Murray (Meir) Roston (; born 1928) is an Israeli

Emeritus professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who 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". In some c ...

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 ...

Bar-Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

Biography

Murray (Meir) Roston was born in London in 1928. Roston married Faith Lehrman and, shortly afterwards, they

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

, living for many years in

Kiryat Ono Kiryat Ono () is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel. It is located east of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Modern Kiryat Ono is adjacent to the biblical Ono, which was located in what is now the area of Or Yehuda. The city also ...

and then moving to Nordiya, near

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

. They have three daughters ‒ Yardenna (married to Alex Lubotzky), Nina, and Yonit.

Academic career

Roston won the Open Classics Scholarship to

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, and after obtaining a degree in classics, transferred to

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 ...

for a PhD from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. He taught English, Hebrew and Classics at Carmel College (Oxfordshire), and emigrated to

in 1956, to a position at

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

where he is now

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who 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". In some c ...

of English. Roston taught a number of times as a visiting professor at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, as well as at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. In 1988–90 he was appointed Dean of Humanities Faculty at

. In 1996, he was appointed to the permanent faculty at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

, and subsequently taught there every third year, while retaining his position in Israel. Roston is a member of numerous Editorial and Advisory Boards and he was a member of Academic Council, and Director of Humanities Program, of

Open University of Israel The Open University of Israel (, ''Ha-Universita ha-Ptuha'') is a distance education, distance-education university in Israel. It is one of ten public universities in Israel recognized by the Council of Higher Education (CHE). Open University ...

Research

Roston is an interdisciplinary scholar, author of a series of books examining how a knowledge of contemporary changes in the visual arts can illumine our understanding of parallel developments in literature. His ''Changing Perspectives in literature and the visual arts'' was rated 'Outstanding' by Choice, described there as: "A sumptuous book ... of paramount significance to literary studies, to cultural and art history, and to aesthetics". ''Milton and the Baroque'' was similarly described by the Times Literary Supplement as: "a study which itself partakes of the power and brilliance of his subject". He has published six books on the interrelationship with the arts, as well as a number of other books on themes ranging from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

to the 20th-century. His most recent book, ''The Comic Mode in English Literature'', was rated, in Choice's annual review, one of the Outstanding Academic titles of 2012.

Choice A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate Motivation, motivators and Choice modelling, models. Freedom of choice is generally cherished, whereas a severely limited or arti ...

, vol. 50 No. 5, January 2013.

Published works

*''Prophet and Poet: the Bible and the Growth of Romanticism''. 204 pages. UK:

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

; US:

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticis ...

, 1965. Arden reprint 1979. *''Biblical drama in England: from the Middle Ages to the Present Day''. 335 pages. UK: Faber & Faber; US: Northwestern University Press, 1968. *''The soul of wit: a study of John Donne''. 236 pages with 12 plates on

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

art.

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 ...

(Clarendon Press), 1974. Reprinted 1976. *''Milton and the baroque''. 192 pages with 12 plates. UK: The Macmillan Press; US:

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

, 1980. *''Sixteenth Century English Literature''. 235 page with 12 illustrations. UK: The Macmillan Press; US: Schocken Press, 1982. Hardcover & paperback. Reprinted 1984, 1988.

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

trans. 2005. *''Renaissance Perspectives: in Literature and the Visual Arts''.

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 1987. 380 pages with 84 illustrations. (paperback edition and hardcover reprint 1989). *''Changing Perspectives: in Literature and the Visual Arts, 1650–1820''. Princeton University Press, 1990. 458 pages with 123 art illustrations. (paperback edition and hardcover reprint 1992). *''Victorian Contexts: Literature and the Visual Arts''. 246 pages with art illustrations. US:

New York University Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 ...

; UK: The Macmillan Press, 1997 (reprinted 1998). *''Modernist Patterns: in Literature and the Visual Arts''. 288 pages with art illustrations. US: New York University Press; UK: The Macmillan Press, 2000. Issued as e-book 2010. *''The Search for Selfhood in Modern Literature''. 243 pages. Palgrave (The Macmillan Press UK &

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building (New York City), Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishe ...

US), 2001. *''Graham Greene's Narrative Strategies: a Study of the Major Novels''. 168 pages. Palgrave (The Macmillan Press UK & St. Martin's Press US), 2006. *''Tradition and Subversion in Renaissance Literature: Studies in Shakespeare, Spenser, Jonson, and Donne''. 258 pages. In the series: ''Medieval & Renaissance Literary Studies''. Duquesne UP, 2007. *''The Comic Mode in English Literature: from the Middle Ages to Today. Continuum Press, 2011 (hardcover/paperback/e-book).

Editor & contributor: (Hebrew)

*''The Shakespearean World'', Am Hasefer, 1965, pp. 283.

Translator (from Hebrew)

*Isaiah Rabinovich, ''Major Trends in Modern Hebrew Fiction''.

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

, 1968. 288 pages; and many other books. *

Asael Lubotzky Asael Lubotzky (; born 21 January 1983) is an Israeli physician, author, and molecular biologist. Formerly an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), he is a combat veteran of the Second Lebanon War. Military service Asael Lubotzky grew u ...

, '' From the Wilderness and Lebanon''.

Koren Publishers Jerusalem Koren Publishers Jerusalem is an Israeli publisher of Jewish religious texts. It was established in 1961 by Eliyahu Koren, with the aim of publishing the first Hebrew Bible designed, edited, printed, and bound by Jews in nearly 500 years. It prod ...

, 2016. 206 pages.

Essays in honour of Murray Roston

* Ellen Spolsky, ed. ''Iconotropism: Turning toward Pictures''. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania:

Bucknell University Press Bucknell University Press is a university press associated with Bucknell University, located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The press was founded in 1968 and is currently a member of the Association of University Presses, to which it was admitted in ...

, 2004. 210 pages.

References

External links

Faculty webpage
at

Professor Murray Roston

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Roston, Murray 1928 births Israeli Orthodox Jews Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Academic staff of Bar-Ilan University University of California, Los Angeles faculty Scholars of English literature English emigrants to Israel English Jews Shakespearean scholars Living people British emigrants to Israel Israeli expatriates in the United States