James Douglas Graham Wood (born 1 November 1965)
is an English
literary critic
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
, essayist and novelist.
Wood was ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''s chief literary critic between 1992 and 1995. He was a senior editor at ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' between 1995 and 2007. , he is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
and a staff writer at ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' magazine.
Early life and education
James Wood was born in
Durham, England, to Dennis William Wood (born 1928), a
Dagenham
Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross.
It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Fore ...
-born minister and professor of zoology at
Durham University
, mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills ( Psalm 87:1)
, established = (university status)
, type = Public
, academic_staff = 1,830 (2020)
, administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19)
, chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen
, vice_cha ...
, and Sheila Graham Wood, née Lillia, a schoolteacher from Scotland.
Wood was raised in Durham in an
evangelical
Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...
wing of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
, an environment he describes as austere and serious. He was educated at
Durham Chorister School and
Eton College
Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...
, both on music scholarships. He read English Literature at
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes ...
, where in 1988 he graduated with a First.
Career
Writing
After Cambridge, Wood "holed up in London in a vile house in
Herne Hill
Herne Hill is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the borough ...
, and started trying to make it as a reviewer". His career began reviewing books for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''. In 1990, he won Young Journalist of the Year at the
British Press Awards
The Press Awards, formerly the British Press Awards, is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism.
History
Established in 1962 by '' The People'' and '' World's Press News'', the first award ceremony for the then-named ...
.
From 1991 to 1995 Wood was the chief literary critic of ''The Guardian'', and in 1994 served as a judge for the
Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
for fiction.
In 1995 he became a senior editor at ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'' in the United States.
In 2007 Wood left his role at ''The New Republic'' to become a staff writer at ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. Wood's reviews and essays have appeared frequently in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', ''The New Yorker'', the ''
New York Review of Books'', and 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 o ...
'' where he is a member of its editorial board. He and his wife, the novelist
Claire Messud
Claire Messud (born 1966) is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel '' The Emperor's Children'' (2006).
Early life
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut,van Gelder, Lawrence. "Foo ...
, are on the editorial board of the literary magazine ''
The Common'', based at
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
.
Teaching
Wood began teaching literature in a class he co-taught with the late novelist
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...
at
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...
. Wood also taught at
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is s ...
in
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
, and since September 2003 has taught half time at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, first as a Visiting Lecturer and then as Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism.
In 2010–11, he was the Weidenfeld Visiting Professor of European Comparative Literature in
St Anne's College, Oxford.
Ideas
Like the critic
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was described as "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking worl ...
, Wood advocates an aesthetic approach to literature, rather than more ideologically driven trends that are popular in contemporary academic
literary criticism
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. ...
. In an interview with ''
The Harvard Crimson
''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...
'' Wood explains that the "novel exists to be affecting...to shake us profoundly. When we're rigorous about feeling, we're honoring that." The reader, then, should approach the text as a writer, "which is
bout
Bout can mean:
People
*Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer
*Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland
*Marcel Bout
Musical instruments
* The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrumen ...
making aesthetic judgments."
Wood coined the term
hysterical realism
Hysterical realism is a term coined in 2000 by English critic James Wood to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one hand, and careful, deta ...
, which he uses to denote the contemporary conception of the "big, ambitious novel" that pursues vitality "at all costs." Hysterical realism describes novels that are characterised by chronic length, manic characters, frenzied action, and frequent digressions on topics secondary to the story. In response to an essay Wood wrote on the subject, author
Zadie Smith described hysterical realism as a
Wood coined the term ''commercial realism'', which he identifies with the author
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, and, in particular, with his book ''
The Heart of the Matter
''The Heart of the Matter'' (1948) is a novel by English author Graham Greene. The book details a life-changing moral crisis for Henry Scobie. Greene, a former British intelligence officer in Freetown, British Sierra Leone, drew on his exper ...
''. He clarified it as attention to the minutiae of daily life, taking in mind elements of the everyday that are important owing to their supposed lack of importance. He believes it to be an effective style of writing because it captures reality by depicting banal features as well as interesting ones.
Wood emphasises throughout the book ''How Fiction Works'' (particularly in the final chapter) that the most important literary style is
realism
Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to:
In the arts
*Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts
Arts movements related to realism include:
* Classical Realism
*Literary realism, a mov ...
. He states:
Wood additionally attests to the significance of Flaubert in developing the form of the novel:
Others on Wood
In reviewing one of his works Adam Begley of the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' wrote that Wood "is the best literary critic of his generation".
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ' ...
described Wood as "a marvellous critic, one of the few remaining." Fellow book reviewer and journalist
Christopher Hitchens was fond of James Wood's work, in one case giving his students a copy of Wood's review of the
Updike novel ''
Terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
'', citing it as far better than his own.
In the 2004 issue of ''
n+1 N1, N.I, N-1, or N01 may refer to:
Information technology
* Nokia N1, an Android tablet
* Nexus One, an Android phone made by HTC
* Nylas N1, a desktop email client
* Oppo N1, an Android phone
* N1, a Sun Microsystems software brand now most ...
'' the editors criticised both Wood and ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', writing: James Wood wrote a reply in the Fall 2005 issue, explaining his conception of the "autonomous novel," in response to which the ''n+1'' editors devoted a large portion of the journal's subsequent issue to a roundtable on the state of contemporary literature and criticism.
Harold Bloom, in a 2008 interview with
Vice Magazine, stated: "Oh, don’t even mention
ood
The Ood are an alien species with telepathic abilities from the long-running science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. In the series' narrative, they live in the distant future (circa 42nd century).
The Ood are portrayed as a slave race, natural ...
He doesn’t exist. He just does not exist at all. A publisher wanted to send me
ood'sbook and I said, 'Please don’t.'
..I told them, 'Please don’t bother to send it.' I didn’t want to have to throw it out. There’s nothing to the man."
Awards
He was a recipient of the 2010/2011 Berlin Prize Fellowship from the
American Academy in Berlin.
Personal life
In 1992 Wood married
Claire Messud
Claire Messud (born 1966) is an American novelist and literature and creative writing professor. She is best known as the author of the novel '' The Emperor's Children'' (2006).
Early life
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut,van Gelder, Lawrence. "Foo ...
, an American novelist.
They reside in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, and have a daughter, Livia, and a son, Lucian.
Selected works
*
*
*
*
*
*
Notes
Wood has written the following: "I have made a home in the United States, but it is not quite Home. For instance, I have no desire to become an American citizen. Recently, when I arrived at Boston, the immigration officer commented on the length of time I've held a Green Card. 'A Green Card is usually considered a path to citizenship,' he said, a sentiment both irritatingly reproving and movingly patriotic. I mumbled something about how he was perfectly correct, and left it at that. ..The poet and novelist Patrick McGuinness, in his forthcoming book ''Other People's Countries'' (itself a rich analysis of home and homelessness; McGuinness is half-Irish and half-Belgian) quotes Simenon, who was asked why he didn't change his nationality, 'the way successful francophone Belgians often did'. Simenon replied: 'There was no reason for me to be born Belgian, so there’s no reason for me to stop being Belgian.' I wanted to say something similar, less wittily, to the immigration officer: precisely because I don't need to become an American citizen, to take citizenship would seem flippant; leave its benefits for those who need a new land."
References
External links
James Woodat ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
''
James Woodat 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 o ...
''
James Woodat ''
The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
''
James Woodat ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''
Text and video of keynote speech at the 2009 Griffin Poetry Prize ceremony
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, James
1965 births
Living people
Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge
English expatriates in the United States
English people of Scottish descent
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Harvard University faculty
Kenyon College faculty
English essayists
English male novelists
Literary critics of English
English literary critics
The Guardian people
The New Republic people
The New Yorker critics
The New Yorker staff writers
People educated at the Chorister School, Durham
People educated at Eton College
People from Durham, England