Catherine Belsey (13 December 1940 – 14 February 2021) was a British literary critic and academic.

Early life

Belsey was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

and attended Godolphin and Latymer School in London. She studied at Somerville College, Oxford, and subsequently as a postgraduate at the

University of Warwick , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

Career

Belsey was briefly a Fellow at

New Hall, Cambridge New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

. She chaired the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at Cardiff University (1988–2003) before moving to

Swansea University Swansea University ( cy, Prifysgol Abertawe) is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. ...

(2006–2014). Her book ''Critical Practice'' (1980) was an influential

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

text in suggesting new directions for literary studies. She was later Visiting Professor of English at the

University of Derby , mottoeng = Experience is the best teacher , established = 1851 – Teacher Training College1992 – gained university status , type = Public , chancellor = William Cavendish, Ea ...

and Fellow of the

English Association The English Association is a subject association for English dedicated to furthering the study and enjoyment of English language and literature in schools, higher education institutes and amongst the public in general. It was founded in 1906 by ...

and Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales ( Welsh: Cymdeithas Ddysgedig Cymru) is a learned society and charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the Welsh natio ...

. She has consistently aligned herself with international innovations in the theory and practice of criticism. Besides her profuse scholarly writing, Belsey often expressed her beliefs in the values of socialism and the importance of the humanities. Belsey has written about the effect of romance novels on modern society.

Works

* ''Critical Practice'' (1980, 2002) * ''The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama'' (1985) * ''John Milton: Language, Gender, Power'' (1988) * ''Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture'' (1994) * ''Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden'' (1999) * ''Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction'' (2002) * ''Culture and the Real'' (2005) * ''Why Shakespeare?'' (2007) * ''Shakespeare in Theory and Practice'' (2008) * ''A Future for Criticism'' (2011) * ''Romeo and Juliet: Language and Writing'' (2014) * ''Criticism'' (2016) * ''Tales of the Troubled Dead: Ghost Stories in Cultural History'' (2019)

Notes

External links

CatherineBelsey.com
official website * 1940 births 2021 deaths Academics of the University of Wales British literary critics British women literary critics Fellows of the English Association Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales British women non-fiction writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Warwick Place of birth missing Place of death missing {{UK-academic-bio-stub