Frank Kermode
Encyclopedia
Sir John Frank Kermode was a highly regarded British literary critic best known for his seminal critical work The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, published in 1967 (revised 2000).

Kermode was known for many works of criticism, and also as editor of the popular Fontana Modern Masters
Fontana Modern Masters
The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on the writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists whose ideas were shaping the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century. The first five titles were published on 12 January 1970 by Fontana Books, the paperback imprint of...

 series of introductions to modern thinkers. He was a regular contributor to the London Review of Books
London Review of Books
The London Review of Books is a fortnightly British magazine of literary and intellectual essays.-History:The LRB was founded in 1979, during the year-long lock-out at The Times, by publisher A...

and The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...

.

Kermode was born on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

, and was educated at Douglas High School and Liverpool University. He served in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, for six years in total, much of it in Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

.

Kermode was a contributor for several years to the somewhat neoconservative magazine, Encounter
Encounter (magazine)
Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...

 and in 1965 became co-editor. He resigned in less than two years after it became clear that the magazine was funded by the CIA.

He subsequently pursued an academic career, becoming Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

 from 1967 to 1974. Under Kermode, the UCL English Department chaired a series of graduate seminars which broke new ground by introducing for the first time contemporary French critical theory to Britain.

In 1974, Kermode took the position of King Edward VII Professor of English Literature
King Edward VII Professor of English Literature
The King Edward VII Professorship of English Literature is one of the senior professorships in literature at the University of Cambridge, and was founded by a donation from Sir Harold Harmsworth in 1910 in memory of King Edward VII who had died earlier that year.-King Edward VII Professors:* Arthur...

 at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. He resigned the post in 1982, at least in part because of the acrimonious tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...

 debate surrounding Colin MacCabe
Colin MacCabe
Colin MacCabe is a British writer and film producer. He is distinguished professor of English and film at the University of Pittsburgh, professor of English and humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, and a visiting professor at the University of Exeter....

. He then moved to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, where he was Julian Clarence Levi Professor Emeritus in the Humanities.
From 1975 to 1976 Kermode was the Norton professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

A few months before Kermode's death the scholar James Shapiro
James S. Shapiro
James S. Shapiro is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University who specialises in Shakespeare and the Early Modern period...

 described him as "the best living reader of Shakespeare anywhere, hands down".

He was knighted in 1991.

Works

  • On Poetry and Poets by T. S. Eliot (1969) editor
  • The Oxford Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages Through the 18th Century (1973) editor with John Hollander
    John Hollander
    John Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...

    , two volumes
  • English Renaissance Literature, Introductory Lectures (1974), with Stephen Fender and Kenneth Palmer

Further reading

  • Margaret Tudeau-Clayton and Martin Warner, editors (1991) Addressing Frank Kermode. Essays in Criticism and Interpretation
  • Christopher J. Knight (2003) Uncommon Readers: Denis Donoghue, Frank Kermode, George Steiner, and the Tradition of the Common Reader

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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