Gabriel David Josipovici ( ; born 8 October 1940) is a British novelist, short story writer, critic, literary theorist, and playwright. He is an Emeritus professor, after having been Professor at the
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
.
Biography
He was born in
Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
, France in 1940, of Russo-Italian, Romano-Levantine Jewish parents. He lived out the war years in a village in the
Massif Central
The (; oc, Massís Central, ; literally ''"Central Massif"'') is a highland region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaus. It covers about 15% of mainland France.
Subject to volcanism that has subsided in the last 10,00 ...
and when the war ended in 1945 his mother returned with him to Egypt, where she was born. There he was educated at Victoria College,
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, until in 1956 he and his mother emigrated to England, where he finished his schooling at
Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Huggett
...
, Gloucestershire. He read English at
St Edmund Hall
St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...
, Oxford, graduating in 1961 with a First Class degree, and in 1963 he joined the School of European Studies at the newly-formed
University of Sussex
, mottoeng = Be Still and Know
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £14.4 million (2020)
, budget = £319.6 million (2019–20)
, chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar
, vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil
, ...
. He retired from Sussex in 1998 to devote himself to writing. He gave the Northcliffe Lectures at the University of London in 1981-2 and was Lord Weidenfeld Professor of Comparative Literature at Oxford in 1996-7. He has published nineteen novels, three volumes of stories and a number of critical books, as well as a memoir of his mother, the poet and translator Sacha Rabinovitch.
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
has published his work since his novel ''Contre Jour'' in 1986. His plays have been performed throughout Britain and on radio in France and Germany, and his work has been translated into many languages, including French (where his novel ''Infinity'', translated by Bernard Hoepffner, won the
Prix Laure Bataillon in 2016) and Arabic. In 2001 he published ''A Life'', a biographical memoir of his mother, the translator and poet Sacha Rabinovitch. In 2007 Gabriel Josipovici gave the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
Coffin Lecture on Literature; the lecture was entitled "What ever happened to Modernism?" and was subsequently published as a book by Yale University Press.
He has published reviews in many journals, including
Encounter (magazine)
''Encounter'' was a literary magazine founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and journalist Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991. Published in the United Kingdom, it was an Anglo-American intellectual and cultural journal, ori ...
,
The London Magazine
''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics.
1732–1785
''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...
and
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
, and writes regularly for
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
.
Selected works
Fiction
* ''The Inventory'' (1968)
* ''Mobius the Stripper: Stories and Short Plays'' (1974)
* ''The Present'' (1975)
* ''Four Stories'' (1977)
* ''Migrations'' (1977)
* ''The Echo Chamber'' (1979)
* ''The Air We Breathe'' (1981)
* ''Conversations in Another Room'' (1981)
* ''Contre Jour'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1984)
* ''In the Fertile Land'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1987)
* ''Steps: Selected Fiction and Drama'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1990)
* ''The Big Glass'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1991)
* ''In a Hotel Garden'' (1993)
* ''Moo Pak'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1996) (Hardback, 1994)
* ''Now'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1998)
* ''Goldberg: Variations'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2002)
* ''Only Joking'' (2005)
* ''Everything Passes'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2006)
* ''After and Making Mistakes'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2008)
* ''Heart's Wings'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2010)
* ''Infinity ''(
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2012)
* ''Hotel Andromeda'' (Carcanet Press, 2014)
* ''The Cemetery in Barnes'' (Carcanet Press, 2018)
Non-fiction
* ''The World and the Book'' (1971, 1979)
* ''The Lessons of Modernism'' (1977, 1987)
* ''Writing and the Body'' (1982)
* ''The Mirror of Criticism: Selected Reviews'' (1983)
* ''The Book of God: A Response to the Bible'' (1988, 1990)
* ''Text and Voice'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 1992)
* ''Touch'' (
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
, 1996)
* ''On Trust: Art and the Temptations of Suspicion'' (1999)
* ''A Life'' (2001). A memoir of Josipovici's mother.
* ''The Singer on the Shore: Essays 1991–2004'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2006)
* ''What Ever Happened to Modernism?'' (Yale University Press, 2010)
* ''Hamlet Fold on Fold'' (Yale University Press, 2016)
* ''The Teller and the Tale: Essays on Literature and Culture 1990-2015'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2016)
* ''Forgetting'' (
Carcanet Press
Carcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.
In 2000 it was named the '' Sunday Times'' millennium Small Publisher of the Year.
History
''Carcanet'' was originally a li ...
, 2020)
* ''100 Days'' (Little Island Press, 2021)
References
External links
Official websiteGabriel Josipovici at The Literary Encyclopedia*
ttps://www.bbc.co.uk/humber/content/articles/2009/03/18/minghella_play.shtml''Minghella musical discovered'' BBC Humberside.]
Interview regarding ''What Ever Happened to Modernism?''a
BerfroisAn interview with Gabriel Josipovicion ''
The Marketplace of Ideas
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
''
An interview with Victoria Bestat ''Numéro Cinq'' magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Josipovici, Gabriel
1940 births
Living people
Fellows of the British Academy
British Jewish writers
20th-century British novelists
21st-century British novelists
Academics of the University of Sussex
French people of Italian-Jewish descent
French people of Russian-Jewish descent
Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
British male novelists
20th-century British male writers
21st-century British male writers
French emigrants to the United Kingdom