Dr Rhian Atkin

Summary

My current research project explores the relationship between literature and visual cultures in Portuguese futurism, with a particular focus on the 1917 magazine, Portugal Futurista. I am also working on a collaborative project exploring heteronymity and identity in literature.

My previous research has focused on Portuguese literature, narratology and gender studies. I have worked extensively on José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa (Bernardo Soares) and Luís de Sttau Monteiro. My PhD, entitled 'Masculinities and Social Change in the Literary Lisbon(s) of Livro do Desassossego, Um Homem não Chora and História do Cerco de Lisboa (University of Leeds, 2010), won an honourable mention in the 2010 Mário Soares Foundation prize for academic work on Portuguese history. 

My publications include articles on Pessoa, Saramago and Sttau Monteiro. I edited Textual Wanderings: The Theory and Practice of Narrative Digression (London: Legenda, 2011) and I recently published my first monograph, Saramago's Labyrinths: A Journey Through Form and Content in Blindness and All the Names (Manchester: Manchester University Press and Durham Modern Languages Series, 2012). I am finalising my second book, which deals with social constructions of masculinities in Lisbon-based literature (José Saramago, Fernando Pessoa and Luís de Sttau Monteiro), and will be published in the MHRA Texts and Dissertations Series in 2014. 

I am keen to hear from students and colleagues interested in developing work on Portuguese, Brazilian and Lusophone-African modernisms, literature and visual cultures, the city in literature and gender studies. 

Biography

I came to the University of Bristol in September 2012, having previously worked as a Lecturer in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at the University of Manchester. I have also taught Portuguese language and Lusophone cultural studies at the University of Leeds and the University of Liverpool. 

I completed an MA by Research (2007) and PhD (2010) in Portuguese Literature at the University of Leeds. 

Teaching

I teach on the following units: 

MODL10011: Introduction to the Study of Cultures

HISP10009: Key Moments in Lusophone History and Culture

HISP20057: Self and Nation in Lusophone Modernisms

HISP20058: Body/Image: Gender and Corporeality in the Lusophone World

HISP30053: Pushing the Boundaries of Sex and Gender in Lusophone Literature

HISP30052: Memory, Nation and Lusophone Identity

My consultation hours during teaching weeks in TB2 2012-13 are Monday 2.00-3.50pm (4 February-22 March and 22 April-17 May 2013). Students are welcome to drop in during these times without an appointment. 

Keywords

• Modernism
• literature
• Portuguese studies
• Post-colonial studies
• gender studies
• masculinities
• Lisbon
• cities
• visual cultures

Memberships

Organisations

Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

Organisational groups

• Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies

Research clusters

• 19th- and 20th-Century Studies
• Identity-Formation in Political, Historical, Cultural and Linguistic Contexts

Recent publications

• Atkin, R 2012, ‘Saramago's Labyrinths: A Journey Through Form and Content in Blindness and All the Names’. Manchester University Press, Manchester
• Atkin, R 2012, ‘Going Nowhere in Voyage autour de ma chambre and 'Viagem nunca feita'’. in: David G Frier (eds) Pessoa in an Intertextual Web : Influence and Innovation. Legenda. Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, London, pp. 82-98
• Atkin, R 2011, ‘"Tell it again, José! Some Principles of Digression in Saramago'’. in: Rhian Atkin (eds) Textual Wanderings: The Theory and Practice of Narrative Digression. Legenda. Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing, London, pp. 99-111
• Atkin, R 2010, ‘'Bernardo Soares, Flânerie and the Philosophy of Inaction'’. Hispanic Research Journal, vol 11., pp. 160-74
• Atkin, R 2008, ‘'Are you sitting comfortably? Reading Saramago aloud'’. Ellipsis, vol 6., pp. 107-22
• Atkin, R 2008, ‘'The Unembodied Self in Luís de Sttau Monteiro's Um Homem não Chora'’. Working Papers in the Humanities., pp. 33-42
• Atkin, R 2007, ‘From Theseus to Daedalus: Saramago, Sr. José and the Reader in the Labyrinth of Todos os Nomes'’. Portuguese Studies, vol 23., pp. 191-207

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system