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

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

scholar of Victorian and religious literature. Her work focused on 19th-century

British literature British literature is from the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. This article covers British literature in the English language. Anglo-Saxon (Old English) literature ...

as it intersected with

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

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 List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, she received her bachelor's degree from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

. 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, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. 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, public university system in California, and the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, largest public university system in the United States ...

in Northridge. At the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

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 Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

(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 Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

; ''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. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

'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. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the V ...

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 (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

Torah The Torah ( , "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. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

, 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.
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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 Canadian women literary critics Writers from Vancouver University of California, Riverside faculty Canadian women non-fiction writers Canadian women academics