Preamble to Part II

Abstract

This Preamble introduces and discusses nine literary-critical articles contributed to Part II of Studies on Spain, Portugal and Latin America in Memory of William C. Atkinson, each of which, through the country, period, topic and/or author dealt with, reflects in some way or degree William Atkinson’s own most significant scholarly interests. First, two articles by Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta and David G. Frier, deal with Portugal and its literature—Camões’ sonnets in the one case, and a novel by Camilo Castelo Branco, in the other. Then follow three studies by Anne Holloway, D. Gareth Walters and Margaret Tejerizo relating to modern Spain’s literature, culture and society, which discuss respectively a novella by Ángeles Vicente, the late poetry of Antonio Machado and Chekhov’s theatre as recently performed in Spanish before audiences in Madrid. Next come three articles concerned with works emanating from modern Latin America: a short novel by the Uruguayan writer Felisberto Hernández is studied by Frank Lough; the Brazilian poetry of Mário Quintana is edited, translated and interpreted by the late Giovanni Pontiero; and Nuala Finnegan analyses Rafael Bonilla’s documentary film, La carta (2010), which seeks to elucidate the causes and the consequences of gender-related murders (feminicidios) being perpetrated in present-day Mexico. In ‘Re-Writing the Estado Novo: Antonio Tabucchi’s Sostiene [Afirma] Pereira’, Bernard McGuirk achieves, inter alia, an informative assessment of the state of affairs in Portugal under Salazar in the late 1930s; moreover, through deftly interwoven allusions he sheds further light on the attitudes and personality of his former professor at Glasgow University, William Atkinson. McGuirk’s multifaceted study, which on one level is interdisciplinary and comparative, and on another socio-linguistic and literary-theoretical, concludes not only Part II, but the entire Festschrift.

Key words:

• William C. Atkinson (1902–1992)
• Portuguese Literature
• Society & Culture
• Portugal under Salazar
• Modern Spanish Literature
• Society & Culture
• Modern Latin American Literature
• Society & Culture
• Luis Camões
• Camilo Castelo Branco
• Ángeles Vicente
• Antonio Machado
• Felisberto Hernández
• Mário Quintana

Notes

1 See William C. Atkinson, ‘An Introduction to Portuguese’, in A Handbook to the Study and Teaching of Spanish, ed. & intro. by E. Allison Peers, with the assistance of W. J. Entwistle & W. C. Atkinson (London: Methuen & Co., 1938), Part IV, Chapter XVI, 268–81; see (iii) ‘Literature’, 276–81 (pp. 281 & 279). The compiler to whom Atkinson refers has to be Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos. See As Cem Melhores Poesias (Líricas) da Lingua Portuguesa, escolhidas por Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos (Lisboa: Ferreira Limitada/Glasgow: Gowan & Gray, 1910; reprinted 1914).

2 William C Atkinson, A History of Spain and Portugal. The Peninsula and Its Peoples: The Pattern of Their Society and Civilization (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1960); see the section ‘Literature and the Arts—II’, Chapter 11, 204–14 (p. 211).

3 See Atkinson, A History of Spain and Portugal, Chapter 15, ‘Literature and the Arts—III’, 343–52 (p. 345).

4 See Atkinson, ‘An Introduction to Portuguese’, (iii) ‘Literature’, 276–81 (p. 281).

5 Quoted from Bernard McGuirk’s email to Ann Mackenzie, dated 8 May 2015.

6 See Atkinson, ‘Translation from Spanish’, in A Handbook to the Study and Teaching of Spanish, ed. Peers, Part I, Chapter VI, 88–101.

7 See Fragments of University Reminiscence, Chapter 1, ‘1922–: Discovering the Spaniard’.

8 This quotation, and earlier words about Atkinson and ‘the way things were’, are borrowed from Ann L. Mackenzie & Nicholas G. Round ‘William Christopher Atkinson (1902–1992)’, BHS, LXX:4 (1993), 435–40; see Round’s tribute, Part II, 438–40 (pp. 439–40).

* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.