Richard Alan Macksey (July 25, 1931 – July 22, 2019) was Professor of Humanities and co-founder and longtime Director of the Humanities Center (now the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature) at
The Johns Hopkins University, where he taught critical theory, comparative literature, and film studies. Macksey was educated at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, earning his B.A. at the latter in 1953 and his Ph.D. in 1957. He taught at Johns Hopkins (both the school of Arts & Sciences as well as the Medical School) since 1958. He was the longtime Comparative Literature editor of
MLN (
Modern Language Notes
''Modern Language Notes'' (''MLN'') is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1886 at the Johns Hopkins University, with the intention of introducing continental European literary criticism into American scholarship. The journal is publis ...
), published by
Johns Hopkins University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
. He was a recipient of the Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award. Macksey also presided over one of the largest private libraries in Maryland, with over 70,000 books and manuscripts. An image of the room overspilling with books has been a popular internet meme in the 2010s and 2020s.
As Director for the Humanities Center, Macksey, with funding from the
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
, organized the influential international literary theory symposium, "The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man," which featured prominent academics such as
Paul de Man
Paul de Man (; ; December 6, 1919 – December 21, 1983), born Paul Adolph Michel Deman, was a Belgian-born American literary critic and literary theorist. He was known particularly for his importation of German and French philosophical approac ...
,
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
,
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...
, and
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...
, and where Derrida presented his lecture "
", credited with "tear
ngdown the temple of structuralism." These lectures were collected as ''The Structuralist Controversy'', the most recent version of which was published in 2005.
In 1999 the Richard A. Macksey Professorship for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities was established by a former student Edward T. Dangel III and his wife, Bonni Widdoes. The professorship is currently held by
Alice McDermott
Alice McDermott (born June 27, 1953) is an American writer and university professor. She is the author of nine novels and a collection of essays. For her 1998 novel '' Charming Billy'' she won an American Book Award and the U.S. National Book Aw ...
.
Notable students of Richard Macksey include
Susan Stewart,
Caleb Deschanel
Joseph Caleb Deschanel (born September 21, 1944) is an American cinematographer and director of film and television. He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography six times. He is a member of the National Film Preservati ...
,
Peter Koper
Peter Koper (January 1947 – May 21, 2022) was an American journalist, professor, screenwriter, and producer. He numbers among the original Dreamlanders, the group of actors and artists who worked with independent filmmaker John Waters on his ...
,
Walter Murch
Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes '' THX 1138'', ''Apocalypse Now'', '' The Godfather I'', '' II'', and '' III'', '' American Graffiti'', '' The Conversation ...
,
Matthew Robbins, and
Hollis Robbins
Hollis Robbins (born 1963) is an American academic and essayist. Robbins is professor of English and also serves as Special Advisor for Humanities at the University of Utah; she was formerly dean of humanities. Her scholarship focuses on African-Am ...
.
Publications
*''The Structuralist Controversy: The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of Man''. JHU Press 1970.
*''Velocities of Change: Critical Essays from MLN (Modern Language Notes)'' JHU Press 1974.
*''The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism''. (Foreword) 2nd Edition. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
References
Further reading
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External links
Video of Richard Macksey's Library40th Anniversary Edition of ''The Structuralist Controversy''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macksey, Richard A.
1931 births
2019 deaths
Johns Hopkins University faculty
Critical theorists