Eugene "Gene" Paul Nassar (20 June 1935 – 7 April 2017), was a writer, editor, professor, and literary critic. He was a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of English at

Utica College Utica University is a private university in Utica, New York. The university has a main campus in Utica; the Robert Brvenik Center for Business Education, in downtown Utica; and satellite locations in Syracuse, New York; Latham, New York; and S ...

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

Biography

Eugene Paul Nassar was born on 20 June 1935 in East Utica, New York, the son of Mintaha (née Kassouf) and Michael Nassar. He lived in his childhood home for more than 65 years. He wrote a memoir, ''Wind of the Land'', of growing up in a Lebanese Christian family in East Utica, an Italian-American neighborhood. Nassar attended

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

for one week, followed by study at Kenyon College, the University of Oxford, and Cornell University. He held a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

and a Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

. He wrote several books of

literary criticism A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature's ...

in the close analysis tradition of his teachers,

John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...

at Kenyon College,

Christopher Ricks Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks (born 18 September 1933) is a British literary critic and scholar. He is the William M. and Sara B. Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University (US), co-director of the Editorial Institute at Boston ...

at University of Oxford, Arthur Mizener of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, and his critical model and mentor,

Cleanth Brooks Cleanth Brooks ( ; October 16, 1906 – May 10, 1994) was an American literary critic and professor. He is best known for his contributions to New Criticism in the mid-20th century and for revolutionizing the teaching of poetry in American higher ...

. He wrote long studies of the figural images in the poetry of

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

, the lyric passages in

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

's ''

The Cantos ''The Cantos'' is a long modernist poem by Ezra Pound, written in 109 canonical sections in addition to a number of drafts and fragments added as a supplement at the request of the poem's American publisher, James Laughlin. Most of it was wr ...

'', and

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Inspired by the Romantics and his fellow Modernists, Crane wrote highly stylized poetry, often noted for its complexity. His collection '' White Buildings'' (1926), feat ...

’s ''The Bridge'', along with numerous essays in criticism of poems, drama and fiction. He also edited an anthology of illustrations to

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

’s ''Inferno'', various essays in sociological criticism, essays and reviews in many journals, and several books. Nassar served as the director of the Ethnic Heritage Studies Center at Utica College (now named the Eugene Paul Nassar Ethnic Heritage Studies Center), which he founded in 1981. His papers, which include notices and reviews of his work, are housed in the college's archives.

Books

Author *''Wallace Stevens: An Anatomy of Figuration''. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, (1965). 2nd printing in 1968. *''The Rape of Cinderella: Essays in Literary Continuity''. Indiana Univ. Press, (1970) *''Selections from a Prose Poem: East Utica.'' Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. Limited edition, published at The Widtman Press, Utica, NY. With woodcuts by Robert Cimbalo. (1971) *''The Cantos of Ezra Pound: The Lyric Mode.'' Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, (1975). 2nd printing, 1976. *''Wind of the Land: Two Prose Poems.'' A.A.U.G. (1979) *''Essays: Critical and Metacritical.'' Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, (1983) *''Illustrations to Dante's Inferno.'' Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press, (1994) *''A Walk Around the Block: Literary Texts and Social Contexts.'' Ethnic Heritage Studies Center. (1999) *''Local Sketches''. Ethnic Heritage Studies Center. (2003) *''My World, My Time: More Local Sketches''. Ethnic Heritage Studies Center. (2012) Editor *''Grace Ione Spencer: Portrait of an Uncommon Woman.'' with Harry Jackson. Utica College, 1977. *''The Family Structure in Islam.'' Hamudah Abdalati. The American Trust, 1977. *''Vignettes of Old Utica. J''udge John Walsh. Utica Public Library, 1982. *A''nnotated Index to the Syrian World, 1926-32.'' with John Moses. I.H.R.C., Univ. of Minnesota, 1994. *''Ethnic Utica''. with James Pula. Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, Utica College, 1994, 2nd ed. 2001. *''History of Utica College: The First Twenty-Five Years.'' Harry Jackson. Utica College Archives. *''Welsh Imprints of Central New York.'' Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, Utica College 1996, 2nd ed. 1998. *''Mount Allegro.'' Jerre Mangione. Syracuse University Press 1998. *''Fiorentino.'' Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, 2003. *'' Rufie: A Political Scrapbook''. Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, 2009 *''The Graphic Art of Robert Cimbalo.'' Ethnic Heritage Studies Center, 2010

Articles

Articles appeared in: ''College English, Renascence ''(2)'', Paideuma, Mosaic, American Oxonian, Melus, Syracuse Scholar ''(2)'', New York Folklore, Bulletin of Research in the Humanities, Dictionary of American Immigration History, Virginia Quarterly Review, Dante Studies''(3).''Dante Encyclopedia, Ambassador. Mohawk Valley History'' (7), ''Utica Observer-Dispatch'' (42). Reviews appeared in: ''Essays in Criticism'' (2), ''Wallace Stevens Journal, Modern Age'' (5), ''Sewanee Review, Italian America.''

References

External links

Vanderbilt Library Special Collections

Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize

Appreciation of Professor Cimbalo as Teacher {{DEFAULTSORT:Nassar, Eugene Paul 1935 births 2017 deaths American people of Lebanese descent People from Utica, New York Kenyon College alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Utica University faculty

Biography

Books

Articles

See also

References

External links