Lawrence F. McCaffery Jr. (born May 13, 1946) is 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. ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...

, and retired

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

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 ...

and comparative literature at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system ...

. His work and teaching focuses on postmodern literature, contemporary

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

, and

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originato ...

. He also played a role in helping to establish

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

as a major literary genre.

Early life and education

McCaffery was born in 1946 in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

. He received his PhD in 1975, with a dissertation on the works of

Robert Coover Robert Lowell Coover (born February 4, 1932) is an American novelist, short story writer, and T.B. Stowell Professor Emeritus in Literary Arts at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction. Background ...

Career

Academic career

He joined the Department of English and Comparative Literature at

in 1976. He taught in SDSU's English Department until retiring in 2010. During his career as a professor, McCaffery took up visiting professorships at University of Nice,

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is ...

, Deep Springs College (where

William T. Vollmann William Tanner Vollmann (born July 28, 1959) is an American novelist, journalist, war correspondent, short story writer, and essayist. He won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction with the novel ''Europe Central''.

attended),

Seikei University is a private university in the Kichijōji area of the city of Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Its name derives from a passage in the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Its campus is noted for its rows of zelkova trees, which is listed ...

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

and was a Fulbright Lecturer at

Beijing Foreign Studies University Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU; ), is a public university in Beijing, China. BFSU boasts the oldest language programs in China offering the largest number of foreign language majors on different educational levels. Located in Haidia ...

during the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...

Literary career

In 1983, McCaffery published two books in the field of postmodern literary studies. The first was ''The Metafictional Muse: The Works of Coover, Gass, and Barthelme'', which explored the emergence of the "meta-impulse" as one of the defining features of postmodern aesthetics. The second was ''Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists'' (with Tom LeClair), which helped identify the major innovative authors associated with

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

. McCaffery went on to publish three additional collections of interviews with contemporary authors: ''Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s'' with Sinda Gregory (1986), ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Authors'' (1990), and ''Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors'' (1995).''Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors''. Philadelphia, PA: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. () McCaffery explains that the interviews within these works begin orally, and, after being transcribed from tape and edited by both McCaffery and the interviewee, become "collaborative texts based on an actual conversation rather than a direct rendering of that conversation". These works established "avant-prof" critic Lance Olsen to dub McCaffery as "Guru of the Interview" During his career as Professor at SDSU, McCaffery played a large role as editor of literary journals. In 1983, McCaffery arranged to have the literary journal, Fiction International move to SDSU from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where it had been edited and published by Joe David Bellamy since 1973. McCaffery served as co-editor of FI with Harold Jaffe for the next decade, during which it became one of the leading publishers of radically innovative, politically charged fiction. Since the early eighties, he has also been an editor o
American Book Review
and executive editor o
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction
McCaffery has guest-edited several special issues of other literary magazines, including

Mississippi Review The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a public research university with its main campus located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bachelor's, ma ...

's landmark "Cyberpunk Issue". His work '' Storming the Reality Studio'' placed

and

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and ...

within the field of

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

studies. an anthology featuring the fictional work of authors such as

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, hi ...

, Samuel R. Delany, Don DeLillo, Kathy Acker, and

Harold Jaffe Harold Jaffe (born July 8, 1942) is an American writer of novels, short fiction, drama, and essays. He is the author of 30 books, including 14 collections of fiction, four novels, and two volumes of essays. He is also the editor of the literary- ...

, as well as non-fiction by writers such as

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as ...

and

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 th ...

. Other notable anthologies are '' Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation'' (1993) and ''After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology'' (1997).

Awards and honors

* Judge, Electronic Literature Organization's Fiction Contest, May 2001. * Guest-of-Honor, Death Equinox Conference, Denver, September 1999. * Guest-of-Honor, Readercon, Boston, April 1996. * Pioneer Award from Science Fiction Research Association, 1994. *

National Endowment for the Humanities 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 ...

Research Award, Tokyo, Summer 1992. Title of Project: "Japanese and American Postmodernist Interactions" * Guest-of-Honor at Volgacon 91: A Conference of Cyberpunk and Recent Soviet Science Fiction, Volgogrand, Russia, September 1991. * Meritorious Performance and Professional Promise Award,

, 1986, 1988, 1990. *

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

Nominee for Non-Fiction * Selected as Fulbright Lecturer to P.R. China,

, 1988–1990. * Fiction Judge, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 1986. * Outstanding Young Men of America Award, 1980.

References in pop culture and legacy

McCaffery is briefly mentioned in

Raymond Federman Raymond Federman (May 15, 1928 – October 6, 2009) was a French–American novelist and academic, known also for poetry, essays, translations, and criticism. He held positions at the University at Buffalo from 1973 to 1999, when he was app ...

's novel ''The Twofold Vibration'', and is mentioned throughout

's book ''Imperial''. He has also been quoted in an article in ''The New Yorker'' about

David Foster Wallace David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', whi ...

's legacy. He created a theory of media/visual studies about the relation between memory, narrative, and sexuality called "Avant-Porn," as claimed in his introduction to Michael Hemmingson's 2000 anthology, ''WTF: The Avant-Porn Anthology''. a true account. McCaffery is also author of the popular ''best of'' list The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction. This list was written in response to

Modern Library 100 Best Novels Modern Library's 100 Best Novels is a 1998 list of the best English-language novels published during the 20th century, as selected by Modern Library from among 400 novels published by Random House, which owns Modern Library.Jessica Woodbury"Back ...

list (1999), which McCaffery saw as "being way, way out of touch with the nature and significance of 20th century fiction".McCaffery's 100 and explanation at Spineless Books (http://www.spinelessbooks.com/mccaffery/100/index.html)

Selected bibliography

Books of interviews

* ''Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors'' (1995) * ''Across the Wounded Galaxies: Interviews with Contemporary American Science Fiction Authors'' (1990) * ''Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s'' with Sinda Gregory (1987) * ''Anything Can Happen: Interviews with Contemporary American Novelists'' with Tom LeClair (1983)

Scholarly books

* ''Expelled from Eden: A William T. Vollmann Reader'' with co-editor Michael Hemmingson (2004) * ''Federman: From A to X-X-X-X - A Recyclopedic Narrative'' with co-editors Thomas Hartl, and Doug Rice (1998) * ''The Vineland Papers: Critical Takes on Pynchon's Novel'' with co-editors Geoffrey Green and Donald Greiner (1994) * ''Postmodern Fiction: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide'' Editor (1985) * ''The Metafictional Muse: The Work of Robert Coover, Donald Barthelme and William H. Gass'' (1982)

Fiction anthologies

* ''After Yesterday's Crash: The Avant-Pop Anthology''. NY:

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Avant-Pop: Fiction for a Daydream Nation''. Boulder: Black Ice Books, 1993. () * '' Storming the Reality Studio'' Durham:

Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...

, 1991. ()

References

External links

Interview with McCaffery
by Alexander Laurence

list by Larry McCaffery at ABR

by Larry McCaffery
The Unfinished
by D.T. Max

from

CyberPsychos AOD Cyber-Psychos AOD (CPAOD) is a book and magazine publishing venture based in Denver, Colorado, focusing on avant-garde and unusual art, culture, and writings. Founded in 1992 (magazine), and 1995 (CPAOD Books) by Jasmine Sailing, it has released ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaffery, Larry American editors American literary critics American speculative fiction critics American speculative fiction editors Postmodernists Science fiction critics San Diego State University faculty Deep Springs College faculty Living people American academics of English literature 1946 births