Nancy K. Miller (born 21 February 1941) is an American literary scholar, feminist theorist and
memoirist
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiog ...
. Currently a Distinguished Professor of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Comparative Literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...
at the
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the Ci ...
, Miller is the author of several books on
feminist criticism
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory, or more broadly, by the politics of feminism. It uses the principles and ideology of feminism to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to an ...
, women’s writing, and most recently, family memoir,
biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...
, and
trauma
Trauma most often refers to:
* Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source
* Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event
*Traumatic i ...
.
Education
She received her B.A. from Barnard College (1961), her M.A. from
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...
, and her Ph.D. in French at Columbia University.
Career
In 1981, Miller became the first full-time tenured member of the
Women’s Studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...
program at
Barnard College
Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
and was appointed its director, a post she held until her appointment at CUNY in 1988. Prior to that, she taught in the
French department at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
Miller founded the Gender and Culture Series at
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
in 1983 along with feminist scholar
Carolyn Heilbrun
Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 – October 9, 2003) was an American academic at Columbia University, the first woman to receive tenure in the English department, and a prolific feminist author of academic studies. In addition, beginning ...
, and continues to co-edit the series. Between 2004 and 2007, she and geographer
Cindi Katz
Cindi Katz (born 1954 in New York City), a geographer, is Professor in Environmental Psychology, Earth and Environmental Sciences, American Studies, and Women's Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her work concerns social reproduction and the prod ...
co-edited the journal
Women’s Studies Quarterly
''Women's Studies Quarterly'', often referred to as ''WSQ'', is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of women's studies that was established in 1972 and published by The Feminist Press. The Feminist Press was founded by Florence Howe in 1970. ...
, which received the Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals under their leadership.
Miller has been a visiting professor 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 higher le ...
,
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, and
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
, and a
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...
Visiting Scholar. She is the winner of numerous fellowships and awards, including the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
Humanities Fellowship, the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...
Fellowship, and the
NEH
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Senior Fellowship.
Contributions
Miller's early contributions to literary theory include that of the “invisible intertext” added by women to a more conventional form of writing, as by blending a quest plot with the romantic plot normatively prescribed to early female authors. She was further notable for her opposition to
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
's influential theory of
The Death of the Author
"The Death of the Author" ( French: ''La mort de l'auteur'') is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the inten ...
, pointing out how this tended to occlude gender subjectivities in a text through emphasising what she called the web, as opposed to the role of the weaver: the theory serving thereby as a postmodern mask for
phallocentrism Phallocentrism is the ideology that the phallus, or male sexual organ, is the central element in the organization of the social world. Phallocentrism has been analyzed in literary criticism, psychoanalysis and psychology, linguistics, medicine and h ...
. Her position gave rise to a famous debate within feminism on the issue with
Peggy Kamuf Peggy Kamuf (born 1947) is the Marion Frances Chevalier Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. She is one of the primary English translators of the works of Jacques Derrida. She received the Americ ...
.
Miller also played an influential role in pioneering the unification of personal accounts with theoretical explorations inside the same text, thus making concrete
second wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
Wh ...
's linking of the personal and public realms.
Bibliography
* ''My Brilliant Friends: Our Lives in Feminism'' (2019)
* ''Breathless: An American Girl in Paris'' (2013)
* ''What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past'' (2011)
* ''But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People's Lives'' (2002)
* ''Extremities: Trauma, Testimony, and Community'', co-edited with Jason Tougaw (2002)
* ''Bequest and Betrayal: Memoirs of a Parent's Death'' (2000)
* ''French Dressing: Women, Men, and Fiction in the Ancien Regime'' (1995)
* ''Contre-courants: les femmes s'écrivent à travers les siècles'', with
Mary Ann Caws
Mary Ann Caws (born 1933) is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic.
She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and o ...
, Elizabeth Houlding, and Cheryl Morgan (1994)
* ''Getting Personal: Feminist Occasions and Other Autobiographical Acts'' (1991)
* ''Subject to Change: Reading Feminist Writing'' (1988)
* ''The Poetics of Gender'' (1986)
* ''The Heroine's Text: Readings in the French and English Novel, 1722-1782'' (1980)
References
External links
*
*
"What They Saved" websiteInterview with Nancy K. Miller - The Minnesota ReviewNancy K. Miller Papers- Pembroke Center Archives, Brown University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Nancy K.
1941 births
Living people
20th-century American Jews
American literary critics
Women literary critics
Graduate Center, CUNY faculty
Columbia University faculty
Feminist studies scholars
Feminist theorists
Jewish feminists
Jewish American writers
Jewish philosophers
Barnard College alumni
Columbia University alumni
21st-century American Jews
American women critics