Staff profile

My research interests lie in modern Latin American fiction and poetry, in particular the poetry and essays of the Venezuelan author Eugenio Montejo and the fiction of Julio Cortázar. I am also interested in heteronymic writing both in the Americas and Europe.

I have published two books. My first book, Poetry and Loss: The Work of Eugenio Montejo, was on the work of the Venezuelan poet and essayist Eugenio Montejo. My study highlights Montejo's search for an authentic poetic locus which is subject neither to the effects of time nor to the alienation from nature of the late twentieth century. In particular, I examine how Montejo's work serves to construct a poetic symbology which might ground such a locus.

My second book, entitled Cortázar and Music, was published at the end of 2019. In this study, I detail the often shifting terms in which the Argentine author Julio Cortázar addresses different musical genres in his fiction and wider writings, examining how classical music, tango, and jazz work alongside and contribute to Cortázar's broader ontological and linguistic concerns. 

Beyond these projects I am also working on the phenomenon of heteronymic writing, most notably through the work of Eugenio Montejo, but also considering cases such as those of Antonio Machado, Álvaro Mutis, and Fernando Pessoa. My aim is to analyse the theoretical, historical, and cultural underpinnings and ramifications of this literary genre as found in the literary production of Montejo in particular. In this project I am working collaboratively with colleagues at the Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá.

I am happy to supervise PhDs on a wide range of Latin American literature, both poetry and fiction.

• Modern Latin American fiction and poetry
• Eugenio Montejo
• The literary engagement with music in Latin America
• Julio Cortázar
• Heteronymic writing in Latin America and beyond

Available for media contact about:

• Foreign Literature & Language: Latin American Literature
• International politics: Latin American Politics
• Foreign Literature & Language: Culture of Venezuela

Authored book

• Roberts, Nicholas (2019). Cortázar and Music. Legenda.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2009). Poetry and Loss: The Work of Eugenio Montejo. London: Tamesis.

Book review

• Roberts, Nicholas (2012). City/Art: The Urban Scene in Latin America. Modern Language Review 107(3): 957-959.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2011). Soledad Pérez-Abadín Barro, Cortázar y Che Guevara: lectura de ‘Reunión ’. Oxford/Bern/Berlin: Peter Lang. 2008. 178 pp. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 88(4): 621-622.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2011). Political Violence and the Construction of National Identity in Latin America. Ed. by Will Fowler and Peter Lambert. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2006. 244 pp. £55. ISBN 978-1-4039-7388-7. Modern Language Review 106(3): 892-894.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2010). Rodney Williamson, The Writing in the Stars: A Jungian Reading of the Poetry of Octavio Paz. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 87(4): 575-576.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2009). Pablo Neruda, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada. Edited, with an introduction, critical analysis, notes and vocabulary by Dominic Moran. Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press. 2007. xiv + 189 pp. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 86(2): 288-289.

Chapter in book

• Roberts, Nicholas (2016). When the Boat Comes In: Myth, Reification, and the Changing Face of Simón Bolívar in Venezuelan Politics and Culture. In Simón Bolívar: Travels and Transformations of a Cultural Icon. Shanahan, Maureen G. & Reyes, Ana María Gainesville: University Press of Florida. 215-229.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2011). Nieve natal The poetic language of Eugenio Montejo. In Orfeo revisitado viaje a la poesía de Eugenio Montejo. Rodríguez Silva, Aníbal Mérida, Venezuela Dirección General de Cultura y Extensión de la Universidad de Los Andes / Laboratorio Arte y Poética del Núcleo Universitario “Rafael Rangel”. 129-160.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2004). Literary Betrayal: (De)voicing the marginal in Roberto Arlt's El juguete rabioso. In Marginalities. Orozco, Lourdes & Vedrenne, Laetitia Durham: Durham Modern Languages Series. 99-108.

Journal Article

• Roberts, Nicholas (2018). 'The Joyous Excess of Eugenio Montejo’s Heteronymy' / 'El exceso jubiloso de la heteronimia de Eugenio Montejo'. Latin American Literature Today 1(7).
• Roberts, Nicholas (2018). Eugenio, desde el norte. Palimpsesto. Revista de Creación
• Roberts, Nicholas (2017). ¿Quién es el autor?: Eugenio Montejo y las voces nodales de la escritura oblicua. Aleph VI(182): 22-36.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2013). Variations on a Theme: Scored Music and Language in Julio Cortázar's "Clone". Bulletin of Spanish Studies 90(6): 1011-1034.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2012). Spectres, Politics and Poetics: Hamlet in the Poetry of Eugenio Montejo. New Readings 12: 1-18.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2009). Subverted Claims: Cortázar, Artaud, and the Problematics of Jazz. Modern Language Review 104(3): 730-745.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2007). Caballos y café Poetic responses to time and death in the poetry of Eugenio Montejo. Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84(8): 1043-1064.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2006). De ruiseñor a cigarra: la poética venezolana de Eugenio Montejo. Aerea: Anuario hispanoamericano de poesía 9: 298-302.
• Roberts, Nicholas. (2004). Inhabiting the Poetic in the Work of Eugenio Montejo. Romance Studies 22(1): 51-62.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Roberts, Nicholas (2021). El cuaderno de todo y de todos. Prodavinci

Other (Print)

• Roberts, Nicholas (2013). From Gómez to Chávez and beyond: Reading the poetry of Leoncio Martínez in Venezuela. Ventana Latina Revista Cultural 1.
• Roberts, Nicholas (2013). Eugenio Montejo. The Literary Encyclopedia