Contact
Links
Areas of expertise
Biography
I am a doctoral researcher in comparative literature specialising in English and Icelandic literature and their interspersions with theories of affect, hermeneutics, and aesthetics. I am also a literary translator of Icelandic works, and have been involved with projects on Old Icelandic texts (LARA) and North American-Icelandic manuscripts (Í fótspor Árna Magnússonar í Vesturheimi) under the auspices of the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies. Currently, I am also working on a translation of Gyrðir Elíasson's short story collection, Milli trjánna. My master's thesis discusses Gyrðir Elíasson's works in relation to affect theory, bridging the latter with Icelandic literature for the first time. It is currently being reworked as a monograph.
I have been a research editing assistant for the volume works Íslenskar bókmenntir: Saga og samhengi I and II (ed. Margrét Eggertsdóttir, Sveinn Yngvi Egilsson, Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir, Ármann Jakobsson, Ásta Kristín Benediktsdóttir, Jón Yngvi Jóhannsson) and Arfur aldanna I and II (authored by Aðalheiður Guðmundsdóttir).
I have been presenting in conferences and symposiums, as well as chaired panels, from my undergraduate years since 2015, on authors and topics such as: Beowulf, Norse mythology, Ian McEwan, Ólafur Elíasson, Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, and Tove Jansson. My essays on Victorian literature, Shakespeare, and critical theory have won departmental prizes at the University of Manitoba.
I am known better as Brynjarr Þór Eyjólfsson/ Perry/ Per Mendoza.
Teaching
I have played supporting roles in the teaching of courses on Introductory Icelandic (University of Manitoba) and Translation studies (University of Iceland). I will also be teaching in the Icelandic Summer School (2024) at the University of Iceland in collaboration with the host university and the University of Alberta.
Research
My dissertation aims towards a theory of absence in 21st-century literature through an engagement with literary texts from the perspectives and intersections of aesthetics, affects, hermeneutics and poetics.
My other research interests include depictions of glaciers in Icelandic literature and culture; Surrealist, Impressionist, and Abstract art; and contemporary poetry. Other authors whose works I have been tackling include: Gyrðir Elíasson, Sjón, Jón Kalman Stefánsson, Ian McEwan, William Shakespeare, Yahya Hassan, Tove Jansson, and Johanna Holmström.
Among my affiliations are those with the Centre for the Study of Storytelling, Experientiality and Memory (SELMA), the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS), as well as the Association for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Canada (AASSC), for which I am the secretary.
My research is supported by the Canadian Initiative for Nordic Studies (CINS).