Alastair David Shaw Fowler

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

FBA (1930 – 9 October 2022) was a Scottish literary critic, editor, and an authority on Edmund Spenser, Renaissance literature, genre theory, and numerology.

Life and career

Alastair Fowler was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland in 1930. He was educated at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, M.A. (1952). He was subsequently awarded an M.A. (1955), D.Phil. (1957) and D.Litt. (1962) from Oxford. As a graduate student at Oxford, Fowler studied with

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

, and later edited Lewis's ''Spenser's Images of Life''. Fowler was a junior research fellow at

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

(1955–1959). He also taught at Swansea (1959–1961), and

Brasenose College Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

, Oxford (1962–1971). He was Regius Professor of literature at the University of Edinburgh (1972–1984) and also taught intermittently at universities in the United States, including Columbia (1964) and the University of Virginia (1969, 1979, 1985–1998). He delivered the 1980 Warton Lecture on English Poetry. Known for his editorial work, Fowler's edition of John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', part of the Longman poets series, has some of the most scholarly and detailed notes on the poem and is widely cited by Milton scholars. Writing in ''The Guardian'', John Mullan called it "a monument of scholarship." Fowler was critical of some later trends in literary scholarship, including "new historicism". In 2005, he published an extremely critical review of Stephen Greenblatt's ''Will in the World'', which was widely discussed. Fowler was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to literature and education. His papers are on deposit at the National Library of Scotland. Fowler died on 9 October 2022, at the age of 92.

Work

Edited volumes

* C. S. Lewis, ''Spenser's Images of Life'', 1967 * John Milton, ''Paradise Lost'', 1968, revised edition 2006 * ''Silent Poetry: Essays in Numerological Analysis'', 1970 * ''Topics in Criticism'', ed., with Christopher Butler, 1971 * ''The New Oxford Book of Seventeenth-Century Verse'', 1991, 2008 * ''The Country House Poem'', 1994.

Authored volumes (criticism)

* ''Spenser and the Numbers of Time'', 1964. * ''Triumphal Forms: Structural Patterns in Elizabethan Poetry'', 1970 * ''Conceitful Thought: Interpretation of English Renaissance Poems'', 1975 * ''Kinds of Literature'', 1982. * ''A History of English Literature'', 1987 * ''Times Purple Masquers: Stars and the Afterlife in Renaissance English Literature'', 1996 * ''Renaissance Realism'', 2003 * ''How to Write'', 2006 * ''Literary Names: Personal Names in English Literature'', 2012

Authored volumes (poetry)

* ''Seventeen'', 1971 * ''Catacomb Suburb'', 1976 * ''From the Domain of Arnheim'', 1982 * ''Helen's Topless Towers'', 1993

Reviews

* Craig, Cairns (1982), ''Giving Speech to the Silent'', which includes a review of ''From the Domain of Arnheim'', in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 10, Autumn 1982, pp. 43 & 44,

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, Alastair 1930 births 2022 deaths Scottish literary critics Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy People from Glasgow