Alan Sheridan (1934 - 2015) was an English author and translator.

Life

Born Alan Mark Sheridan-Smith, Sheridan studied English at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

before spending 5 years in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as English assistant at

Lycée Henri IV In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...

and

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a school founded in 1803 in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. It is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inception, var ...

.Library of Congress Name Authority File
/ref> Returning to London, he briefly worked in publishing before becoming a freelance translator. He translated works of fiction, history, philosophy, literary criticism, biography and psychoanalysis by

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...

Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the '' Nouveau Roman'' (new novel) trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and C ...

Robert Pinget Robert Pinget (Geneva, July 19, 1919 – August 25, 1997, Tours) was an avant-garde French writer, born in Switzerland, who wrote several novels and other prose pieces that drew comparison to Beckett and other major Modernist writers. He was al ...

and many others. He was the first to publish a book in English on Foucault's work and also wrote a biography of

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the Symbolism (arts), symbolist movement, to the advent o ...

. Sheridan occasionally contributed to the ''

London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' in the 1980s.

Works

Translations

(incomplete list) *

, ''Mahu or the Material'', 1966 *

Raymond Radiguet Raymond Radiguet (18 June 1903 – 12 December 1923) was a French novelist and poet whose two novels were noted for their explicit themes, and unique style and tone. Early life Radiguet was born in Saint-Maur, Val-de-Marne, close to Paris, th ...

, '' The Devil in the Flesh: A Novel'', 1968 *

Philippe Sollers Philippe Sollers (; born Philippe Joyaux; 28 November 1936) is a French writer and critic. In 1960 he founded the ''avant garde'' literary journal '' Tel Quel'' (along with writer and art critic Marcelin Pleynet), which was published by Le S ...

, ''The Park: A Novel'', 1968 *

, '' The Immortal One''. London: Calder & Boyars, 1971 * Georges Balandier, ''Political Anthropology'', 1972 *

, ''

The Birth of the Clinic ''The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception'' (''Naissance de la clinique: une archéologie du regard médical'', 1963), by Michel Foucault, presents the development of ''la clinique'', the teaching hospital, as a medical insti ...

'', 1973 *

Lucien Goldmann Lucien Goldmann (; 20 July 1913 – 8 October 1970) was a French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. A professor at the EHESS in Paris, he was a Marxist theorist. His wife was sociologist Annie Goldmann. Biography Goldmann w ...

, ''

Towards a Sociology of the Novel ''Towards a Sociology of the Novel'' (french: Pour une sociologie du roman) is a 1963 book by Lucien Goldmann. The book was a seminal work for Goldmann. In it, he lays out his theory of the novel. Explanation of the Text Goldmann's Thesis � ...

''. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1974 *Michel Foucault, ''Mental Illness and Psychology''. New York: Harper and Row, 1976 *Michel Foucault, ''

The Archaeology of Knowledge ''The Archaeology of Knowledge'' (''L’archéologie du savoir,'' 1969) by Michel Foucault is a treatise about the methodology and historiography of the systems of thought (''epistemes'') and of knowledge (''discursive formations'') which follo ...

'', 1976 *Michel Foucault, '' Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison'', 1976 *

, ''

Critique of Dialectical Reason ''Critique of Dialectical Reason'' (french: Critique de la raison dialectique) is a 1960 book by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, in which the author further develops the existentialist Marxism he first expounded in his essay '' Search for a Meth ...

'', 1976 *

Manuel Castells Manuel Castells Oliván (; ; born 9 February 1942) is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, co ...

, ''The Urban Question: A Marxist Approach''. London: Edward Arnold, 1977 *

, ''The Seminar, Book XI,

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis ''The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis'' is the 1978 English-language translation of a seminar held by Jacques Lacan. The original (french: Le séminaire. Livre XI. Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse) was published in P ...

'', London: Hogarth, 1976, reprinted by Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993. *

, ''Écrits: A Selection'', 1977 * Sébastien Japrisot, ''One Deadly Summer''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. * Pierre Petitfils, ''Rimbaud'', 1987 *Michel Foucault, ''Politics, Philosophy, Culture: Interviews and Other Writings, 1977-1984'', ed. Lawrence D. Kritzmann, 1988 *

Tahar Ben Jelloun Tahar Ben Jelloun ( ar, الطاهر بن جلون; born in Fes, Morocco, 1 December 1944) is a Moroccan writer. All of his work is written in French although his first language is Darija. He became known for his 1985 novel ''L’Enfant de Sab ...

, '' The Sand Child'', 1989 *

Michel Tournier Michel Tournier (; 19 December 1924 − 18 January 2016) was a French writer. He won awards such as the ''Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française'' in 1967 for '' Friday, or, The Other Island'' and the Prix Goncourt for '' The Erl-King'' i ...

, ''Gilles & Jeanne'', 1990 *

, ''The Sacred Night'', 1991 *

Jean Lacouture Jean Lacouture (9 June 1921 – 16 July 2015) was a journalist, historian and author. He was particularly famous for his biographies. Career Jean Lacouture was born in Bordeaux, France. He began his career in journalism in 1950 in ''Combat'' ...

, ''De Gaulle: The Ruler, 1945-1970'', 1991. * Agota Kristof, ''The Notebook'', 1989 *

Abdelwahab Bouhdiba Abdelwahab Bouhdiba (13 August 1932 – 17 December 2020) was a Tunisian academic, sociologist, and Islamologist. Biography After his studies at Sadiki College in Tunis and the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris, Bouhdiba studied philosophy and ...

, ''Sexuality in Islam'', 1998

Novels

*''Vacation'', 1972 *''Time and Place'', 2003

Other

* ''Michel Foucault: The Will to Truth'' (1980) * ''André Gide: A Life in the Present'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1999)

References

External links

Personal website
1934 births Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge French–English translators Translators of philosophy Translators of Jacques Lacan 2015 deaths {{UK-writer-stub