Dame Gillian Patricia Kempster Beer, (née Thomas; born 27 January 1935) is a British

literary critic 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' ...

and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. She was President of Clare Hall from 1994 to 2001, and King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

from 1994 to 2002.

Early life

Born Gillian Patricia Kempster Thomas in

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, Beer studied

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

St Anne's College, Oxford St Anne's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 and gained full college status in 1959. Originally a women's college, it has admitted men since 1979. ...

Academic career

Following teaching posts at

Bedford College, London Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a leading role in the advancement of women in highe ...

, and the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

, she was a fellow of

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

, for 30 years. She was later

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

Professor of English Literature at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and later president of Clare Hall, the University of Cambridge's distinctive, international postgraduate college. She served as chair of the judges for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

in 1997. Her most intensive literary criticism lies in the field of Victorian studies. ''Darwin's Plots'' (1983), in particular, related the form of Victorian novels to Darwinist thinking. Its significance as a work was confirmed by the publication of a second edition by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

in 2000 and a third edition in 2009. She has also written important collections of essays on

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

(''The Common Ground'', 1996) and on other aspects of the relations of literature, science, and other academic disciplines.

Honours and awards

*She was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

in 1991 *

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(1998) *Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

(2001) *

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

awarded her an Honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

(June 2005) *She was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2010 *

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

awarded her an Honorary

(May 2012) * Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism for ''Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll'' (October 2017) *Ghent University awarded her an Honorary Doctorate on the recommendation of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. (March 2018) *She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature in 2019 by the

University of Chichester The University of Chichester is a public university located in West Sussex, England, which became a university in 2005. Campuses are based in the city of Chichester and the nearby coastal resort of Bognor Regis and an associate campus for comm ...

Family

She married the literary critic John Beer in September 1962; they have three sons.

Literary criticism

* ''Meredith: A Change of Masks'' (1970) * ''Darwin's Plots'' (1983) * ''George Eliot'' (1986) * ''Arguing with the Past'' (1989) * ''Open Fields'' (1996) * ''Virginia Woolf: The Common Ground'' (1996) * ''Alice in Space: The Sideways Victorian World of Lewis Carroll'' (2016)

Bibliography

:A full bibliography of Gillian Beer's work may be found in: * ''Literature, Science, Psychoanalysis, 1830–1970: essays in honour of Gillian Beer'' (

Helen Small Helen Wenda Small (born 23 October 1964) is the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. She was previously a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. Early life Small was ...

, Trudi Tate, editors),

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2003)

References

Sources

* MacLeod, Donald. "Dame Gillian Beer", ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' (29 June 2004).

External links

Biodata on Gillian Beer

Portrait of Dame Gillian Beer

Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 26 January 2009 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beer, Gillian 1935 births Living people Alumni of St Anne's College, Oxford British literary critics British women literary critics Charles Darwin biographers Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge International members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Surrey Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Rose Mary Crawshay Prize winners Presidents of Clare Hall, Cambridge Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London 20th-century British non-fiction writers 20th-century British women writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century British women writers King Edward VII Professors of English Literature