Writer and literary critic Dolors Oller dies at 84

BarcelonaThe writer, essayist and literary critic Dolors Oller passed away this Friday, as reported by the mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas, through social media. A graduate in philosophy and letters and with a doctorate in Romance philology, Oller dedicated her entire professional career to studying and teaching literature, as well as promoting it and cultivating it with volumes of poetry and essays such as La construcció del sentit (Empúries, 1986) and Virtuts textuals: Una tipologia de paraula poètica (1990). Oller was the life partner of the writer Narcís Comadira.

The writer combined poetic creation with works of literary and linguistic reflection. Among these stand out La poesia de Rafael Masó (1980), the anthology Deu poetes d'ara (1996) and the miscellanies Carneriana: Josep Carner, vint-i-cinc anys després (1995) and Gabriel Ferrater, in memoriam (2001). Furthermore, Oller collaborated on various collective volumes of literature and literary theory. She also worked as a literary critic for the newspaper El País and collaborated with COM Ràdio.

The Construction of Meaning

In La construcció del sentit, Oller provided tools to detect the signals that allow for the reconstruction of the meaning of literary texts. In 2012, the publisher Educaula62 reissued it under the title Aprendre de la lletra, as it added new material to the original book. The essayist also published in 2011 Accions i intencions (Empúries), which followed the path opened by La construcció del sentit three decades later. In this text, Oller exemplified the various ways in which poems constitute themselves into a discourse through works by Carner, Pla, Riba, Brossa, Ferrater, Cernuda, Comadira, and Gimferrer.

At the end of the 80s, Oller's literary work was recognized with several awards. In 1987, she was awarded the Catalan literature research prize by the Generalitat for La construcció del sentit. That same year, she also received the Crítica Serra d'Or essay prize for the same title. Three years later, in 1990, her book Virtuts textuals was awarded the Josep Vallverdú essay prize.

For almost a decade, between 2001 and 2010, Oller was president of PEN Català. She also served for years as a professor of literary theory and comparative literature at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). In 2022, Oller was honored by the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes along with five other authors who were then celebrating between 80 and 90 years of age. At that time, the writer reflected on how over time health is lost and problems are gained, and she also lamented the difficulties Catalan writers face in being able to dedicate themselves to literature. "In Catalonia, whenever someone good emerges, we build a wall around them," said Oller.