Alexandre O'Neill

Alexandre Manuel Vahia de Castro O'Neill de Bulhões, GOSE (Lisbon, Fontes Pereira de Melo Avenue nr. 39, December 19, 1924 – Lisbon, August 21, 1986) was a Portuguese Writer and Poet of some maternal Irish descent.

Background

He was the son of José António Pereira de Eça O'Neill de Bulhões (Lisbon, ca 1890 – Lisbon), a Banker, and wife Maria da Glória Vahia de Barros de Castro (March 17, 1905 – after October, 1989), and a paternal grandson of Writer, Poet, Conferencewoman and Journalist Maria O'Neill.

Career

Being a self-taught person and while working as a publicitary, he became a Surrealist and Concretist Poet and Writer, and a Publicist, who colaborated in many periodics.

In 1948, O'Neill was among the founders of the Lisbon Surrealist Movement, along with Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, José-Augusto França and others. His witings soon diverged from Surrealist to form an original style whose poetry reflects a love/hate relationship with his country.

His most salient characteristics - a disrespect of conventions, both social and literary, an attitude of permanent revolt, playfulness with language, and the use of parody and black humor - are used to form a body of incisive depictions of what is to be Portuguese and his relation with the country.

Although most of his works have been lost or are missing or in private collections some of his work was displayed in 2002 at an exhibit on the Surrealist movement.

O'Neill was in permanent conflict with Portugal. While other contemporaries wrote poems that protested against national life under Salazar, O'Neill's attack ran deeper. Poems such as Standing at Fearful Attention and Portugal suggested that the dictatorial regime was a symptom (the worst symptom) of graver ills – lack of courage and smallness of vision – woven into the nation's psyche. Other poems, such as Lament of the Man Who Misses Being Blind, seemed to hold religion and mysticism responsible for an obscurantism that made change difficult if not impossible.

A publicist by profession, famed for inventing some of the most ingenious advertising slogans of his time, O'Neill was unusually adept at manipulating words and using them in an efficacious manner, but he refused to put that talent at the service of a lyrically lofty, feel-good sort of poetry (see 'Simply Expressive').

Stridently anti-Romantic, concerned to keep Humanity in its place as just one of Earth's species, he did not believe that an especially harmonious world was possible, and he abhorred all attempts to escape the world, whether through mystical or poetical exaltations. His one hope, or consolation, explicitly stated in St. Francis's Empty Sandal, was in the connection (never entirely peaceful) he felt with other members of the species.

Decorations

He was awarded the degree of Grand Officer of the Order of Saint James of the Sword.

Marriages and children

He married firstly on December 27, 1957 and divorced on January 15, 1971 Television and Film Screenwriter, Editor and Director Noémia Delgado. The couple had a son:

• Alexandre Delgado O'Neill (Lisbon, December 23, 1959 – Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, January 4, 1993), a Photographer

He married secondly in Lisbon on August 4, 1971 and divorced on February 20, 1981 Politician Teresa Patrício de Gouveia. The couple had a son:

• Afonso de Gouveia O'Neill (May 28, 1976 –)

Filmography

• Prata da Casa (unknown episodes, 1980) .... Himself as Jury Member
• Lisboa (1979) (TV) Television writer
• Ninguém (1979) (TV) Television writer
• Nós por cá Todos Bem (1978) Author of Poem "Coro das Criadas de Servir"
• Máscaras (1976) .... Narrator
• Cantigamente (3 episodes, #1.1, #1.2 and #1.3, 1976) Television writer
• Schweik na Segunda Guerra Mundial (1975) (TV) Author of Poems
• Sever do Vouga... Uma Experiência (1971) .... Narrator
• A Grande Roda (1970) Film writer
• Águas Vivas (1969) .... Narrator and also Film writer
• Sete Balas Para Selma (1967) Author of Poem
• Pássaros de Asas Cortadas aka Birds with Clipped Wings (International: English title) (1963) Author of the Dialogue
• Dom Roberto (1962) Author of Poems
• Las Hurdes aka Las Hurdes, tierra sin pan (Spain: long title) or Tierra sin pan (Spain: short title) or Land Without Bread (International: English title) (1933) .... Himself - Voice

References

External links

• Alexandre O'Neill at the Internet Movie Database
• Alexandre O'Neill's Genealogy in a Portuguese Genealogical site