email

obinfo@obfuchai.com

This website & contents ©1987-2009 Olivier Burckhardt

The calligraphy on the banner, adapted from a Chinese ink rubbing,
is by Mi Fu (1051-1107), one of the great Song dynasty masters.
The two characters read fu floating & chai (zhai in pin-yin) which means studio or retreat.

The calligraphy on the banner, adapted from a Chinese ink rubbing, is by Mi Fu (1051-1107), one of the great Song dynasty masters. The two characters read fu floating & chai which means studio or retreat.
Hence: Floating Studio.

 

Ranging from in-depth review articles on anthologies of Chinese literature & the collected poems of Montale & Pavese to book reviews dealing with history, philosophy, and language, reviews by Olivier Burckhardt have appeared in:

 

The Times Literary Supplement
The Guardian
PN Review
History Today
The Irish Review
and other literary magazines.

 

The Independent on Sunday
London Magazine
Modern Poetry in Translation
Quadrant
Contemporary Review

 
A deep interest in literature and the humanities, along with mother-tongue fluency in Italian & French, and a working knowledge of Classical Chinese, has enabled Olivier Burckhardt to relate & compare Chinese with Western literary traditions and bring to the foreground a cross-cultural (or transcultural) approach that highlights how we are carried by and carry a tradition with a past that goes deeper than memory itself.
An independent essayist and poet without formal academic background, he has never shied away from taking an active interest in scholarly research whilst, in his own writing, maintaining an informed content that both challenges and stimulates ideas about the nature of literature, poetry, and language itself.
Over the years various fellowships, grants, and awards have enabled him to explore and deepen his interests:

 

1999
2000
2005

2006

 

Fellow of the Swiss Institute in Rome
Project Grant: Literature Fund, Australia Council for the Arts.
The Redmond Barry 1854 Fellowship, awarded by the University of Melbourne in association with The State Library of Victoria.
Project Grant: Literature Fund, Australia Council for the Arts.

 
He is currently an Honorary Fellow, English Literary Studies, The University of Melbourne.

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New & Forthcoming Reviews
The Times Literary Supplement
22 January 2010, p. 24		 Love and war
Review of The Selected Poetry of Guido Cavalcanti: A Critical English Edition edited by Simon West
Troubador Italian Studies, 2009

The Guardian Review of Books
27 December 2008
p. 12

Renaissance rapper
Review of: Baldo
Volume 1 Books I-XII
Volume 2 Books XIII-XXV
Teofilo Folengo, Translated by Ann E. Mullaney
(Harvard University Press 2007-2008)

Revised and expanded version
“Renaissance Fabulator”
Quadrant, Vol. 53, No. 3, Mar. 2009, pp. 123-124

Quadrant.
53:6 (June 2009) 124-126		 Chinese Calligraphy
by Zhongshi Ouyang, Wen C. Fong, et al
Translated and edited by Youfen Wang.
Yale University Press 2008

A selection of books reviewed arranged by theme:
Classical & Modern Chinese Literature         Chinese Culture & History 
       Western Classics         English Literature         Italian Literature
         French Literature        Language & Philosophy
For a full list of published reviews go to CV & Publications

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classical & Modern Chinese Literature

 

 

 

 

 
Quadrant,
52: 4, April 2008, pp. 120-121.

Stephen Owen
The Late Tang:
Chinese Poetry of the Mid- Ninth Century (827-860)
Harvard University Press, 2006

 

Quadrant.
46 (Dec. 2002) 85/6

 

Gao Xingjian (Tr. Mabel Lee)
One Man's Bible,
HarperCollins 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
44:9 (2000) 84-85.

 

Gao Xingjian (Tr. Mabel Lee)
Soul Mountain
HarperCollins 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
27:3 (2001) 78-79.

 

Chang Kang-I Sun & Saussy Haun (Eds.)
Women Writers of Traditional China: An anthology of Poetry and Criticism,
Stanford University Press 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(31 May 1998) The Review 34.

 

Carolyn Choa & David Su Li-Qun (Eds.)
The Picador Book of Contemporary Chinese Fiction
Picador 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
275:1604 (1999) 160-1

 

Amy D.Dooling & Kristina M.Torgeson (Eds.)
Writing Women in Modern China: An Anthology of Women's Literature from the Early Twentieth Century,
Columbia University Press 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(18 Oct. 1998) Culture 12.
(External Link)

 

Hong Yin
Daughter of the River: An Autobiography
Bloomsbury 1988.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(31 May 1998) The Review 34.

 

Bonnie S.McDougall & Kam Louie
The Literature of China in the Twentieth Century
Hurst & Co 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

Redoubt.
24 (1997) 135-142.

 

Stephen Owen (Ed.)
An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911
W W Norton 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chinese Culture & History

 

Quadrant.
53:6 (June 2009) 124-126.		 Zhongshi Ouyang, Wen C. Fong, et al
Translated and edited by Youfen Wang.
Chinese Calligraphy
Yale University Press 2008

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:12 (2004) 92-93.

 

G. E. R. Lloyd
Ancient Worlds, Modern Reflections: Philosophical Perspectives on Greek and Chinese Science and Culture
Oxford University Press 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(27 June 1999) Culture 12.

 

Laozi (Tr. Richard John Lynn)
The Classic of the Way and Virtue: A New Translation of the Tao-te Ching of Laozi as Interpreted by Wang Bi
Columbia University Press 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

History Today.
49:6 (1999) 54-55.

 

Michael Loewe & Edward L. Shaughnessy, (Eds.)
The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C.
Cambridge University Press 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(20 Dec. 1998) Culture 11.
(External Link)

 

Frank Dikotter
Imperfect Conceptions: Medical Knowledge, Birth Defects and Eugenics in China
Hirst & Co. 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

History Today.
48:10 (1998) 54.

 

J. A. G. Roberts
Modern China: An Illustrated History
Sutton 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
275:1604 (1999) 160-1

 

Clara Wing-Chung Ho (Ed.)
Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: The Qing Period, 1644-1911
M. E. Sharpe 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
272:1585 (1998) 102-104.

 

Andrew J. Nathan & Robert S. Ross
The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China's Search for Security
W W Norton 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
 271:1579 (1997) 104-5.

 

J. A. G. Roberts
A History of China, Vol. 1, Prehistory to c. 1800
Sutton 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
270:1576 (1997) 274-5.

 

Benjiamin I. Schwartz
China and Other Matters
Harvard University Press 1996.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Western Classics

 

The Guardian Review of Books
27 December 2008
p. 12 (External Link)		 Renaissance rapper
Review of: Baldo
Volume 1 Books I-XII
Volume 2 Books XIII-XXV
Teofilo Folengo, Translated by Ann E. Mullaney
(Harvard University Press 2007-2008)

Revised and expanded version
“Renaissance Fabulator”
Quadrant, Vol. 53, No. 3, Mar. 2009, pp. 123-124

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
49:1/2 (2005) 82-85.

 

Catullus (Translated by Josephine Balmer)
Poems of Love and Hate
Bloodaxe Books 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:4 (2004) 63-67.

 

Tony Woodman & Denis Feeney (Eds.)
Traditions & contexts in the Poetry of Horace
Cambridge University Press 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:4 (2004) 63-67.

 

David West
Carpe Diem: Horace Odes I
Vatis Amici: Horace Odes II
Dulce Periculum: Horace Odes III
Oxford University Press 1995, 1998, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
31:5 (2005) 94-95.

 

Frank Nisetich
The Poems of Callimachus
Oxford University Press 2001.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
26:1 (1999) 64.

 

Horace (Tr. Sidney Alexander)
The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace
Princeton University Press 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
31:5 (2005) 94-95.

 

Callimachus (Tr. Stanley Lombardo & Diane Rayor)
Hymns, Epigrams, Select Fragments
Johns Hopkins University Press 1988.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
31:5 (2005) 94-95.

 

N. Hopkinson,
Callimachus: Hymn to Demeter
Cambridge University Press 1984.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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English Literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
49:5 (2005) 89.

 

Neil Astley (Ed.)
Being Alive: The Sequel to Staying Alive
Bolldaxe Books 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
49:1/2 (2005) 82-85.

 

Josephine Balmer
Chasing Catullus: Poems, Translations & Transgressions
Bloodaxe Books 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:9 (2004) 88-89.

 

Ted Hughes (Ed. Paul Keegan)
Collected Poems
Faber & Faber 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
49:1/2 (2005) 82-85.

 

Anna Jackson
Catullus for Children
Auckland University Press 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
29:3 (2003) 63-64

 

Anthony Burgess (Ed. Kevin Jackson)
Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems
Carcanet 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(1 Oct. 2000) The Review 60/61.

 

Mark Strand & Eavan Boland (Eds.)
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
W. W. Norton 2000.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(25 July 1999) 11.

 

Michael Schmidt (Ed.)
The Harvill Book of Twentieth-Century Poetry in English
Harvill 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
27:2 (2000) 62-64.

 

Cynthia Stamy
Marianne Moore and China: Orientalism and a Writing of America
Oxford University Press 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(39 Nov 2002) Books 15.

 

Michael Schmidt (Ed.)
New Poetries II: An Anthology
Carcanet 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Italian Literature

 

 

The Guardian Review of Books
27 December 2008, p. 12 (External Link)

 

Renaissance rapper
Review of: Baldo
Volume 1 Books I-XII
Volume 2 Books XIII-XXV
Teofilo Folengo, Translated by Ann E. Mullaney
(Harvard University Press 2007-2008)

Revised and expanded version
“Renaissance Fabulator”
Quadrant, Vol. 53, No. 3, Mar. 2009, pp. 123-124

 

Quadrant.
49:5 (2005) 68-71.

 

Jamie Mckendric (Ed.)
The Faber Book of 20th-Century Italian Poems
Faber & Faber 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
153:29 (2003) 70-71.

 

Giuseppe Ungaretti (Tr. Andrew Frisardi)
Selected Poems
Carcanet 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London.
(10 Jan. 1999) Culture 13.

 

Eugenio Montale,
Collected Poems 1929-1954: Bilingual Edition Translated & Annotated by Jonathan Galassi
Farrar, Strauss & Giroux 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:7/8, (2004) 82-85.

 

Cesare Pavese (Tr. Geoffrey Brock)
Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930-1950
Carcanet 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

London Magazine.
39:5/6 (1999) 117-119.

 

Lalla Romano (Tr. Siân Williams)
The Penumbra
Quartet Books 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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French Literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Poetry in Translation.
 3:4 (2005) 197-200.

 

Claire Malroux (Tr. Marilyn Hacker)
Birds and Bison
The Sheep Meadow Press 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(3 May 1998) The Review 26. (External Link)

 

Assia Djebar
Oran, Langue Morte
Actes Sud 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(3 May 1998) The Review 26. (External Link)

 

Tahar Ben Jelloun
Le Racisme expliqué à ma fille
Seuil 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(3 May 1998) The Review 26. (External Link)

 

Abdelhak Serhane
Le Deuil des chiens
Seuil 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Language & Philosophy

 

 

 

 

 

 

PN Review.
33:6 (2007) 78-79

 

John Frow
Genre
Routledge 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quadrant.
48:12 (2004) 88-89.

 

Roger D. Woodard (Ed.)
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages
Cambridge University Press 2004.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent on Sunday, London
(9 Sept. 2001) The Review

 

Nicholas Fearn
Zeno and the Tortoise
Atlantic 2001

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Review.
273:1593 (1998) 216.

 

Tom Mcarthur
The English Languages
Cambridge University Press 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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