Manent, Albert

b. 1930, Premià de Dalt

   Writer

   Manent began as a poet, but soon turned to journalism and literary criticism. His critical writing avoids dogma and eschews eclecticism. His major contributions to Catalan literary criticism are three books on major figures of Noucentisme, including Carles Riba (1963), Josep Carner i el noucentisme: vida, obra i llegenda (Josep Carner and Noucentisme: Life, Work and Legend) (1969), and Jaume Bofill i Mates Guerau, de Lliost: l'home, el poeta, el polític (Jaume Bofill i Mates Guerau de Lliost: The Man, the Poet, the Politician) (1979). Another of Manent's notable contributions is his huge bibliography of Catalan writers who wrote in exile after the Spanish Civil War, Literatura catalana a l'exili (Catalan Literature in Exile) (1976). Manent's Escriptors i editors del Noucents (Writers and Editors of the 1900s) (1984) is a collection of articles on various Catalan authors, as well as his reflections on cultural resistance under Franco and aspects of the development of book publishing during the twentieth century.

   Further reading

   - Medina, J. (1988) "La crítica literaria i la història de la literatura" in M. de Riquer, A.Comas and J. Molas (eds) Història de la literatura catalana, 11 vols, Barcelona: Ariel, XI (contains an introductory section on Manent).

   DAVID GEORGE