27th, 28th, 29th, 30th November
From tuesday to friday
READING ROOM
From 18H00 to 20H00
Free Admission
Subject to the room capacity

Translator and essayist, José António Palma Caetano guides the Thomas Bernhard community of readers.

From the importance of  Bernhard as a playwright to the harmony of his writing, going through the disturbing vision he transmits in his books or the relationship he had with music, there are various themes adapted to the Austrian writer which promise to cheer up a conversation made of readings... and to liven up readings.....

José António Palma Caetano has a degree in Germanic Philology of  the Faculty of Letters of the Lisbon University. In 1959 he emigrated to Austria, where from 1962 onwards he was a reader of Portuguese in the University of Vienna, being contracted as a professor in the Institute of Formation of Translators and Interpreters of the same University from 1983 up to 1996. Between 1969 and 1984 he also accumulated the functions of reader of Portuguese in the Institute of Romanists of the University of Graz: He obtained a master's degree from the University of Vienna in 1981. In 1990 he was invited to be professor in the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil), where he oriented the creation of a translator's course and led a master's degree course on Portuguese contemporary literature.  He developed intense and useful activity to promote the cultural exchange between Austria and Portugal, being the founder and president of the Austrian institution Club of Portugal Friends (1965-1979) and since 1979, President of the Austrian-Portuguese Society. As essayist, he has been collaborating in several Portuguese and Austrian publications. Recognising his work on behalf of the promotion of Portuguese culture and language, the Portuguese Government decorated him with the Order of the Infante D. Henrique. He also received the Medal of Honour from the Vidigueira Municipality and the Goldenes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um die Republik Osterreich (honour insignia of gold for services rendered to the Republic of Austria).