John Haffenden
Encyclopedia
Professor John Haffenden is an academic in the field of Literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...

.

Education and positions held

He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

 (B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

, M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...

), where he edited Icarus
Icarus (magazine)
Icarus is a student literary magazine based in Trinity College, Dublin. It publishes three issues per academic year and accepts submissions of poetry, prose and drama from students, staff and alumni of Dublin University. It was founded in 1950 by Alec Reid and has been published with regularity...

, and Oxford University (DPhil
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

). He has spent periods as a Fellow of the Yaddo Foundation, New York; as a Visiting Scholar at St. John's College, Oxford; a Visiting Fellow Commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

; and a Visiting Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

.

He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...

 and the English Association. A member of staff at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...

 since 1975, he was promoted to a Personal Chair in 1994. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies
Institute of English Studies
The Institute of English Studies is a centre of excellence in the research, promotion and facilitation in the field English Literature and Language. With a specialisation in Book History, Palaeography and Textual Scholarship, the IES facilitates the advanced study and research of English Studies...

, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

.

He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2007.

Publications

One of his first books was a biographical study of the American poet John Berryman
John Berryman
John Allyn Berryman was an American poet and scholar, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and was considered a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry...

 (1982), written with financial support from the Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Great Britain
The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England , the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales...

. His edition of Berryman's poetry, Henry's Fate and Other Poems 1967-1972 (1977), was chosen by the Association of American Publishers for exhibit at the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 International Book Fair in September 1979.

For several years he has been pursuing a major research interest in the life and work of the renowned poet and critic Sir William Empson — who was Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield from 1953 until his retirement in 1972. This work has included the editing of a number of posthumous collections of his writings. This series of publications includes:
  • Argufying: Essays on Literature and Culture (1987)- which was chosen by Sir Isaiah Berlin as one of the Books of the Year 1987 in the Sunday Times
    The Sunday Times (UK)
    The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

    ;
  • Donne and the New Philosophy (1993) and The Drama (1994) - a two-volume edition of essays on Renaissance Literature
    Renaissance literature
    Renaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature that began in Italy during the 14th century and spread around Europe through the 17th century...

  • The Strengths of Shakespeare's Shrew: Essays, Memoirs and Interviews (1996).
  • Berryman's Shakespeare (1999)
  • The Complete Poems of William Empson (2000), which was selected by Professor Sir Frank Kermode
    Frank Kermode
    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 ....

     as an International Book of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement and as a Book of the Year in the London Evening Standard.
  • William Empson: Among the Mandarins (2005) - the first of a two-volume biography of the poet and critic.
  • Selected Letters of William Empson (2006)
  • William Empson: Against the Christians - the second volume of Empson's biography.


According to critic and journalist Kevin Jackson:


"William Empson (1906-1984) was one of the two or three greatest literary critics of the twentieth century, a fine and uncommonly influential poet, and a remarkably original philosopher, linguist and polymath, whose spryly-carried range of learning encompassed mathematics, anthropology, physics and Buddhist art. He was also a magnificent English eccentric, whose rackety progress from Cambridge to Japan and China was crammed with amorous scandals, bohemian revelries, sober heroism and low farce. All these aspects of the great man received generous, judicious and eloquent attention in John Haffenden's superb biography William Empson: Volume I: Among the Mandarins."

External links

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