Event in honour of philologist Roberto Corcoll
The Sala de Graus of the Faculty of Philology hosts today, Friday 1st March, at 2 p.m., an event in honour of former professor of Business German Roberto Corcoll. The event will be chaired by Dr Lourdes Cirlot, vice-rector for Institutional Relations and Culture; Dr Adolfo Sotelo, dean of the Faculty of Philology; Dr Isabel Verdaguer, head of the Department of English and German, and Javier Orduña and Marisa Siguan, editors of the volume Homenatge a Roberto Corcoll. Perspectives hispàniques sobre la llengua i la literatura alemanyes (Publicacions i Edicions of the University of Barcelona, 2011).
The Sala de Graus of the Faculty of Philology hosts today, Friday 1st March, at 2 p.m., an event in honour of former professor of Business German Roberto Corcoll. The event will be chaired by Dr Lourdes Cirlot, vice-rector for Institutional Relations and Culture; Dr Adolfo Sotelo, dean of the Faculty of Philology; Dr Isabel Verdaguer, head of the Department of English and German, and Javier Orduña and Marisa Siguan, editors of the volume Homenatge a Roberto Corcoll. Perspectives hispàniques sobre la llengua i la literatura alemanyes (Publicacions i Edicions of the University of Barcelona, 2011).
Roberto Corcoll studied Modern Philology at the University of Barcelona (1965-1970). He attended lessons given by Patricia Shaw, Francisco Marsà, Wolfgang Küper, Wolfgang Schmitt, Knut Forssmann and Karl-Heinz Trost. Grantholder at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), in Cologne (1970-1972), his doctoral thesis was based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss dramatist, writer, illustrator, theatre director and essayist, and supervised by Dr Doireann MacDermott, professor of English who contributed to the consolidation of German Studies at the UB.
Corcoll joined the former School of Mercantile Studies of the UB as a professor of Business German. From his beginnings, his contributions to the management of the former Department of German were remarkable, together with the acting lecturer, Dr Palau-Ribers (1908-1996). Roberto Corcollʼs work in the eighties was crucial to the consolidation of German Studies. He gave them an integrating character in a period, from 1973 to 1996, when the request for German studies was multiplied by twelve.
Moreover, Corcoll strongly participated in national and international forums about German literature, and collaborated with professors such as Ángeles Cardona and Jaime Vándor. Together with them, and the professor of German Literature Marisa Siguian, he edited the volume in honour of the Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti, promoted by the Marion Muchnik, editor, and Luis Izquierdo, poet and professor.
Other aspect of Roberto Corcollʼs heritage is the elaboration and constant revision of the work he carried out together with his wife, Brigitte: two grammar volumes and the exercises Programm (1994). He received advice from the teaching master and professor of Spanish, Santiago Mollfulleda. Undoubtedly, Programm has been an invaluable resource for thousands of German students during the last twenty years.