Jump to content

User:JJLiu112/sandbox

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
< User:JJLiu112

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by JJLiu112 (talk | contribs) at 07:02, 26 November 2024. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

William Atkinson
Born9 August 1902
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Died19 September 1992(1992-09-19) (aged 90)
Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire, England
NationalityBritish
OccupationHispanist
Years active1925–1977

William Christopher Atkinson (9 August 1902 – 19 September 1992) was a British Hispanist.

Early life and education

William Christopher Atkinson was born on 9 August 1902 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.[1][2][3] He was the second son of Methodists Robert Joseph Atkinson (c. 1867–1925) and his wife Rachel, née Abraham (c. 1874–1955).[1][4][5][6][7] His brothers were Victor Hugh (1900–70), a physician; Robert Arthur (b. 1905), a civil servant; and Joseph Stanley (b. 1910), a dentist.[8][9][10][11]

"Staying at the University Residencia de Estudiantes, I soon realized how ardent is the cry of young Catalonians for independence."

Atkinson attended Woodvale National School in Belfast, where his father was schoolmaster, and like his brothers enrolled in the mixed grammar school Methodist College Belfast, beginning in the 1914–15 year.[1][4][10] There, he played in the First XI of the boys' cricket team, and was on the academic prize list, receiving several exhibitions for history and languages, and the Belfast City Scholarship to Queen's University Belfast.[1][10][12] He accepted, originally reading English, French, Latin and Spanish, but graduating with a First Class Honours BA in just French and Spanish in 1924.[1] As an undergraduate, Atkinson travelled widely in France and Spain, though his month-long sojourn in Barcelona of September 1923 left him feeling stunned by the city's modernity and the revival of the Catalan language, which "not even God can understand".[12][13][14] The same year, Atkinson won an essay prize posted by the fledgling Bulletin of Spanish Studies (now of Hispanic Studies) on the subject, 'Why learn Spanish?'[15] At a time when "Spanish was regarded by many to be only worth studying for those intending to pursue a career in business and commerce",[1] Atkinson argued its merit to "penetrate the nobility of the language, the charm of the people, the glory of the literature—though commerce were dead and Latin America a back number, what need we any further incentives?"[16]

Study in Spain

End page from Hernán Pérez de Oliva (Revue hispanique edition)

For his exceptional marks, Atkinson received the Henry Hutchinson-Stewart Literary Scholarship and a literary studentship valued at £70 altogether, that enabled him to study for an MA from Queen's by taking courses at the University of Madrid.[1][13] There, he took classes in Spanish literature and language and undertook research at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, though he was critical of its poor management and of the university's predilection for rote learning long texts.[13] He also travelled the country's south and east and acquired "a complete mastery of the spoken tongue together with a first-hand experience of life in the peninsula", according to Spanish professor Ignacio González-Llubera.[12][13] Under his guidance, Atkinson published his thesis, "an attracitve monograph" of the sixteenth-century humanist Hernán Pérez de Oliva, in 1925.[12] Two years later, he wrote the book Hernán Pérez de Oliva, and a critical accompaniment to de Oliva's Teatro, both republished in the prestigious Revue hispanique of the Hispanic Society of America.[1][17][18]

Career

In January 1926, Atkinson took up the position of Lecturer in charge of the Department of Spanish at Armstrong College, Durham University (now a part of Newcastle University) in Newcastle upon Tyne.[12] Then, learning Spanish still lacked the academic prestige of other modern languages — after a period from 1830 to 1909 when there was no chair of Spanish at any British university, its revival in the early twentieth century was due to its emerging "commercial value". Thus, the course "was not taken very seriously", seen "as a distraction from 'serious' study" and "taught as a dead language."[19]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Mackenzie, Ann L. (16 March 2018). "Introduction II: William C. Atkinson (1902–1992) Scholar of Spain, Portugal and Latin America". Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 95 (2–3): 17–43. doi:10.1080/14753820.2018.1489031. ISSN 1475-3820.
  2. ^ Pontiero, Giovanni (30 September 1992). "Obituary: Professor William Atkinson". The Independent. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  3. ^ Newmann, Kate. "William Christopher Atkinson". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  4. ^ a b "DEATH". The Northern Whig and Belfast Post. 24 April 1925. p. 8. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  5. ^ "NEWS IN BRIEF". The Portadown Times. 21 January 1955. p. 6. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  6. ^ United Kingdom census (1901). "Form A." Census of Ireland. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  7. ^ United Kingdom census (1911). "Form A." Census of Ireland. Retrieved 25 October 2024.
  8. ^ "Victor Hugh Atkinson". www.familysearch.org. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  9. ^ "Methodist College Register 6". www.lennonwylie.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  10. ^ a b c "Methodist College Register 7". www.lennonwylie.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  11. ^ "Methodist College Register 8". www.lennonwylie.co.uk. Retrieved 26 October 2024.
  12. ^ a b c d e "W. C. Atkinson's original application for the Chair of Spanish at Glasgow". Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 95 (2–3): 97–102. 16 March 2018. doi:10.1080/14753820.2018.1487688. ISSN 1475-3820.
  13. ^ a b c d Atkinson, William C. (16 March 2018). "Fragments of University Reminiscence (1922–1972)". Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 95 (2–3): 91–96. doi:10.1080/14753820.2018.1489037. ISSN 1475-3820.
  14. ^ Atkinson, Wm. (1924-01). "September in Barcelona". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 1 (4): 145–147. doi:10.1080/14753825012331368761. ISSN 0007-490X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Literary competitions". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 1 (2): 87–88. 1924-01. doi:10.1080/14753825012331368816. ISSN 0007-490X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Atkinson, Wm. (1924-01). "Why learn Spanish?". Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. 1 (2): 74–75. doi:10.1080/14753825012331368766. ISSN 0007-490X. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Atkinson, William (1927). "Hernán Perez de Oliva: A Biographical and Critical Study". In Foulché-Delbosc, Raymond (ed.). Revue Hispanique (71 ed.). Vaduz: Kraus Reprint Ltd (published 1966). pp. 309–484.
  18. ^ de Oliva, Hernán Pérez; Atkinson, William (1927). "Teatro". In Foulché-Delbosc, Raymond (ed.). Revue Hispanique (in English and Spanish) (69 ed.). Paris: Librairie C. Klincksieck. pp. 521–659.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  19. ^ Frost, Ann (2019). "The emergence and growth of Hispanic Studies in British and Irish universities" (PDF). Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 10 November 2024.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:JJLiu112/sandbox&oldid=1259638486"