A MASTER WITH DISCIPLES. MARIA ALZIRA SEIXO
Helena Buescu
Professor Maria Alzira Seixo is a major reference for those interested in Comparative Literature. Her development, starting from French literature of the 17th Century, towards a major wide view of comparatism, has brought her to the forefront of this area of studies, in which she has immediately distinguished herself.
After having completed her BA in Romance Philology, at the University of Lisbon, she moved to study at the Ecole Pratique de Hautes Études, in Paris, with such names as Roland Barthes and A-J. Greimas, having also met with Tzvetan Todorov, Jacques Lacan, and Julia Kristeva. At the University of Lisbon, she was able to gather a solid number of students and followers around GUELF (Groupe Universitaire d’Études Françaises), thus marking her development of an inspiring career for all those who were able to know her and work with her. She was certainly one of the persons who most contributed to the advancement of the future Nobel Prize José Saramago, having been able to invite him to one of the International Conferences of the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA).
It was in this setting that she was recognized as one of the major names in the area of Comparative Literature, which led to her being chosen as President both of ICLA and FILLM (Fédération Internationale de Langues et Littératures Modernes). Her cosmopolitan vision of literature and intermedia also led her to be one of the inaugural names of Comparative Literature in Portugal, where she was the founder Director of the Portuguese Association of Comparative Literature (APLC). She was awarded the Palmes by the French besides being recognized with some of the most prestigious prizes in literary studies in Portugal.
Her resilient personality had several remarkable qualities, and set her apart in the international arena: she was never fully satisfied with what she has been able to achieve, and also strived to do more, and better. She communicated this characteristic to her many students, and was therefore a kind of beacon of what a true master may be. Maria Alzira Seixo has always been an attentive spectator and player in the national and international field, and Portuguese universities owe her an enormous debt, in the area of literary studies, specifically in Comparative Literature. But international comparatism has also received the benefit of her energy and beliefs, and many were those who recognize how her dynamism was infused into all areas of practical and theoretical knowledge and action in which her career bourgeoned. ICLA in particular, as an institution present around the whole world, in the field of comparative studies, owes her a great debt, and was lucky to be able to receive her inheritance.