António Sousa Ribeiro, researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) and Professor at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra (FLUC), was awarded the APT/SPA Grand Prize for Literary Translation 2017.

The literary prize, instituted by the Portuguese Association of Translators (APT) and sponsored by the Portuguese Society of Authors (SPA), this year distinguished the translation of the novel The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus, published under Edições Húmus Publishing House (2016).

The translation, which, in the Portuguese edition, features approximately 900 pages, is one of the fundamental texts of Austrian and European literature of the twentieth century. Published in 1919, and in its final version in 1922, it presents, from a satirical perspective and from a ferocious anti-war criticism, the multifaceted context of a disintegrating society that survives in the paroxysm of a culture of violence.

Nuno Carinhas and Nuno M Cardoso’s stage adaptation of the novel, premiered on October 27, 2016, at the São João National Theatre, was based on this translation.

Through the Grand Prize for Literary Translation, APT and SPA strive to emphasize translation as an exercise of authorship in Literature, also aiming to give due credit to translators in the world of national and international culture. The prize has a monetary value of 2.500 euros.

The award ceremony will take place on December 15, at 5.30 pm, at R. Gonçalves Crespo, 62, in Lisbon.


About the author

António Sousa Ribeiro is a full professor for German Studies at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Coimbra. From 1991 until 2008 he was responsible for Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais. He is the co-coordinator of the doctoral programmes on Discourses: Culture, History and Society and on Postcolonialisms and Global Citizenship.

Among several other functions, he has been in previous years president of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Arts (2000-2002), president of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Social Studies (2003-2007) and director of the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the Faculty of Arts (2009-2011). He is the current coordinator of the board of directors of CES.

He has published extensively on several topics in Austrian and German Studies (with special emphasis on Karl Kraus and Viennese modernity), Comparative Literature, Literary Theory, Cultural Studies, Postcolonial Studies and the Sociology of Culture. His current research interests include Austrian and German Studies, Comparative Literature, Postcolonial Studies, Translation Studies, Studies on Modernism, and studies on violence, culture and identities. He is also occasionally active as a literary translator.