(Ph.D, University of São Paulo)

Professor Oliver specializes in Brazilian literature (Baroque and Colonial, 19th Century, Modernism, Contemporary), Brazilian film, Brazilian music, Comparative literature, Portuguese literature (Early Modern, 19th and 20th centuries) History of ideas, History of art, Music, Philosophy, Literary criticism, theory and practice of translation, aiming at its proper contextualization within Brazilian culture, and its significance beyond its borders.

A native of São Paulo, with close contacts with Brazilian cultural life, Professor Oliver received her Ph.D from the University of São Paulo (Music and Letters: Portuguese, English and French). Her Post-doc studies were conducted at the University of São Paulo and Yale University. She has taught at the University of São Paulo and at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC–São Paulo), and has held positions of Visiting researcher and lecturer at the University of Oxford, UK, and the University of São Paulo.

Her poetical works and articles have been published in various journals in the Americas and in Europe. Works include: Campo Ceifado Agora (Rio de Janeiro: 7 Letras) (poems); Rabelais e Joyce:Três Leituras Menipéias (São Paulo: Ateliê Editorial); El Universo y O Sertão (Madrid: Ediciones del Orto), O Terceiro Livro dos Fatos e Ditos Heróicos do Bom Pantagruel by François Rabelais. (São Paulo: Ateliê Editorial) (Essays, Translation and Commentary).Translations into Portuguese include, among others: A Canção dos Loureiros by Édouard du Jardin (Rio de Janeiro: Globo); Aurélia, by Gérard de Nerval (São Paulo: Icone); poetry by T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Nerval, Baudelaire, Larkin. Translations into English include Carlos Drummond de Andrade, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Manuel Bandeira. Among the Brazilian authors, she has written about Machado de Assis – among which the award winning monography A Poesia de Machado no Século XXI: Revisita, Revisão; and the also award winning monography Ácida? Amarga? O sabor da sátira em Lima Barreto – Raul Pompéia, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Mário de Andrade, Oswald de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Clarice Lispector, Cecília Meireles, João Guimarães Rosa, and Lima Barreto.

Professor Élide Valarini Oliver is the recipient of a Jabuti Prize (2007), and twice the recipient of the Itamaraty Prize for Brazilian Literature (2006 and 2008) offered by the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Brazil. Her most recent work focuses on Machado de Assis and Guimarães Rosa.