David Macey (5 October 1949 – 7 October 2011) was an English translator and intellectual historian of the French left. He translated around sixty books from French to English, and wrote biographical studies of

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 Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

and

Frantz Fanon Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961) was a French West Indian psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have become influential in the ...

.Neil Belton
David Macey: His historical studies of philosophers won over French readers
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 2 November 2011Neil Belton and Peter Osborne
David Macey, 1949–2011: Biographer of the French intellectual Left
''Radical Philosophy'' 171 (Jan/Feb 2012)John G. Taylor and Elaine Capizzi

''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 12 November 2011.

Life

David Macey was born in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

and grew up in

Houghton-le-Spring Houghton-le-Spring ( ) is a town in the Sunderland district, in Tyne and Wear, England which has its recorded origins in Norman times. Historically in County Durham, it is now administered as part of the Tyne and Wear county. It lies betw ...

. His father was a miner who had been sent down the pit aged fourteen, and his mother a woman whose family had been unable to afford for her to take up a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

place. He was educated at Durham Johnston Grammar School and went on to study French at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, where he wrote a PhD on Paul Nizan.David Macey, ''The work of Paul Nizan: a study in the influence of a political viewpoint on literary themes and structures'', PhD thesis, University College London, 1982. Interested in trying to link

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

and

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

, Macey became a prolific contributor to ''

Radical Philosophy ''Radical Philosophy'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal of critical theory and philosophy. It was established in 1972 with the purpose of providing a forum for the theoretical work which was emerging in the wake of the radical movemen ...

''. From 1974 he taught part-time at

North London Polytechnic The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

, UCL and

City University London City, University of London was a public university from 1966 to 2024 in London, England. It merged with St George's, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" and ...

. In 1975 he was a founding member of the British Campaign for an Independent

East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

. After his partner Margaret Atack took a permanent post at

Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...

in 1981, Macey left academia to become a full-time writer and translator. Later, in 1995, he was appointed research associate in the French department of Leeds University; in 2010 he became special professor in translation at the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

. Macey married Atack in 1988, and they adopted three children.

Selected works

Translations

* ''Jacques Lacan'' by Anika Lemaire, 1979. * ''Réponses: the autobiography of

Françoise Sagan Françoise Sagan (; born Françoise Delphine Quoirez; 21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois ch ...

'', 1979. * ''The little mermaids: a novel'' by Yves Dangerfield, 1979. * ''Teachers, writers, celebrities: the intellectuals of modern France'' by Régis Debray, 1981. * ''Matisse: paper cutouts'', ext by Jean Guichard-Meili, 1983. * ''The sculpture of Henri Matisse'' by Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, 1984. * ''Colette: a passion for life'' by Geneviève Dormann, 1985. * ''From Taylorism to Fordism: a rational madness'' by Bernard Doray, 1988. * ''Democracy and political theory'' by Claude Lefort, 1988. * (tr. and ed.) ''New essays on narcissism'' by Béla Grunberger, 1989. * ''New foundations for psychoanalysis'' by

Jean Laplanche Jean Laplanche (; 21 June 1924 – 6 May 2012) was a French author, psychoanalyst and winemaker. Laplanche is best known for his work on psychosexual development and Sigmund Freud's seduction theory, and wrote more than a dozen books on psych ...

, 1989. * ''The Soviet military system'' by Jacques Sapir, 1990 * '' Critique of Modernity'' by Alain Touraine, 1995. * ''Automatic discourse analysis'' by Michel Pêcheux, ed. Tony Hak and Niels Helsloot, 1995. * ''The object of literature'' by Pierre Macherey, 1995 * (tr. and ed.) ''Lacan: a critical reader'' by

, 1995. * ''What is democracy?'' by Alain Touraine, 1997. * ''Can we live together? Equality and difference'' by Alain Touraine, 2000. * ''Society must be defended: lectures at the Collège de France, 1975–76'' by

, ed. Mauro Bertani and Alessandro Fontana, New York: Picador, 2003 * ''Suicide bombers: Allah's new martyrs'' by Farhad Khosrokhavar, 2005 * ''The suffering of the immigrant'' by Abdelmalek Sayad, with a preface by

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

, 2007. * ''Psychoanalysis: its image and its public'' by

Serge Moscovici Serge Moscovici (; June 14, 1925 – November 15, 2014) born Srul Herş Moscovici, was a Romanian-born French social psychologist, director of the Laboratoire Européen de Psychologie Sociale ("European Laboratory of Social Psychology"), which ...

, ed. with an introduction by Gerard Duveen, 2008. * ''Suicide: the hidden side of modernity'' by Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet, 2008. * ''The Single Woman and the Fairy-Tale Prince'' by Jean-Claude Kauffmann, 2008. * ''Resilience'' by Boris Cyrulnik, 2009. * ''Violence'' by Michel Wieviorka, 2009. * (tr. with Steve Corcoran) ''The communist hypothesis'', 2010 * ''The meaning of cooking'' by Jean-Claude Kaufmann, 2010. * ''The curious history of love'' by Jean-Claude Kaufmann, 2011 * ''Love online'' by Jean-Claude Kaufmann, 2012 * ''Emile Durkheim: a biography'' by Marcel Fournier, 2013

Other works

* ''Lacan in Contexts'', London: Verso, 1988. * '' The Lives of Michel Foucault'', London: Hutchinson, 1993; NY: Pantheon, 1993. * Introduction to ''The four fundamental concepts of psycho-analysis'' by

, tr.

Alan Sheridan Alan Sheridan (1934 - 2015) was an English author and translator. Life Born Alan Mark Sheridan-Smith, Sheridan studied English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge before spending 5 years in Paris as English assistant at Lycée Henri IV and Ly ...

, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1994. * ''Frantz Fanon: A Life'', London: Granta, 2000. * ''The Penguin dictionary of critical theory'', London: Penguin, 2000.

References

External links

Interview with David Macey on Fanon, Foucault and Race
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macey, David 1949 births 2011 deaths Academics of London Metropolitan University Academics of University College London Academics of the University of Nottingham Alumni of University College London French–English translators English translators French historians of philosophy People from Houghton-le-Spring Translators of Jacques Lacan Writers from Sunderland English biographers