To mark the elevation to the title of Professor Emeritus of Bernard McGuirk, distinguished holder of the Chair of Romance Literatures and Literary Theory at the University of Nottingham, SPLASH Editions publishes a series of his collected writings. The present selection prompts acknowledgement of the input of and the interplay with generations of those who, having opted to approach comparative literatures in the Romance languages, happily arrive at texts habitually unseen, poems to be read and evaluated in the first instance without attribution to author but within a prevailing critical climate of applicable analytical discourses whereby the poetry will remain ever to be revisited, the readings ever to be refreshed, analyses ever to be indulged, enjoyed, whilst ever returning, deferring, to the host text. How is this poem to be read? How does this particular poem invite, allow, a given reading? Will a broad spectrum of approaches be recognized and respected? Can I apply what I know of the latest developments in critical thinking when I re-visit and analyse a text? Or must I defer to modes, capabilities and culturally grounded expectations of specialists, themselves subject to institutional demands. In the exponential international realm of Pessoa studies, there is, and will be, assuredly, room for all; with a proviso which this volume articulates.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Top reviews
Top reviews from India
There are 0 reviews and 0 ratings from India
Top reviews from other countries
RMeneses
5.0 out of 5 starsto be read attentively and to be enjoyed. This is one for serious readers of Pessoa ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 6 April 2018
Verified Purchase
A deeply rewarding collection of essays, to be read attentively and to be enjoyed. This is one for serious readers of Pessoa who are looking for refreshing readings, stimulating intertextual references, and a strong interplay between close literary analysis of Pessoa's poetry and the writing of select critical thinkers. So, definitely not more of the same - which makes it even more enjoyable. I think the prefacer (a distinguished critic in her own right, Silvina Rodrigues Lopes) captured this: “The humour that underpins Erasing Fernando Pessoa is a requisite ingredient of the book’s critical dimension, giving rise to the demystifying force of the unfinished in action. Henceforth, the play of readings of Fernando Pessoa will have here at its disposal an inescapable piece – antidote to appropriations by those, old and new, who assume themselves to be in charge of his inheritance, [one that] allows its liberating lightness to emerge and to go on teaching those that follow. It is by situating this reinvention as an unconditional value that this book is of immense importance: reinvention and incitement to reinvention are part of the lesson that arises from the texts, one that supposes that there can be no pretence at avoiding the responsibility for its performative dimension”. I think you need to take this on board if you seriously want to engage with Pessoa's writing.
![Erasing Fernando Pessoa by [Bernard McGuirk]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Vi6vyjTCL._SY346_.jpg)
