Williamson, Edwin

PERSONAL:

Education: Edinburgh University, M.A., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Modern Languages, Oxford University, 41 Wellington Sq., Oxford OX1 2JF, England. E-mail—edwin.williamson@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk; edwin.williamson@exeter.ox.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland, former Forbes Professor of Hispanic Studies; Oxford University, Oxford, England, King Alfonso XIII Chair of Spanish; Exeter College, Oxford, England, fellow; has also taught at Trinity College, Dublin, and Birkbeck College, University of London. Visiting professor, Stanford University and Universidade de São Paulo.

WRITINGS:

The Half-Way House of Fiction: Don Quixote and Arthurian Romance, Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1984.

The Penguin History of Latin America, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor and author of introduction) Cervantes and the Modernists: The Question of Influence, Tamesis (London, England), 1994.

Borges: A Life, Viking (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to books, including Modern Latin American Fiction, edited by John King, Faber & Faber, 1987. Works have been published in foreign languages, including Spanish.

SIDELIGHTS:

Edwin Williamson is a scholar whose primary interests are Latin America and the Golden Age of Spain. His work focuses on the fields of Spanish American literature and cultural history; Jorge Luis Borges; and narrative fiction in the Spanish Golden Age, especially Miguel de Cervantes. Williamson is the author of the much praised The Penguin History of Latin America, which traces the history of Latin America, beginning with Columbus's arrival in the New World. The author examines everything from the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and the Iberian empires to the establishment of independent nations and the difficulties of modernization in twentieth-century Latin America. Writing in History Today, Fernando Cervantes noted that the author ‘has attempted the mammoth task of synthesising the most recent research on a whole continent's history and culture.’ Cervantes added: ‘The result is an excellent example of serious scholarship."

As the editor of Cervantes and the Modernists: The Question of Influence, Williamson brings together essays by noted scholars in several fields to address the issue of whether or not the influence of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, goes beyond the fiction of the eighteenth and nineteenth century to influence both modernist and postmodernist writers. Furthermore, the essays examine whether or not modernism, which is the term applied to experimental and avant-garde trends in literature and other arts in the early twentieth century, revealed new insights into Cervantes's classic novel. Williamson is also author of the volume's introduction, in which he provides an overview concerning the influences of Don Quixote from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. ‘That the Quijote unfolds new meanings at different points of time is a given, but the question of whether meanings are inherent in the masterpiece or inventions of subsequent readers is an interesting issue that this volume treats,’ wrote Robert L. Fiore on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online.

Essays in the book cover a wide range of topics, including linguistic expressions, the contradictory relationship between Cervantes and twentieth-century Spanish poet and novelist Juan Goytisolo, common motifs and patterns in Don Quixote and writings by Marcel Proust, and the Quixotic roots of magic realism. Fiore predicted: ‘Readers will be convinced that Don Quijote has transcended the ideological limits of its age and that it has anticipated many aspects of modernity, including Modernism and Post-Modernism.’ Writing in the Modern Language Review, Daniel Eisenberg called Cervantes and the Modernists ‘an extraordinarily diverse volume."

In Borges: A Life, the author presents a biography of Jorge Luis Borges, a writer whose short stories and essays gained him fame in the English-speaking world but who also wrote poetry and criticism. In a New York Times Book Review assessment, David Foster Wallace argued that ‘it is primarily because of Borges's short stories that anyone will care enough to read about his life.’ Writing in the Washington Post Book World, Michael Dirda called Williamson's biography ‘thoroughly engrossing,’ adding that ‘fans of the Argentine's ficciones will want to read it without delay."

The author begins his biography by providing a condensed history of Argentina with a focus on the role that the Borges family has played in that history. For instance, his grandfathers participated in the nineteenth-century battles for independence from Spain and helped develop a unified Argentine government. Williamson goes on to discuss Borges's family life and his parents and then chronicles the Argentine writer's adulthood up to his death in 1986 from liver cancer. Williamson simultaneously examines many of Borges's writings. London Telegraph critic Theo Tait noted that the author ‘satisfactorily fleshes out the recurring motifs in Borges's writing—the labyrinths, mirrors, tigers, knife-fighters, doubles and duels—by detailing not only his well-documented literary and philosophical tastes, but also his obsession with Argentinean low-life, and even his recurring nightmares."

Williamson also examines Borges's writing in light of the author's complicated relationships. For example, Williamson discusses the relationship he had with his mother, with whom Borges lived until she died in her nineties. ‘Williamson captures the troubled bond between Borges and his mother wonderfully,’ reported Adam Feinstein in the Guardian. Borges's relation- ships with and views of various women are also explored as Williamson relates the psychology of these relationships to the Argentine's works. ‘Invariably, Borges gravitated toward the sort of women his mother would not approve of,’ noted Dirda. Among the women Williamson writes about is Maria Kodama, a Japanese-Argentine woman who became Borges's second wife late in the author's life and who has been surrounded by controversy concerning her motives for being with Borges and for her handling of his literary estate. The author also delves into Borges's social and political views, too. On the London Telegraph Web site, a contributor commented that Williamson ‘is particularly good at unscrambling the complicated Argentine history that led this otherwise irreproachably anti-totalitarian writer to lend his support to military dictatorships."

Borges received widespread critical praise. ‘Williamson has successfully weaved a precarious path between authorized and uncompromised biography, and in the process has given us what will surely be regarded for many years as a definitive one,’ asserted Allen Barra in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Brian Charles Clark concluded on the Curled Up with a Good Book Web site: ‘Williamson's biography is lucid, comprehensive and deeply informed, not only by the life and work of Borges but of all those in his orbit. While Williamson is clearly fascinated by the events and people that shaped Borges' work, he does not neglect the peripheral material that makes a great life great reading."

Although some reviewers questioned Williamson's attempt to relate the vast majority of Borges's fiction to his psychological life and his sexual difficulties, others praised the author for his insights. ‘Williamson is especially strong—or at least focused—on the women in Borges' life, making much of his failed (and rare successful) love affairs and the effect these had on his life and writing,’ wrote a contributor to the Complete Review Web site. Boston Globe contributor Julio Ortega noted: ‘‘Borges’ is a wonderful biography with a point. To fulfill Borges's rebirth it calls on the forces of love. The story is about Borges's wounded search for love, traumatic sexual life, distracted fiancés, agonizing brief marriage, and late happiness."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, November, 2004, Marian Skedgell, Jose Maria Lavalle Santoruvo, and Andrew Johnston, ‘Borges Biography,’ letters to the editor, p. 24.

Booklist, August, 1992, Brad Hooper, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 1993; July 2004, Donna Seaman, review of Borges: A Life, p. 1811.

Book Report, September-October, 1993, Sherry Hoy, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 60.

Boston Globe, August 1, 2004, Julio Ortega, review of Borges.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, February, 2005, John Richard Crawford, review of Borges, p. 1027.

Economist, September 11, 2004, ‘Sightless Seer of Buenos Aires; Jorge Luis Borges,’ review of Borges, p. 79.

Financial Times, November 20, 2004, Richard Lapper, ‘From Seer to Eternity Argentineans May Feel Ambivalent about Their Greatest Writer, but Jorge Luis Borges' Legacy Lives On,’ p. 28.

Guardian (London, England), January 1, 2005 Adam Feinstein, review of Borges.

Harper's, September, 2004, Guy Davenport, ‘A Form of Incomprehension: The Curious Phenomenon of Borges,’ review of Borges, p. 87; December, 2004, P.J. Blumenthal and Arthur M. Shapiro, ‘Don't Cry for Guy, Argentina,’ letter to the editor, p. 6.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, October, 1994, J.R. Ward, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 467.

History Today, May, 1992, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 59; August, 1993, Fernando Cervantes, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 56.

International Affairs, October, 1992, Colin M. Lewis, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 790.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2004, review of Borges, p. 574.

Library Journal, August, 1992, Roderic A. Camp, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 129; August, 2004, Nedra Crowe-Evers, review of Borges, p. 82.

London Review of Books, May 11, 2006, Edwin Williamson, ‘Don't Abandon Me,’ review of Borges, p. 19.

Modern Language Review, July, 1997, Daniel Eisenberg, review of Cervantes and the Modernists: The Question of Influence, p. 766.

National Review, January 31, 2005, Algis Valiunas, ‘Mother's Boy,’ review of Borges, p. 52.

New Left Review, January-February, 2005, Efrain Kristal, review of Borges, p. 153.

New Statesman & Society, April 3, 1992, Amanda Hopkinson, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 45; April 3, 1992, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 45.

New York Times Book Review, November 7, 2004, David Foster Wallace, ‘Borges on the Couch,’ review of Borges, p. 10.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 12, 2004, Allen Barra, review of Borges.

Publishers Weekly, June 28, 2004, review of Borges, p. 41.

San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 2004, Bob Blaisdell, review of Borges, p. M3.

Spectator, November 13, 2004, Edgardo Cozarinsky, ‘Private Pain and Public Glory,’ p. 47.

Times Higher Education Supplement, September 25, 1992, Anthony McFarlane, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 21; August 5, 2005, Howard Young, ‘The Blind Writer Who Saw beyond Genre,’ review of Borges, p. 22.

Times Literary Supplement, July 3, 1992, review of The Penguin History of Latin America, p. 30; February 4, 2005, Brian Dillon, ‘Too Long in the Harem,’ review of Borges, p. 5.

Wall Street Journal Western Edition, October 5, 1990, Wade Lambert and Paul M. Barrett, ‘Change at State,’ p. 10.

Washington Post Book World, August 8, 2004, Michael Dirda, review of Borges, p. 15.

World and I, October, 2004, Allen Barra, ‘The Labyrinthine Life and Fictions of Jorge Luis Borges,’ review of Borges, A Life.

ONLINE

Asian Review of Books on the Web,http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/ (November 24, 2004), Michael Hsu, review of Borges.

College Hill Independent,http://www.brown.edu/Students/INDY/ (November 12, 2007), Joshua Brau, ‘Of Swords and Daggers: An Off-Target Biography of J.L. Borges."

Complete Review,http://www.complete-review.com/ (November 12, 2007), review of Borges.

Curled Up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (November 12, 2007), Brian Charles Clark, review of Borges.

Exeter College Web site,http://www.exeter.ox.ac.uk/ (November 12, 2007), faculty profile of Edwin Williamson.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (November 12, 2007), Robert L. Fiore, review of Cervantes and the Modernists.

London Review of Books Online,http://www.lrb.co.uk/ (November 12, 2007), Colm Tóibín, review of Borges.

London Telegraph Online,http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (October 10, 2004), Theo Tait, ‘Bookworm and Unrequited Lover,’ review of Borges.

Modern Languages at Oxford,http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/ (November 12, 2007), faculty profile of Edwin Williamson.