Alistair Graeme Fox (born 1948 in
Richmond, New Zealand
Richmond (Māori: ''Waimea'') is a town and the seat of the Tasman District Council in New Zealand. It lies south of Nelson in the South Island, close to the southern extremity of Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere. The town, first settled by Europe ...
) is a New Zealand scholar, former university administrator and writer who specialises in English Tudor literature and history, New Zealand literature and cinema studies, and contemporary literary and film theory.
Fox was educated at the
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...
obtaining a master's degree in 1970. His masters thesis title was ''Religion and humanism in Sir Thomas More's Utopia''.
He currently holds the title of professor emeritus at the
University of Otago
, image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg
, image_size =
, caption = University clock tower
, motto = la, Sapere aude
, mottoeng = Dare to be wise
, established = 1869; 152 years ago
, type = Public research collegiate u ...
, Dunedin, New Zealand. Until his retirement in 2013, he held a Personal Chair in English Literature at this same university, where he also served as Pro-Vice Chancellor, Division of Humanities. His honors include the award of a Nuffield Visiting Fellowship, Claire Hall, Cambridge (1980–1981) and an appointment as visiting fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (1987-1988). Initially known for his scholarship on English Tudor literature, since 2008 he has turned to topics addressing New Zealand literature and culture, cinema studies, and theories of literary and cinematic representation. He has also translated a number of significant scholarly works from French into English, most recently ''
Truffaut on Cinema'', ed. Anne Gillain (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016).
His major published works have been highly praised within an international context, starting in 1983, when Sir
Geoffrey Elton
Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (born Gottfried Rudolf Otto Ehrenberg; 17 August 1921 – 4 December 1994) was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and w ...
, then Regius Professor of Modern History at Clare College Cambridge, assessed ''
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...
: History and Providence'', concluding: ". . . this excellent book, which adds to the virtues of its substance a lucidity and readability not commonly found among literary or historical studies, provides the first solid basis on which further work can be undertaken. It will not surprise me if that further work will do little more than demonstrate the value of Dr. Fox's remarkable insights." Czech reviewer Jana Bébarová describes Fox's 2011 monograph ''Jane Campion: Authorship and Personal Cinema'' as "a remarkable and enriching perspective on the unique work of the most important woman director of her time," a view shared by
Michel Ciment
Michel Ciment (; born 26 May 1938 in Paris) is a French film critic and the editor of the cinema magazine '' Positif''.
Ciment is a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, a ...
, editor of the French film journal ''Positif'', who characterizes the volume as "''remarquable''."
Fox's work taken as a whole contributes to current debates about authorship and the creative process. Gabrielle Malcolm reviewing ''
Jane Campion
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films ''The Piano'' (1993) and '' The Power of the Dog'' (2021), for which she has received a tot ...
: Authorship and Personal Cinema'' proclaims that Fox "effectively announces the death of the intentional fallacy.
Lars Bernaertsdescribes ''Speaking Pictures: Neuropsychoanalysis and Authorship in Film and Literature'' as "a distinct intervention" in "the field of cognitive cultural studies," noting that Fox's approach "combines
psychoanalysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...
with neurocognitive science and integrates elements of
reception theory
Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the ana ...
and
cultural studies
Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...
" to inaugurate "a new synthesis."
Alistair Fox's major monographs include:
* ''Coming of Age in New Zealand: Genre, Gender and Adaptation in New Zealand Cinema'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017)
* ''Speaking Pictures: Neuropsychoanalysis and Authorship in Film and Literature'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016) ;
* ''Jane Campion: Authorship and Personal Cinema'' (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2011) ;
* ''The Ship of Dreams: Masculinity in Contemporary New Zealand Fiction'' (Dunedin; Otago University Press, 2008) ;
* ''The English Renaissance: Identity and Representation in the Reign of Elizabeth I'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1997) ;
* ''Utopia: An Elusive Vision'', Twayne Masterworks (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1993) ;
* ''Politics and Literature in the Reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989) ;
* ''Thomas More: History and Providence'' (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983) .
References
External links
University of Otago Department of English and Linguistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fox, Alistair
1948 births
Living people
University of Otago faculty
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge
People from Richmond, New Zealand
University of Canterbury alumni