Richard Allen Macksey (July 25, 1931 – July 22, 2019) was Professor of Humanities and Co-founder and longtime Director of the Humanities Center (now the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature) at
The Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...
, where he taught critical theory, comparative literature, and film studies. Professor Macksey was educated at Johns Hopkins, earning his B.A. in 1953 and his Ph.D. in 1957. He taught at Johns Hopkins (both the school of Arts & Sciences as well as the Medical School) since 1958. He was the longtime Comparative Literature editor of
MLN (
Modern Language Notes), published by
Johns Hopkins University Press
The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
. He was a recipient of the Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award. Dr. Macksey also presided over one of the largest private libraries in Maryland, with over 70,000 books and manuscripts. An image of the room overspilling with books has been a popular internet meme in the 2010s and 2020s.
As Director for the Humanities Center, Macksey, with funding from the
Ford Foundation, organized the influential international literary theory symposium, "The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man," which featured prominent academics such as
Paul de Man,
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
,
Roland Barthes, and
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...
, and where Derrida presented his lecture "
", credited with "tear
ngdown the temple of structuralism." These lectures were collected as ''The Structuralist Controversy'', the most recent version of which was published in 2005.
In 1999 the Richard A. Macksey Professorship for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities was established by a former student Edward T. Dangel III and his wife, Bonni Widdoes. The professorship is currently held by
Alice McDermott.
Notable students of Richard Macksey include
Susan Stewart,
Caleb Deschanel,
Peter Koper,
Walter Murch,
Matthew Robbins, and
Hollis Robbins.
Publications
*''The Structuralist Controversy: The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man''. JHU Press 1970.
*''Velocities of Change: Critical Essays from MLN (Modern Language Notes)'' JHU Press 1974.
*''The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism''. (Foreword) 2nd Edition. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
References
Further reading
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External links
Video of Richard Macksey's Library40th Anniversary Edition of ''The Structuralist Controversy''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macksey, Richard A.
1931 births
2019 deaths
Johns Hopkins University faculty
Critical theorists