Stanley Edgar Hyman (June 11, 1919 – July 29, 1970) was an American

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. Th ...

who wrote primarily about critical methods: the distinct strategies critics use in approaching literary texts. He was the husband of writer

Shirley Jackson Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two me ...

Life

Hyman was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, the son of Moe Hyman, and raised Orthodox Jewish. He graduated from

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

in 1940, where he met

. After reading one of Jackson's stories, Hyman declared that he was going to marry the author. They had four children together. He was a staff writer for ''

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 ...

'' for much of his life, and although he did not possess a graduate degree, taught at

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a New England town, town in Bennington County, Vermont, Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester (town), Vermont, Manchester. As of the 2020 ...

. From 1961 to 1965, Hyman was the literary critic of ''

The New Leader ''The New Leader'' (1924–2010) was an American political and cultural magazine. History ''The New Leader'' began in 1924 under a group of figures associated with the Socialist Party of America, such as Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas. It was p ...

''. He did not believe in monogamy and had numerous affairs during their marriage, often with his students. According to Shirley Jackson's biographers, her marriage was plagued by Hyman's infidelities, notably with his former students, and she reluctantly agreed to his proposition of maintaining an

open relationship An open relationship is an intimate relationship that is sexually non-monogamous. The term is distinct from polyamory, in that it generally indicates a relationship where there is a primary emotional and intimate relationship between two partners ...

. Hyman was a consistent supporter of his wife's work and resented the lack of recognition she received during her lifetime. He wrote, "I think that the future will find her powerful visions of suffering and inhumanity increasingly significant and meaningful, and that Shirley Jackson's work is among that small body of literature produced in our time that seems apt to survive." Hyman also controlled their finances (meting out portions of her earnings to her as he saw fit), despite the fact that after the success of "The Lottery" and later work she earned far more than he did. A year after Jackson's death in 1965, Hyman married Phoebe Pettingell, who had been a classmate of his daughter, Joanne, and his student at Bennington College. Three months after Hyman's death from a suspected heart attack on July 29, 1970, she gave birth to his last child, a son named Malcolm (1970–2009), who became a research fellow in the Department of Classics at Harvard University and later at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Although more likely to be remembered today as the husband of Jackson (he edited a posthumous collection of her work), Hyman was influential in the development of

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

during the 1940s and 1950s. Equally skeptical of every major critical

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

of his time, he worked out an early instance of a

critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

, exploring ways that critics can be foiled by their own methods. "Each critic," Hyman wrote in ''The Armed Vision'', "tends to have a master

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...

or series of metaphors in terms of which he sees the critical function ... this metaphor then shapes, informs, and sometimes limits his work." Hyman saw it as his own critical task to point out these overriding themes by which, tacitly, other critics organized their work and their thinking. Hyman was also a noted jazz critic, who wrote hundreds of essays on the subject in addition to his career as a writer and teacher. He had an important influence on

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...

's career, but they had many disagreements.

Books

* ''The Armed Vision: A Study in the Methods of Modern Literary Criticism.'' New York: Knopf, 1947. * ''The Critical Performance: An Anthology of American and British Literary Criticism in Our Century.'' New York: Vintage Books, 1956. * ''Poetry and Criticism: Five Revolutions in Literary Taste.'' New York: Atheneum, 1961. * ''The Tangled Bank: Darwin, Marx, Frazer and Freud as Imaginative Writers.'' New York: Atheneum, 1962. * ''The Critic's Credentials: Essays and Reviews.'' Ed. Phoebe Pettingell. New York: Atheneum, 1978. * ''Standards: A Chronicle of Books for Our Time.'' New York: Horizon Press, 1966. * ''Iago: Some Approaches to the Illusion of His Motivation''. New York: Atheneum, 1970.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hyman, Stanley Edgar 1919 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers Academics from New York (state) American literary critics Bennington College faculty Erasmus Hall High School alumni Jewish American academics Jewish American writers Shirley Jackson Syracuse University alumni The New Yorker staff writers Writers from Brooklyn