Anthony David Nuttall (25 April 1937 – 24 January 2007) was an English literary critic and academic.

Biography

Nuttall was educated at

Hereford Cathedral School Hereford Cathedral School is a private, co-educational boarding and day school for pupils of ages 3 to 18 years, from nursery to sixth form. Its headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school's premises a ...

Watford Grammar School for Boys Watford Grammar School for Boys (commonly abbreviated as WBGS) is an 11–18 boys partially selective academy in Watford in Hertfordshire, England. The school and its sister school, Watford Grammar School for Girls, descend from a Free School ...

and

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 126 ...

, where he studied both Classical Moderations and English Literature. As a postgraduate he wrote a B.Litt thesis on

Shakespeare's William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

'' subsequently published as ''Two Concepts of Allegory'' (1968), and considered by some to be his most original book. Nuttall first taught at

Sussex University The University of Sussex is a public research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the South Downs National Park, and provide ...

where he was successively lecturer, reader and professor of English and where his students included the philosopher

A. C. Grayling Anthony Clifford Grayling (; born 3 April 1949) is a British philosopher and author. He was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and spent most of his childhood there and in Nyasaland (now Malawi). Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philos ...

and the critic and biographer Robert Fraser. After a tumultuous period as pro-vice-chancellor at Sussex, he moved on to New College, Oxford, in 1984, eventually being elected to an Oxford chair. His published works include studies of Shakespeare and works on the connections between philosophy and literature. Prominent among the first is ''Shakespeare the Thinker'' (2007), in which he criticised his earlier work as needlessly forcing Shakespeare into an abstract

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

framework. Instead, Nuttall attempted to undo this tradition through a 'pataphysical approach, where everyday objects such as eggs, tennis rackets, and other mundane phenomena acquire an absurd

metalepsis Metalepsis (from ) is a figure of speech in which a word or a phrase from figurative speech is used in a new context. Quintilian described metalepsis as an "intermediate step" to the original phrase, and its meaning depends upon its connection t ...

in their satiric relation to Shakespeare's tragedies.' In a more philosophical tradition, ''A Common Sky'' traces the literary repercussions of both the English empiricist tradition and the idea of

solipsism Solipsism ( ; ) is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known ...

. His work is characterised throughout by wide reading (especially in classical sources), common sense, a deep and broad humanity, a robust sense of humour and by occasional—and sometimes eccentric—references to popular culture (In ''Shakespeare the Thinker'', for example, he cites the TV series '' Wife Swap''.) His elder brother

Jeff Nuttall Jeffrey Addison Nuttall (8 July 1933 – 4 January 2004) was an English poet, performer, author, actor, teacher, painter, sculptor, jazz musician, anarchist and social commentator who was a key part of the British 1960s counter-culture. He was ...

was a poet and an important figure in 1960s

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

. To him he dedicated his book ''The Alternative Trinity'', a study of the

Gnostic Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek: , romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced in the late 1st century AD among early Christian sects. These diverse g ...

tradition in English literature through

Marlowe Marlowe may refer to: Name * Marlowe (name), including list of people and characters with the surname or given name * Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593), English dramatist, poet and translator * Pat Marlowe (1933–1962), English socialite * Phili ...

and Milton to

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

, a poet to whom both brothers had been attracted in their youth, if in rather different ways. A bench outside the chapel of Merton is inscribed with his name together with that of his lifelong friend and college contemporary, Stephen Medcalf.

Selected publications

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuttall, Anthony English literary critics Shakespearean scholars People educated at Watford Grammar School for Boys Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Academics of the University of Sussex 1937 births 2007 deaths Fellows of New College, Oxford