David Musselwhite (3 December 1940 – 23 February 2010) was a British literary critic and academic.

Life

He was born in Bristol and studied first at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, then later at the University of Essex, where he subsequently became a Senior Lecturer. He also taught in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, and at

Curtin University Curtin University, formerly known as Curtin University of Technology and Western Australian Institute of Technology (WAIT), is an Australian public research university based in Bentley, Perth, Western Australia. It is named after John Curtin, ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. He was the author of two books – ''Partings Welded Together: Politics and Desire in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel'' (Methuen, 1987), and ''Social Transformations in Hardy’s Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Both books were widely reviewed, with the latter described by Tim Armstrong as “...a theoretically provocative and fascinating study.” (''The Modern Language Review'') and by Andrew Radford as "...not only accessible to Hardy enthusiasts, but necessary to academic specialists". He initiated the Essex Sociology of Literature Project at the University of Essex in 1976. This involved a set of conferences that according to literary critic, Terry Eagleton "...have a quasi-mythological status in the minds of some who weren’t even born at the time". His main research areas were the English novel, Latin American literature, and the Enlightenment, and he published numerous articles in these fields.

Publications

Books

''Partings Welded Together: Politics and Desire in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel'', Methuen, 1987. ''Social Transformations in Hardy's Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Articles

* "El Perseguidor: un modelo para desarmar", '' Nuevos Aires'', No. 8, Buenos Aires, 1972, 23-36 * "El astillero en marcha", ''Nuevos Aires'', No. 11, Buenos Aires, 1973, 3-15 * "Cecilia Valdes", ''New World'', Jamaica, 1973 * "Los Premios entre lo todo y la nada", ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos'', Número 314-315, (Agosto-Septiembre), Madrid, 1976, 520-566 * "La vida y la muerte de Berthe Trepat", ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos'', Número 320-21 (Febrero y Marzo), Madrid 1977, 341-359 * "Women in Love: a flawed novel", '' Essays in Poetics'', Vol. I, No. 1 Keele 1976, 48-60 * "Wuthering Heights: the unacceptable text", '' Red Letters'', No. 2, 1976, 3-5 * "Towards a political aesthetics", ''Literature, Society and the Sociology of Literature, Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al., Essex, 1976, 8-17 * "The novel as narcotic", ''Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al. Essex, 1978, 207-224 * "The Trial of Warren Hastings", ''Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al., Essex, 1982, 226-251 * "Notes on a journey to Vanity Fair", ''Literature and History'', 1982 * "Reflections on Burke's Reflections 1790/1990", in ''The Enlightenment and its Shadows'', ed. Peter Hulme and Ludmilla Jordanova, Methuen, 1990, 142-162 * "Hardy's Mega-Machines", in ''Thomas Hardy: Revista Portuguesa de Estudios Anglo-Americanos'', Oporto, 1992, 69-92 * "Death and the Phantasm: A Reading of Cortázar's 'Babas del diablo!", '' Romance Studies'' 18, June 2000, 57-68 * "Phantasm and Nation: Sarmiento's Facundo", '' New Comparison'' 29 (Spring 2000), 5-26 * "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: 'A Becoming Woman' or Deleuze and Guattari go to Wessex", '' Textual Practice'', 14.3, 2000, 499-518 * "The Colombia of Maria: un paìs de cafres", ''Romance Studies'' Vol. 24 (1), March 2006, 41-54 * "Deleuze Goes to Xanadu", ''Deleuze Studies'', vol. 1 no. 2, Dec 2007, 100-125 * "''Heart of Darkness'': A Minority Report", ''Salt'', issue 3, 2010

Obituary

* Del Valle Alcalá, Roberto (2010) "David E. Musselwhite, 1940-2010", 'The European English Messenger', 19.2 View entire article in pdf: http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/57457689/Obituaries

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musselwhite, David 1940 births 2010 deaths British literary critics Academics of the University of Essex Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Academic staff of the University of the West Indies Academic staff of Curtin University