Francisco Cota Fagundes
Professor Emeritus of Portuguese
WHO I AM
WHERE I WORKED
WHERE I'M FROM
Agualva,
Terceira,
Açores
BIOGRAPHY
Born in the Azores, Portugal, emigrated to the US in 1963. Lived in California for 14 years; has resided in Amherst, MA since 1976. Taught Spanish and Portuguese language and literatures at the undergraduate level; Portuguese, Lusophone African, and Brazilian literatures at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and courses in Portuguese- and English-language literature of the Portuguese diaspora in the US. Literary critic, autobiographer, short story writer, and translator.
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGES,
LITERATURES & CULTURES
PROGRAM OF
SPANISH &
PORTUGUESE
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Contemporary Portuguese Poetry and Short Story; Interrelations of the Arts; Lusophone African Literature; Representations of Orality in Literature; Literature of the Portuguese Diaspora; writing of Autobiography, short story, crónica, and short narrative in general; the works of Jorge de Sena, Vitorino Nemésio, and Fernando Pessoa.
Strong believer in the use of literary theory in the study of literature, but also believes that the latter must serve the former, not the other way round. Personally, practices a humanistically oriented type of eclectic criticism. Currently his interests in literary criticism and creative writing – both autobiography and short fiction – are about equal. Has published the translation of a novel, a novella, a volume of short stories, a volume of poetry, and has also published a co-translation of two volumes of poetry by Jorge de Sena, Metamorphoses (1991) and Art of Music (1988).