Research in Portuguese Studies

Dr. Patricia Odber de Baubeta has published books and articles on medieval Portuguese Literature and Ecclesiastical History. She has written on selected Portuguese authors, the language of advertising, and the use of fairy tale motifs in advertising and other fictions. Her recent research focuses on the History of Portuguese Literature in English Translation, and the History of the Anthology in Portugal. Dr Odber is involved in several collaborative research projects. She is also an experienced translator who has published translations of Portuguese short stories. Currently she is translating selected sermons by Padre António Vieira, and editing an anthology of Iberian Crime Fiction in English Translation.

Dr. Robert Oakley, Senior Honorary Research Fellow, has a long-standing interest in Brazilian poetry and prose, in particular the works of Lima Barreto, on whom he has published numerous articles in British and Brazilian academic journals. He has also held the distinction of Visiting Research Fellow in several Brazilian universities.

Professor Frank Lough has published on the Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago.

Research areas

Portuguese language, literature and history

Dr Odber de Baubeta has published books and articles on medieval Portuguese Literature and Ecclesiastical History (Igreja, Pecado e Sátira Social na Idade Média Portuguesa, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda, 1997). She has written on selected Portuguese authors (Gil Vicente, Camões, Miguel Torga, Bernardo Santareno), the language of advertising, and the use of fairy tale motifs in advertising and other fictions. She has recently carried out research into Portuguese anthologies (The Anthology in Portugal: A New Approach to the History of Portuguese Literature. The Twentieth Century, 2007) and is now co-ordinating a team of researchers who are exploring different aspects of Portuguese anthologies.

Brazilian literature

Dr Oakley has a long-standing interest in Brazilian poetry and prose, in particular the works of Lima Barreto, on whom he has published numerous articles in British and Brazilian academic journals. In Spring 1998, he published a major study of this author, The Case of Lima Bareto and Realism in the Brazilian "Belle Époque", Lampeter, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1998.

Dr Odber de Baubeta has published articles on Jorge Amado, Dias Gomes and Clarice Lispector.

Portuguese translation studies

Members of the Portuguese team have a long-standing commitment to translation, both the theory and the practice, with a special interest in making works of Portuguese literature and history available to a wider reading public

Thus Dr Oakley translated selections from the fifteenth-century chronicles of Fernão Lopes' were made jointly with the late Professor Derek Lomax and published under the title of The English in Portugal, 1376-87, Warminster, Aris and Phillips, 1988.

A new project to translate all of the Crónicas is now being designed by Dr Amélia Hutchinson, Honorary Research Fellow.

Dr Odber de Baubeta has organised a one-day conference, held in the Institute of Romance Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. The title was: From the Portuguese: Translations and Transformations. The speakers, Margaret Jull Costa, Juliet Perkins, Ana de Brito, Tony Lappin, Ann Maclaren, Shirley Clarke and Pat Odber de Baubeta, talked about aspects of translating Gil Vicente, Camões, António José da Silva and Eça de Queiroz.

Dr Odber de Baubeta has herself translated a number of Portuguese short stories into English. She has commissioned a number of translations of Portuguese works into English to be published in the series Edições Gil Vicente, under the auspices of the Cátedra Gil Vicente with the support of the Instituto Camões. The other members of the Editorial Board are Professor Frank Lough (Birmingham), Dr Alexandra Assis Rosa (University of Lisbon) and Dr Margarida Vale de Gato (University of Lisbon).

The Sir Henry Thomas Project: The History of Portuguese Literature in English Translation

This project, originally undertaken in conjunction with Dr Helen Kelsh, has given rise to a series of papers delivered in the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London, Oxford; Coimbra, Oporto and Lisbon; Ribadeo and Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) and the University of Durban-Westville, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa (by video-conference), and a dozen papers authored by Dr Odber de Baubeta, Dr Kelsh, Dr Carvalho and Dr Sonia Pérez Villanueva. The first monograph of a projected series of three, The History of Portuguese Literature in English Translation. The Medieval Galician Portuguese Lyric and the Theatre of Gil Vicente, is due to be published later this year.

International Research Projects

2000?, The Sir Henry Thomas Project: The History of Portuguese Literature in English Translation. P.A. Odber de Baubeta, Dr. Juliet Perkins, Professor Maria Leonor Machado de Sousa, Dr. João Paulo Ascenso Pereira da Silva, Dr. Manuela Carvalho, Dr. Stephen Wilson.

2004?, The Anthology in Portugal. An exploration of the role of anthologies in literary historiography, canon formation and intercultural transfer, focusing also on the question of female authorship, translation and censorship as well as ‘the lesser genres’, namely children’s literature and detective fiction. With the collaboration of a team of colleagues in the UK and Portugal (Universities of Lisbon and Oporto).

2006?2013, TETRA (A Tradução de Teatro e o Palco: para uma história da tradução teatral em Portugal, 1800 – 2009 / Translation, Theatre and the Portuguese Stage: Towards a History of Theatre Translation in Portugal, 1800 – 2009), a project based in the University of Lisbon and funded by the Fundação para a Tecnologia e Educação. The project has given rise to several workshops, books, and a database.

2009?2013, Translation Consultant on the project Fernão Lopes – The Chronicles, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, USA, which brings together a team of scholars from Portugal, the UK and the US who are producing annotated translations of and critical essays on the medieval Portuguese chronicler Fernão Lopes, funded by the Portuguese Book Institute and to be published by Boydell and Brewer. The team includes Professor Teresa Amado, Dr. Amélia Hutchinson, Emeritus Professor Clive Willis, Dr. Iona McLeery, Dr. Juliet Perkins, Professor Philip Krummrich, Dr. Josiah Blackmore, Francisco Fernandes, Shirley Clarke. Consultant: Dr. Patricia Odber de Baubeta.

2011?, The Reception of British and Irish Short Fiction in Portugal and Portuguese Short Fiction in the United Kingdom and Ireland (1980-2010) | A recepção da ficção breve britânica e irlandesa em Portugal e da ficção breve portuguesa no Reino Unido e Irlanda (1980-2010). Principal Investigator: Dr Ana Raquel Lourenço Fernandes. Research team: Dr Claire Williams, Dr Paul Melo e Castro, Dr Raquel Ribeiro, Sara Henriques, Jennifer Arnold, Suzan Bozkurt. Consultants: Dr. Patricia Odber de Baubeta, Professor Susan Bassnett, Professor Ellen Sapega, Professor Isabel Rocheta, Emeritus Professor João Almeida Flor.

2011?, Censura e mecanismos de controlo da informação no Teatro e no Cinema. Antes, durante e após o Estado Novo. Centro de Investigação Media e Jornalismo, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Principal Investigator: Ana Cabrera. Research Team: Graça dos Santos, Ana Cabrera, Paulo Cunha, Ana Bela Morais, Leonor Areal. Consultants: Dr Patricia Anne Odber de Baubeta, Professor Teresa Seruya, Emeritus Professor João Almeida Flor and Professor Luís Reis Torgal.

2011?, PENPAL. Translation Teaching Project with members of Department of English, University of Lisbon.