Figueres), núm. 33, pp. 251-271.

Velaz, Anna M (2004). «Carme Montoriol: música i poesia». Revista de Girona, núm. 223 (març-abril 2004), pp. 54-59.

Ràdio Barcelona, L'huracà. (1975). (Audio recording. Dir. Armando Blanch) retrieved in 15-10-2022 https://youtu.be/V-ljmYY1Mfs

Carme Montoriol, AELC website, retrieved on 26-03-2022 https://www.escriptors.cat/autors/montoriolc

Carme Montoriol, enciclopèdia.cat, retrieved on 26-03-2022 https://www.enciclopedia.cat/ec-gec-0044170.xml

Carme Montoriol, CIVTAT magazine. Ideari d'art i cultura, retrieved on 26-03-2022 http://www.civtat.cat/montoriol_carme.html

Didactic approach

At ESO and Batxillerat in the subjects of Catalan Language and Literature, Theater and Performing Arts and Music.

For translations, it is possible to work at the Official Language Schools

For musical works, at the Professional Conservatory of Music.

For drama, at the School of Drama.

In a transversal way, social sciences, specific areas of the performing arts and actions to make women and their work visible.

It can be introduced to all levels of ESO from the knowledge of her figure and the study of her literary and artistic work. His work can be studied from different approaches such as:

- Catalan language in the different curricular blocks.

- The history of Catalan literature (especially pre-war).

- The changes and the political, cultural and social moment of the Second Republic.

- The psychology and the treatment of conflicts in human relationships.

- The history of music.

- The translation and reception of William Shakespeare in Catalonia.

- The literary representation of gender, the subjectivity of women, motherhood, etc.

- Literary and cultural commitment to feminism.

- Political commitment to the feminist and republican causes.