Ruth apRoberts (1919 – March 26, 2006) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

scholar of Victorian and religious literature. Her work focused on 19th-century British literature as it intersected with

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

issues and spiritual traditions.

Biography

Born as Ruth Heyer in 1919 in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

, she received her bachelor's degree from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

and her master's degree from

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

. After raising her four children, she received her PhD in English from

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

. She was the widow of Robert apRoberts, a scholar of Welsh descent who taught

medieval literature Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages (that is, the one thousand years from the fall of the Western Roman Empire ca. AD 500 to the beginning of t ...

California State University The California State University (Cal State or CSU) is a public university system in California. With 23 campuses and eight off-campus centers enrolling 485,550 students with 55,909 faculty and staff, CSU is the largest four-year public univers ...

in Northridge. At the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

in Riverside, Ruth apRoberts held the positions of Graduate Advisor and Chair of the English Department. She taught courses in Victorian literature, the Aesthetic Movement, and the Bible as literature. She held a Guggenheim Fellowship (1978–79). She was awarded the UCR Distinguished Teaching Award in 1977, and the Distinguished Emeritus Award in 1995. She was the author of four books: ''The Moral Trollope'' (1971), which explored the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the novels of Anthony Trollope; ''Arnold and God'' (1983) which probed the anti-literal understandings of religion that permeate all of

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the celebrated headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, lit ...

's poetry and social criticism; ''The Ancient Dialect'' (1988) which analyzed the writing of

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

in relation to the study of comparative religions; and ''The Biblical Web'' (1994) which provided a purely literary analysis of the Christian Bible and the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...

, focusing on the resonances and influence of their language. At the time of her death, Katherine Kinney, chair of the Department of English at UC Riverside had this to say: "Ruth apRoberts helped shape the intellectual culture of our department. As a scholar of the highest reputation and accomplishment, she led by example. She was a generous colleague and committed teacher whose passion for literature and intellectual inquiry exemplified our shared mission.""Professor Ruth apRoberts Never Stopped Teaching." ''UCR Newsroom'', 27 March 2006.
/ref>

Publications

*''The Moral Trollope'' (Ohio University Press, 1971) *''Arnold and God'' (University of California Press, 1983; selected by Choice as an Outstanding Book of 1983) *''The Ancient Dialect'' (University of California Press, 1988) *''The Biblical Web'' (University of Michigan Press, 1994)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aproberts, Ruth 1919 births 2006 deaths University of British Columbia alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian literary critics Women literary critics Writers from Vancouver University of California, Riverside faculty Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian women academics