Professor Philip Swanson
BA PhD
School of Languages and Cultures
Hughes Professor of Spanish
+44 114 222 0543
Full contact details
School of Languages and Cultures
2.31
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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Professor Phil Swanson studied as an undergraduate at the University of Liverpool and carried out postgraduate research at the University of Edinburgh. He also studied in Oxford, Lisbon and Seville. He has taught at a number of universities in Europe and the USA. He has been a Senior Fulbright fellow in the USA, holder of a Leverhulme Fellowship, and grant holder from the British Academy, the Carnegie Trust and the Society for Latin American Studies.
Phil Swanson has held a number of chairs and is now Hughes Professor of Spanish in the School of Languages and Cultures at Sheffield. His departmental teaching focuses on Latin American literature, Hispanic cinema, representations of Hispanic culture and Comparative Literatures and Cultures.
His areas of research centre principally on film and modern Latin American literature, with special reference to issues of identity, politics and popular culture, the nueva narrativa, the Boom and the Post-Boom. He also works on crime and fiction as well as on imaginings of ‘Latin’ identity.
Phil also has a keen interest in Spanish and Latin American theatre and has acted in produced and directed around twenty-five Spanish-language plays.
- Research interests
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Professor Swanson is one of the world’s leading authorities on Latin American literature, especially the New Narrative of the Latin American Boom and Post-Boom. He is currently engaged in research projects on foreign representations and imaginings of Latin America and crime and fiction in Latin America.
- Publications
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Books
- The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel Garciá Márquez. Cambridge University Press.
- Latin American Fiction. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- The New Novel in Latin America: Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
- José Donoso: The "Boom" and Beyond. Liverpool: Francis Cairns.
Edited books
- Landmarks in Modern Latin American Fiction. Abingdon and New York: Routledge.
Journal articles
- A Companion to Jose Enrique Rode. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW, 116, 514-516.
- Pop Goes the Boom : One Hundred Years of Solitude and the Latin American New Novel. Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas, 53(2), 280-287.
- Reviews of Books. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 96(2), 217-231.
- Borges and Popular Culture. Hispanic Research Journal, 19(3), 250-264. View this article in WRRO
- Pop Goes the Boom: One Hundred Years of Solitude and the Latin American New Novel. Review (New York, 1968): literature and arts of the Americas, 50(2), 162-169. View this article in WRRO
- Remember the Alamo? Texans, Mexicans and Americans in 1960s Hollywood. Iberoamericana(44), 85-100.
- A Turbulent Decade Remembered: Scenes from the Latin American Sixties. REV ESTUD HISPAN, 44(3), 744-747.
- Emilio Fernandez: Pictures in the Margins. B LAT AM RES, 29(4), 552-U149.
- Going Down on Good Neighbours: Imagining America in Hollywood Movies of the 1930s and 1940s (Flying Down to Rio and Down Argentine Way). B LAT AM RES, 29(1), 71-84.
- Don Quijote y el detective postmoderno en la narrativa hispanoamericana. Foro Hispánico, 40, 263-279.
- GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ A Life. TLS-TIMES LIT SUPPL(5524), 28-28.
- The Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture - Edited by John King. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 27(4), 600-602.
- Latin lessons for young Americans: Isabel Allende's fiction for children. REV ESTUD HISPAN, 41(2), 173-189.
- Latin Lessons for Young Americans: Isabel Allende's Fiction for Children. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (St. Louis, MO), 41(2), 174-189.
- Cultural studies in the curriculum: Teaching Latin America.. MOD LANG REV, 102, 548-549.
- The Recontextualization of William Faulkner in Latin American Fiction and Culture. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 84(1), 141-141.
- Z/Z: Isabel Allende and the Mark of Zorro. Romance Studies, 24(3), 265-277.
- Novel theatre: Egon Wolff'sLos invasoresand the idea of the new in Latin-American drama. Bulletin of Spanish Studies, 82(3-4), 387-402.
- Jung, Alchemy and Jose Donoso's novel El 'obsceno pajaro de la noche'. B HISPANIC STUD, 82(3), 406-407.
- A companion to modern Spanish American fiction.. B HISPANIC STUD, 82(3), 398-399.
- The veracity of disguise in selected works of Jose Donoso: Illusory deception. B HISPANIC STUD, 82(3), 406-407.
- Cesar Vallejo: A critical bibliography of research.. MOD LANG REV, 100, 240-240.
- Manuel Puig and the spider woman: His life and fictions. B HISPANIC STUD, 81(4), 569-570.
- Assertive hispanisms: Tensions and affirmations in cultural identity. B HISPANIC STUD, 81(4), 566-567.
- The omnipresence of mimesis in the work of Manuel Puig. B HISPANIC STUD, 81(4), 569-570.
- California Dreaming: Mixture, Muddle and Meaning in Isabel Allende's North American Narratives. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, 9(1), 57-67.
- The Defective Detective: The Case of Juan Jose Saer and "La pesquisa". South Atlantic Review, 67(4), 46-46.
- Back to the Boom? Recent Trends in Spanish American Literary Studies. Latin American Research Review, 36(2), 202-208.
- THEORY AND THE BODY: LUISA VALENZUELA'S NOVELA NEGRA CON ARGENTINOS AS TEST CASE. Forum for Modern Language Studies, XXXV(1), 95-106.
- Lost in a Spanish Garden: Exile and Anxiety in José Donoso's 'Spanish' Narratives. Studi Ispanici, 24, 149-159.
- In Memoriam: José Donoso (1924-1996). New Novel Review: Nueva Novela/Nouveau Roman Review, 4(2), 8-10.
- Only Joking? Gustavo Sainz and La princesa del Palacio de Hierro: Funniness, Identity and the Post-Boom. Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, 19(1), 101-115.
- Tyrants and Trash: Sex, Class and Culture in La casa de los espíritus. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 71(2), 217-237.
- Boom or Bust? Latin America and the Not So New Novel. New Novel Review: Nueva Novela/Nouveau Roman Review, 1(1), 74-92.
- Reviews of Books. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 69(2), 179-216.
- Donoso and the Post-Boom: Simplicity and Subversion. Contemporary Literature, 28(4), 520-520.
- Structure and Meaning in La misteriosa desaparición de la marquesita de Loria. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 63(3), 247-256.
- Binary Elements in El obsceno pájaro de la noche. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos (St. Louis, MO), 19(1), 101-116.
- Concerning the Criticism of the Work of José Donoso. Revista Interamericana de Bibliografía/Inter-American Review of Bibliography, 33, 355-365.
- Spanish-American Literature: The Twentieth Century. The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, 44, 492-509.
- Una entrevista con José Donoso. Revista Iberoamericana, 53(141), 995-998.
Chapters
- Fate and Free Will in Chronicle of a Death Foretold In Bell-Villada GH & López -Calvo I (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Gabriel García Márquez (pp. 512-523). New York: Oxford University Press.
- Borges and Popular Culture, JORGE LUIS BORGES IN CONTEXT (pp. 123-129).
- Roberto Ampuero and the Neruda Case: The Detective, the Poet, the ‘Converso’ In Lange C & Peate A (Ed.), Crime Scenes: Latin American Crime Fiction from the 1960s to the 2010s (pp. 157-175). Oxford: Peter Lang. View this article in WRRO
- The Gangster in Hispanic American Cinema In Larke-Walsh GS (Ed.), A Companion to the Gangster Film (pp. 166-181). Wiley View this article in WRRO
- Death in the Tropics: Alajuelita, ‘El Psicópata, and Costa Rican Crime Fiction In Forero G (Ed.), Víctimas, novela y realidad del crimen Bogotá: Planeta.
- Gabriel García Márquez, 1927-2014, Palabra Clave (pp. 253-257).
- Borges and popular culture, The Cambridge Companion to Jorge Luis Borges (pp. 81-95). Cambridge University Press
- Havana Noir: Time, Place and the Appropriation of Cuba in Crime Fiction In Anderson J, Pezzotti B & Miranda C (Ed.), The Foreign in International Crime Fiction (pp. 35-46). Bloomsbury Academic
- Isabel Allende (1942- ), A Companion to Latin American Women Writers (pp. 159-167). Woodbridge, England: Tamesis Books.
- Unfinished Business: Lagartija sin cola, Donoso’s Lost Novel In Carpenter V (Ed.), A World in Words, A Life in Texts: Revisiting Latin American Cultural Heritage (pp. 161-184). Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
- Introduction In Swanson P (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel García Márquez (pp. 1-6). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- The Detective and the Disappeared: Memory, Forgetting and Other Confusions in Juan José Saer's La pesquisa, Investigating Identities: Questions of Identity in Contemporary International Crime Fiction (pp. 277-294). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Brill/Rodopi.
- Isabel Allende y la marca del Zorro, La metamorfosis en las literaturas en lengua española (pp. 328-334). Budapest, Hungary: Eötvös József Könyvkiadó.
- The Post-Boom novel, The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel (pp. 81-102). Cambridge University Press
- Magical Realism and Children's Literature: Isabel Allende's La Ciudad de las Bestias, A Companion to Magical Realism (pp. 168-180). Woodbridge, England: Tamesis Books.
- Romancing the Stone with Carlos Fuentes: Reading and Writing La cabeza de la hidra, LA CHISPA '93: Selected Proceedings (pp. 240-247). New Orleans: Tulane UP.
- José Donoso: El obsceno pájaro de la noche, Landmarks in Modern Latin American Fiction (pp. 183-206). London: Routledge.
- The New Novel in Latin America (1920–1950), The Oxford Handbook of the Latin American Novel (pp. 110-123). Oxford University Press
- Fate and Free Will in Chronicle of a Death Foretold In Bell-Villada G & López Calvo I (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Gabriel García Márquez
- One Hundred Years of Solitude In Swanson P (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel Garciá Márquez (pp. 57-63). Cambridge University Press
- Where is Latin America?: Imaginary Geographies and Cultures of Production and Consumption In O'Bryen R & Davies C (Ed.), Transnational Hispanic Studies LUP View this article in WRRO
Book reviews
- Postcolonial Borges: Argument and Artistry. BULLETIN OF HISPANIC STUDIES, 96(2), 228-229.
Other
- Prólogo.
- The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel Garciá Márquez. Cambridge University Press.
- Research group
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Supervised topics include: Magical Realism, Latin American Poetry, Manuel Puig, Psychoanalysis and Politics in Mario Vargas Llosa, Dulce María Loynaz, Zoé Valdés, Cristina Peri Rossi, The Absurd in Virgilio Piñera, Spanish Women Writers, Lucía Etxebarria, Nation and Region in Spanish Cinema, Humour and Fiction in Latin America, Body Modification in Mexican Visual Culture, Banditry in Mexico and the Southern US, Naturalism in Argentina, Race and Sexuality in Angola, Paolo Coelho and the Global Market, Mexican Drug Culture, Mining in Latin American Literature, Menstruation in Hispanic Culture, Disability in Spanish Culture.
- Teaching activities
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Spanish language at all levels
Spain: Courses on Spanish civilization and modern Spanish history. All periods of Spanish literature. Specialist courses on Lorca, Buero Vallejo, poetry, modern drama, film, sexuality and culture.
Spanish America: All periods. Specialist courses on theatre, poetry, fiction 1900-60, fiction 1960 to present day, film, civilization versus barbarism, reality and fantasy, notions of the “modern,” politics and popular culture, sexual politics, women’s writing, Latin American identity, representations of Latin America.
Brazil: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and culture.
Other:
Theory, practical criticism and approaches to Hispanic Studies. Interdisciplinary courses on poetry, film and the detective. Research training.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Phil Swanson is past President of the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland and member of the Advisory Board for the UK’s Institute of Latin American Studies.
He has been an RAE panellist and served on a wide range of international professional and cultural organisations and institutions, grant-awarding bodies, editorial boards and review panels. He has been an assessor for a vast number of journals, publishers, universities and other academic bodies.
He was named Man of the Year by the American Bibliographical Institute Board of International Research. He has made numerous appearances on radio, television, in the print media and in public lectures.
Has been External Examiner in around fifteen universities and has externally examined about fifty PhDs across five continents. He is a well-known figure in the Spanish-speaking world and has appeared as a character in a novel by one of Spain’s leading writers, Lucía Etxebarría.