John Ramsay Allardyce Nicoll (28 June 1894 – 17 April 1976) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

literary scholar and teacher. Allardyce Nicoll was born in

Partick Partick (, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to the north Broo ...

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, and educated at

Stirling High School Stirling High School is a state high school for 11- to 18-year-olds run by Stirling Council in Stirling, Scotland. It is one of seven high school#Scotland, high schools in the Stirling district, and has approximately 972 pupils. It is located ...

and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, where he was the G. A. Clark scholar in English. He became a lecturer at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

in 1920 and took the chair of English at East London College (later Queen Mary's College) in 1923. In 1933 he went to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

as professor of the history of drama and dramatic criticism and chair of the drama department. He established a strong graduate programme in theatre history. Around 1943–45 he performed war work at the British embassy in Washington. From 1945 to 1961 he headed the English Department at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

; from 1951 to 1961 he was also founding director of the

Shakespeare Institute The Shakespeare Institute is a centre for postgraduate study dedicated to the study of William Shakespeare and the literature of the English Renaissance. It is part of the University of Birmingham, and is located in Stratford-upon-Avon. The Ins ...

at Birmingham. He served as president of the Society for Theatre Research from 1958 to 1976.

Research

His major work was his six-volume ''History of English Drama, 1660–1900'', published as separate volumes starting in 1923, and reissued as a set in 1952–59. He also wrote many other books on English drama. He is credited with having made Restoration plays acceptable for scholarly study. When he began teaching in 1923, many colleges forbade Restoration drama on curricula because of its sometimes ribald topics and humorous examples of promiscuity. That changed in the course of the twentieth century. Allardyce Nicoll's ''Film and Theatre'' (1936) offered a pioneering way of distinguishing live theatrical performance from films. Nicoll argues that live audiences always know they are being presented with an "illusion of reality; it is always imaginative illusion" (166). People watching films, on the other hand, tend to believe the camera is representing something real. Furthermore, he argues that the characters in stage plays often represent ‘types,’ but the people acting in films are widely believed to be ‘individuals.’ According to this theory, it follows that film actors can attain more sophisticated, deeper portrayals of human beings. Steve Dixon called Nicoll's early theories a "surprising anticipation of postmodern media theories as exemplified by

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

." Beginning in 1948 and for many years in the 1950s, he edited the Cambridge University Press yearbook ''Shakespeare Survey''. Nicoll had founded it upon his return to England after the war, with the ''Shakespeare Jahrbuch'' in mind as a general prototype, and the Survey soon developed into a respected international forum for Shakespeare criticism. He later turned to Commedia dell'Arte, publishing what reviewer Jack Violi called a brilliant probe.

Personal life

He was married twice and had no children.

References

Bibliography

* (Unsigned obituary), ''The Times'', 22 April 1976.
''New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors''
British literary critics British literary theorists Drama teachers People from Partick Academics of the University of Birmingham 1894 births 1976 deaths Academics of King's College London Yale University faculty {{UK-academic-bio-stub