Durant Waite Robertson Jr. (

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

October 11, 1914 –

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

, July 26, 1992) was a scholar of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

and especially

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...

. He taught at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

from 1946 until his retirement in 1980 as the Murray Professor of English, and was "widely regarded as this

he twentieth He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

century's most influential Chaucer scholar".

Early life

Robertson studied at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1944. His dissertation on the work of

Robert Mannyng Robert Mannyng (or Robert de Brunne; 1275 – c. 1338) was an English chronicler and Gilbertine Order, Gilbertine monk. Mannyng provides a surprising amount of information about himself in his two known works, ''Handlyng Synne'' and ''Mannyng's ...

, ''A Study of Certain Aspects of the Cultural Tradition of Handlyng Synne'', was written under the direction of G. R. Coffman and Urban Tigner Holmes Jr. Subsequently he revised and published three important articles from it. Robertson taught briefly at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

before joining the faculty at Princeton in 1946, where he remained for the rest of his career.

Scholarly career

Robertson's deeply historical approach to medieval English literature challenged and even angered many of the leading medievalists of the mid-20th century. Opposition to Robertson's critical approach at length took the form of a scholarly debate at the meeting of the English Institute of 1958–59. The book of papers published from that event proved that Robertson's "exegetical criticism", sometimes simply called "Robertsonianism", had many learned supporters as well as opponents. Robertson's magnum opus was published in 1962 by

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

: ''A Preface to Chaucer. Studies in Medieval Perspectives'', a massive work of 500 pages of text and 118 illustrations from medieval monastic manuscripts and religious sculpture and art. Critics were impressed by the extent of Robertson's reading in and grasp of

primary sources In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

, mainly in Latin and French, and secondary literature in every major European language as far back as the 19th century. Lynn Staley, Harrington and Shirley Drake Professor of the Humanities and Medieval & Renaissance Studies at Colgate University and one of Robertson's students, described it thus: :"His major study, ''A Preface to Chaucer'' (1962), challenged medieval studies when its tenets were increasingly influenced by the

New Criticism New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as ...

; he insisted on the priority of primary texts in interpreting the hierarchical, Augustinian culture of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

." It was also intimidating to medievalists of his generation, most of whom had never seen any need to study the range of primary sources, particularly religious writings in Latin, which Robertson had mastered. As late as 1965, medievalist and

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

scholar Francis Lee Utley called it "a strange hodgepodge...insulting to the community of scholars and, indeed, to the Twentieth Century itself". Scholarly supporters of Robertson's critical school gathered in March 1967 at the first annual conference of the Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies at

State University of New York at Binghamton The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the State ...

, an event often referred to among medievalists as "the

Courtly Love Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

conference". The volume of papers from this conference, published the following year, has retained its importance as a watershed in the spread of a new paradigm of the concept of medieval courtly love.

Teaching at Princeton

Robertson was a popular and engaging lecturer, and his seminars were usually full. Professor Staley has summarized his approach as follows: :"His gift for impersonation gave life to the dead: he could stage a conversation between

John of Gaunt John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward ...

and

John Wyclif John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

as though he had been a fly on the wall, or recount

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

's tales in a Carolina accent and with down-home details that made them as meaningful as they are slyly ironic. He insisted on the ways in which humor was fundamental to meaning. He shared his ongoing work with us, his moments of revelation, his tremendous interest in literature and cultural history. He insisted that we find proof for what we said in class or wrote in papers. He made it possible for me to learn in ways many professors might not have by giving me the freedom to chase my ideas through

Firestone Library Princeton University Library is the main library system of Princeton University. With holdings of more than 7 million books, 6 million microforms, and 48,000 linear feet of manuscripts, it is among the largest libraries in the world by number of ...

...He read the work we turned in quickly and willingly; he praised and criticized. The key to his approach was patience: he would not hound a student to finish chapters or to meet deadlines; you had to be self-directed, but Robbie met you more than halfway, and was quick to promote work he saw as significant." Among Robertson's most important scholarly legacies is the number of his students among the prominent medievalists of succeeding generations. These include Robert P. Miller, Paul Olson, Chauncey Wood, John V. Fleming, Alan T. Gaylord, David Lyle Jeffrey, Marc Pelen, and Lynn Staley. Robertson retired from Princeton at the age of 65 in 1980. In his honor,

published ''Essays in Medieval Culture'' (1980), a collection of 24 of his essays. Among them are some of Robertson's bold attempts to extend the application of "Robertsonianism" beyond the confines of the Middle Ages: to

Renaissance art Renaissance art (1350 – 1620 AD) is the painting, sculpture, and decorative arts of the period of European history known as the Renaissance, which emerged as a distinct style in Italy in about AD 1400, in parallel with developments which occ ...

(

Leonardo Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate ...

), sixteenth-century literature ( Sidney,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's ''

Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

''), and beyond (

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

Family

Robertson married Betty McLean Hansen in 1937. They had one daughter, Susanna Howley, and two sons, Durant Waite Robertson III and Douglas Robertson.

Retirement

Robertson's research in retirement took him in the direction of the social historical context of literature, an interest he had occasionally expressed earlier. He did it so well that scholar Peter G. Beidler included one of Robertson's later essays, "Simple Signs from Everyday Life in Chaucer" (1981) in a bibliography of

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

approaches to Chaucer. Robertson would be shocked, but also no doubt amused, at this gesture.

Death

Suffering from declining health, Robertson entered a retirement home near his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he died in 1992.

Influence

Alan T. Gaylord,

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

: :"Robertson's ''A Preface to Chaucer: Studies in Medieval Perspectives'' ... was and is, quite simply, the most important book on Chaucer in the twentieth century." Lee Patterson,

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

: :"...Exegetics remains, apparently against all odds, the great unfinished business of Medieval Studies." Steven Justice,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

: :"Robertson shows something important. I have been suggesting that the last generation of medieval literary study could not trenchantly criticize Robertson's intellectual vices—and the habit of creating a kind of period subjectivity for the Middle Ages was the direst of these—because it practiced similar vices in different tones of voice. Of course, no one "stole" Robertson; it is just that anyone was apt to be embarrassed by thinking closely about him. But in this last inconsistency of his we can see one of his virtues and one of the reasons younger scholars, rediscovering him, have found a wealth of suggestiveness in his work (at least this is my impression) that their elders did not. His reading of Augustine here displays a counterenergy, a willingness to be surprised by the past." * 1961. Ronald Salmon Crane. "On Hypotheses in 'Historical Criticism": Apropos of Certain Contemporary Medievalists." ''The Idea of the Humanities and Other Essays Critical and Historical''. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, 1968: v.2, 236-260. * 1965. Francis Lee Utley. Robertsonianism Redivivus. ''Romance Philology'' 19. 250-260. * 1967–68. A. Leigh DeNeef. Robertson and the Critics. '' Chaucer Review'' 2. 205-234. * 1967. Paul Theiner. Robertsonianism and the Idea of Literary History. ''Studies in Medieval Culture'' 6-7. 195-204. * 1982. M. A. Manzalaoui. Robertson and Eloise. ''Downside Review'' 100. 280-289. * 1987. Lee Patterson. Historical Criticism and the Development of Chaucer Studies. ''Negotiating the Past''. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press: 1-40, esp. 26-36. * 1996. Lynn Staley. Durant Waite Robertson Jr. Department of English. ''Luminaries. Princeton Faculty Remembered.'' Edited Patricia H. Marks. Princeton NJ: Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni: 229-234. * * Essay has bibliography of other works discussing Robertson's legacy and influence.

Publications

Books:Modern Language Association of America. Annual bibliography 1941-1992. * 1951. ''

Piers Plowman ''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...

and Scriptural Tradition'' (with Bernard F. Huppé). Princeton University Press. * 1962. ''A Preface to Chaucer. Studies in Medieval Perspectives.'' Princeton University Press. * 1963. ''Fruyt and Chaff: Studies in Chaucer's Allegories'' (with Bernard F. Huppé). Princeton University Press. * 1968. ''Chaucer's London.'' John Wiley & Sons. * 1970. ''The Literature of Medieval England.'' McGraw-Hill. * 1972. ''Abelard and Heloise.'' Dial Press. * 1980. ''Essays in Medieval Culture.'' Princeton University Press. * 1991. ''Lismahago's Meditations. As Recorded by Abel Goast. écrazez l'enfâme.'' Cleveland OH: The Cobham and Hatherton Press. * 2017
''Uncollected Essays. With a Foreword by Paul A. Olson''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, D. W. Jr. American literary critics American academics of English literature Chaucer scholars Princeton University faculty 1914 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American poets Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America