The Studies of Ricardo Carvalho Calero on Rosalía de Castro: a Masterful Contribution

Abstract

The personality of Ricardo Carvalho Calero combines the status of a creative writer and that of a scientist. Both dimensions are optimal for the rigorous and innovative analysis of Rosalía de Castro as a great Galician and universal writer. She is approached as a classic writer and as the creator of contemporary Galician literature: an intellectual at the service of the Galician language and the Galician nation, whose artistic talent and innovative audacity delve into the most transcendent questions of the human condition and meaning of history. Carvalho Calero is the first and foremost author to address the rigorous and comprehensive research of the writer’s work, an endeavour that culminated in his doctoral dissertation, his induction speech for the Royal Galician Academy, his História da Literatura Galega Contemporánea [History of Contemporary Galician Literature] and hundreds of pieces of journalism and public speeches, especially in 1985, when the centenary of the death of Rosalía de Castro was commemorated. Carvalho Calero’s interest in Rosalía de Castro is constant throughout his life. Everything that was written about the author after Carvalho Calero’s contribution is unequivocally based on his work and on this construction of a hermeneutics for de Castro’s production, which also opens the way to new perspectives on approaching and interpreting the writer’s work.