Roumanille, Joseph

(1818-1891)

   Provençal-French writer

   Born in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, Joseph Rouma-nille, as a tutor in Avignon, imparted to the young frédéric mistral his passion for a revival of Provençal literature. Together, they became the chief members of the literary school known as Félibrige, dedicated to the renaissance of the Provençal language, or "langue d'oc," and culture. Roumanille played a significant role in this revival with his personally inspired collection of verses, Les Pàqerettes (1847), and later with his story in octosyllabic verse, Les Songeuses (1851). All his poetry appeared in a collected version, Les Œuvrettes en vers (1860). An energetic prose writer, Roumanille, after the revolution of 1848, wrote legitimist pamphlets that would later be collected in Les Ocunettes en prose (1859). Dedicated to gathering together the works of the langue d'oc writers, he published a compilation, Les Provençales (1851), organized the linguistic congresses at Arles (1852) and Aix (1853), and took part in the development of the Félibrige (1854). In 1884, he succeeded Mistral as the "capoulié" of that movement and published the Almanach, which served as the organ of linguistic revival and in which Les Contes appeared, a realistic work that made Roumanille the creator of modern Provençal prose.