António Machado Pires
Nº OF MEETING: XV
António Machado Pireswasborn in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores, in 1942. He graduated in Roman Philology at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (1966), where he was an assistant to Professor VitorinoNemésio. In the mid 1970s, he was invited to collaborate with the recently opened University Institute of the Azores (present-day University of the Azores). In 1979, he earned a PhD in Portuguese Literature at the same University with the thesis “A Ideia da DecadêncianaGeração de 70” [“The Idea of Decadencein the 1870s Generation”].
He was Vice-chancellor and Chancellor of the University of the Azores, having also founded and led the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. He taught courses on Portuguese Culture and Literature and Theory of Culture until 2006, when he retired.
Full professor, essayist, researcher andprefacer, especially of RaúlBrandão’sAs IlhasDesconhecidas [Unknown Islands], he was avaluable collaborator of the Bulletin of the Historical Institute of the Island of Terceira, of the magazine Colóquio/Letras, of the journal Arquipélago, which he edited and cofounded, of the journal of the University of Coimbra, among other specialized publications. He was also an advisor at the INIC (Instituto Nacional de InvestigaçãoCientífica [National Institute for Scientific Research]), president of the SIEN (SeminárioInternacional de EstudosNemésianos [International Seminar of Studies on VitorinoNemésio]) and a member of the Editorial Board atthe Imprensa Nacional/Casa da Moeda.
From his works that have been published, we highlight the following:
• D. Sebastião e o Encoberto (1971);
• O Século XIX, Cronologia e Quadro de Gerações (1975);
• Raul Brandão e Vitorino Nemésio (1988);
• VitorinoNemésio, Rouxinol e Mocho (1998), with a new and revised edition in 2009;
• Luz e Sombras no Século XIX em Portugal (2006).
He has also published countless writings on Oliveira Martins, Eça de Queirós, Portuguese fin-de-siècle literature and even Fernando Pessoa.
Following an invitation from the Federal University of Santa Catarina with the aim of recovering the memory of the Azorean emigration to Brazil, the University of the Azores signed aConventionin 1984, which has greatly contributed to strengthen the ties between these two institutions. António Machado Pires’s action was crucial for this fruitfulwork, with the Azorean-Catarinense Study Weeks standing out. The 20th anniversary of the Conventionwas celebrated in 2004, with António Machado Pires traveling to Brazil along with then Chancellor Professor AvelinoMeneses. As recognition of his contribution, he was awarded the Brazilian Medal of the University of Santa Catarina and the Order of Instruction.
