Catherine Belsey (13 December 1940 – 14 February 2021) was a British literary critic and academic.

Early life

Belsey was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

and attended Godolphin and Latymer School in London. She studied at

Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The colle ...

, and subsequently as a postgraduate at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

Career

Belsey was briefly a Fellow at

New Hall, Cambridge New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

. She chaired the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

(1988–2003) before moving to

Swansea University Swansea University () is a public university, public research university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. It was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it chang ...

(2006–2014). Her book ''Critical Practice'' (1980) was an influential

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

text in suggesting new directions for literary studies. She was later Visiting Professor of English at the

University of Derby The University of Derby, formerly known as Derby College, is a public university in the city of Derby, England. It traces its history back to the establishment of the Derby Diocesan Institution for the training of schoolmistresses in 1851. It ...

and Fellow of the English Association and Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

. She has consistently aligned herself with international innovations in the theory and practice of criticism. Besides her profuse scholarly writing, Belsey often expressed her beliefs in the values of socialism and the importance of the humanities. Belsey has written about the effect of romance novels on modern society.

Works

* ''Critical Practice'' (1980, 2002) * '' The Subject of Tragedy: Identity and Difference in Renaissance Drama'' (1985, 2015) * ''John Milton: Language, Gender, Power'' (1988) * ''Desire: Love Stories in Western Culture'' (1994) * ''Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden'' (1999) * ''Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction'' (2002) * ''Culture and the Real'' (2005) * ''Why Shakespeare?'' (2007) * ''Shakespeare in Theory and Practice'' (2008) * ''A Future for Criticism'' (2011) * ''Romeo and Juliet: Language and Writing'' (2014) * ''Criticism'' (2016) * ''Tales of the Troubled Dead: Ghost Stories in Cultural History'' (2019)

Notes

External links

CatherineBelsey.com
official website * 1940 births 2021 deaths Academics of the University of Wales British literary critics British women literary critics Fellows of the English Association Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales British women non-fiction writers Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Warwick Place of birth missing Place of death missing {{UK-academic-bio-stub