Nina Auerbach (May 24, 1943 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– February 4, 2017) was the John Welsh Centennial Professor of English Emerita at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. Her special area of concentration was nineteenth-century England. She published, lectured, and reviewed widely in the fields of

Victorian literature Victorian literature refers to English literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). The 19th century is considered by some to be the Golden Age of English Literature, especially for British novels. It was in the Victorian era tha ...

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...

, and

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

and film. Auerbach received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

in 1964. She undertook graduate study 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 ...

, receiving an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1967 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1970. She taught at Hunter College and

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

before joining the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1972. She remained on the faculty there until her retirement in 2009. Her books include ''Our Vampires, Ourselves''; ''Private Theatricals: The Lives of the Victorians''; ''Ellen Terry, Player in Her Time''; ''Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts''; ''Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth''; and ''Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction'' (

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

). Her most recent book, ''Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress'' (2000, ), inaugurated the

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 M ...

series, Personal Takes. Before her death, she was working on a project tentatively titled ''Lost Lives'', a study of ghosts and their purposes. She was the co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's '' Dracula'', and many of her articles have appeared in Norton Critical Editions, most notably in the works of Jane Austen. Nina Auerbach was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Ford Foundation Fellowship as well as the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 2000, she received the annual Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts.

References

External links

*
University of Pennsylvania Faculty Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Auerbach, Nina 1943 births 2017 deaths Literary critics of English University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Columbia University alumni American academics of English literature