Portuguese Poet Accepts Position In Romance Dept.

Helder Macedo, a senior lecturer at Kings College of the University of London, will come to Harvard next fall as the Smith Visiting Professor of Language and Literature of Portugal, Claudio Guillen, chairman of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures said yesterday.

Guillen, who headed the search committee that chose Macedo, said that Macedo's appointment was "an important step" in the search for a permanent replacement for Francis M. Rogers, who will retire from the Smith professorship at the end of this semester.

Guillen said he hoped Macedo would stay on at the end of the fall term and become a permanent faculty member.

A former Portuguese Minister of Culture, Macedo has published several critical works and volumes of poetry. He will teach two courses in the fall--Portuguese 120, a survey of Portuguese Literature taught in Portuguese, and a new Comparative Literatures course entitled "The Circumstantial Self: Characterization in the 19th Century Novel."