Christopher Ricks: Difference between revisions

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| birth_place      = [[Beckenham]], [[United Kingdom]]
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| occupation      = Critic, scholar, professor
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'''Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks''' {{Post-nominals|country=UK|FBA}} (born 18 September 1933)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wroe |first=Nicholas |date=2005-01-29 |title=Bringing it all back home |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/29/poetry.oxforduniversity |access-date=2023-09-08 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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 University]], and was [[Professor of Poetry]] at the [[University of Oxford]] (UK) from 2004 to 2009.  In 2008, he served as president of the [[Association of Literary Scholars and Critics]].
'''Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks''' {{Post-nominals|country=UK|FBA|FRSL}} (born 18 September 1933)<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wroe |first=Nicholas |date=2005-01-29 |title=Bringing it all back home |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jan/29/poetry.oxforduniversity |access-date=2023-09-08 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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 University]], and was [[Professor of Poetry]] at the [[University of Oxford]] (UK) from 2004 to 2009.  In 2008, he served as president of the [[Association of Literary Scholars and Critics]].
He is known as a champion of [[Victorian literature#Poetry|Victorian poetry]]; an enthusiast of [[Bob Dylan]], whose lyrics he has analysed at book length;<ref>Michael Gray (2006), ''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia'', p. 571.</ref> a trenchant reviewer<ref>A collection is in ''Reviewery''.</ref> of writers he considers pretentious ([[Marshall McLuhan]], [[Christopher Norris (critic)|Christopher Norris]], [[Geoffrey Hartman]], [[Stanley Fish]]); and a warm reviewer of those he thinks humane or humorous ([[F. R. Leavis]], [[W. K. Wimsatt]], [[Christina Stead]]). [[Hugh Kenner]] praised his "intent eloquence",<ref>[[Hugh Kenner]], ''A Sinking Island: The Modern English Writers'', Knopf, New York 1988, p. 245</ref> and [[Geoffrey Hill]] his "unrivalled critical intelligence".<ref>[[Geoffrey Hill]], ''Collected Critical Writings'', OUP, Oxford 2008, p. 379</ref> [[W. H. Auden]] described Ricks as "exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding".<ref>''Oxford Book of English Verse'', ed. Ricks, OUP 1999</ref> [[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]] calls him the "greatest living critic".<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=John Carey in conversation with Clive James |url=http://www.clivejames.com/carey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119101124/http://www.clivejames.com/carey |archive-date=2012-01-19 |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=clivejames.com}}</ref>
He is known as a champion of [[Victorian literature#Poetry|Victorian poetry]]; an enthusiast of [[Bob Dylan]], whose lyrics he has analysed at book length;<ref>Michael Gray (2006), ''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia'', p. 571.</ref> a trenchant reviewer<ref>A collection is in ''Reviewery''.</ref> of writers he considers pretentious ([[Marshall McLuhan]], [[Christopher Norris (critic)|Christopher Norris]], [[Geoffrey Hartman]], [[Stanley Fish]]); and a warm reviewer of those he thinks humane or humorous ([[F. R. Leavis]], [[W. K. Wimsatt]], [[Christina Stead]]). [[Hugh Kenner]] praised his "intent eloquence",<ref>[[Hugh Kenner]], ''A Sinking Island: The Modern English Writers'', Knopf, New York 1988, p. 245</ref> and [[Geoffrey Hill]] his "unrivalled critical intelligence".<ref>[[Geoffrey Hill]], ''Collected Critical Writings'', OUP, Oxford 2008, p. 379</ref> [[W. H. Auden]] described Ricks as "exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding".<ref>''Oxford Book of English Verse'', ed. Ricks, OUP 1999</ref> [[John Carey (critic)|John Carey]] calls him the "greatest living critic".<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=John Carey in conversation with Clive James |url=http://www.clivejames.com/carey |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119101124/http://www.clivejames.com/carey |archive-date=2012-01-19 |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=clivejames.com}}</ref>


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During his time at Bristol he worked on ''[[John Keats|Keats]] and Embarrassment'' (1974), in which he made revelatory connections between the letters and the poetry. It was also at Bristol that he first published his still-definitive edition of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s poetry. In 1975, Ricks moved to the [[University of Cambridge]], where in 1982 he became [[King Edward VII Professor of English Literature]] in succession to [[Frank Kermode]], before leaving for [[Boston University]] in 1986. In June 2011 it was announced he would join the professoriate of [[New College of the Humanities]], a private college in [[London]].<ref>[http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks "The professoriate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511155511/http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks |date=11 May 2013 }}, New College of the Humanities, accessed 8 June 2011.</ref>
During his time at Bristol he worked on ''[[John Keats|Keats]] and Embarrassment'' (1974), in which he made revelatory connections between the letters and the poetry. It was also at Bristol that he first published his still-definitive edition of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]]'s poetry. In 1975, Ricks moved to the [[University of Cambridge]], where in 1982 he became [[King Edward VII Professor of English Literature]] in succession to [[Frank Kermode]], before leaving for [[Boston University]] in 1986. In June 2011 it was announced he would join the professoriate of [[New College of the Humanities]], a private college in [[London]].<ref>[http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks "The professoriate"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511155511/http://www.nchum.org/faculty/professor-sir-christopher-ricks |date=11 May 2013 }}, New College of the Humanities, accessed 8 June 2011.</ref>


He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2009 [[Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref>
He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the 2009 [[Birthday Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=59090 |date=13 June 2009 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]] in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-09-01 |title=Ricks, Sir Christopher |url=https://rsliterature.org/fellows/sir-christopher-ricks/,%20https://rsliterature.org/fellows/sir-christopher-ricks/ |access-date=2025-06-29 |website=Royal Society of Literature |language=en-GB}}</ref>


== Principles against theory ==
== Principles against theory ==
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Ricks has distinguished himself as a vigorous upholder of traditional principles of reading based on [[I. A. Richards|practical criticism]]. He has opposed the theory-driven [[hermeneutics]] of the [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] and [[postmodernism|postmodernist]]. This places him outside the post-[[New Critical]] [[literary theory]], to which he prefers the [[Samuel Johnson|Johnsonian]] principle.
Ricks has distinguished himself as a vigorous upholder of traditional principles of reading based on [[I. A. Richards|practical criticism]]. He has opposed the theory-driven [[hermeneutics]] of the [[post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] and [[postmodernism|postmodernist]]. This places him outside the post-[[New Critical]] [[literary theory]], to which he prefers the [[Samuel Johnson|Johnsonian]] principle.


In an important essay,<ref>"Literary Principles as against theory", in Christopher Ricks, ''Essays in Appreciation'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996, pp. 311–332, p. 312.</ref> he contrasts principles derived empirically from a close parsing of texts, a tradition whose great exemplar was Samuel Johnson, to the fashionable mode for philosophical critique that [[deconstruction|deconstructs]] the "rhetorical" figures of a text and, in doing so, unwittingly disposes of the values and principles underlying the art of criticism itself. "Literature", he argues, "is, among other things, principled rhetoric". The intellectualist bias of professional theorists cannot but make their strenuously philosophical readings of literary texts discontinuous with the subject matter.
In an important essay,<ref>"Literary Principles as against theory", in Christopher Ricks, ''Essays in Appreciation'', Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996, pp. 311–332, p. 312.</ref> he contrasts principles derived empirically from a close parsing of texts, a tradition whose great exemplar was Samuel Johnson, to the fashionable mode for philosophical critique that [[deconstruction|deconstructs]] the "rhetorical" figures of a text and, in doing so, unwittingly disposes of the values and principles underlying the art of criticism itself. "Literature", he argues, "is, among other things, principled rhetoric".
 
Practical criticism is attuned to both the text and the reader's own sensibility, and thus engages in a dialogue between the complex discursive resonances of words in any literary work and the reader's correlative sentiments as they have been informed by a long experience of the self within both the world and literature. In this subtle negotiation between the value-thick sensibility of the reader and the intertextual resonances of a literary work lies the tactful attunement of all great criticism. This school of criticism must remain leery of critical practices that come to the text brandishing categorical, schematic assumptions, any panoply of tacitly assumed precepts external to the practical nature of literary creativity. Otherwise, the risk is one of a theoretical ''[[Hubris|hybris]]'', of a specious detachment that assumes a certain critical superiority to the text and its author. Those theory-saturated critics who engage with texts that, by their nature, are compact of social and political judgements (and much more), assert covertly a privileged innocence, an innocence denied to the text under scrutiny, whose rhetorical biases, and [[epistemological]] fault-lines are relentlessly subjected to ostensible "exposure".


==Works==
==Works==

Latest revision as of 09:52, 1 July 2025

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Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Main other Sir Christopher Bruce Ricks Template:Post-nominals (born 18 September 1933)[1] 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 University, and was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford (UK) from 2004 to 2009. In 2008, he served as president of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. He is known as a champion of Victorian poetry; an enthusiast of Bob Dylan, whose lyrics he has analysed at book length;[2] a trenchant reviewer[3] of writers he considers pretentious (Marshall McLuhan, Christopher Norris, Geoffrey Hartman, Stanley Fish); and a warm reviewer of those he thinks humane or humorous (F. R. Leavis, W. K. Wimsatt, Christina Stead). Hugh Kenner praised his "intent eloquence",[4] and Geoffrey Hill his "unrivalled critical intelligence".[5] W. H. Auden described Ricks as "exactly the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding".[6] John Carey calls him the "greatest living critic".[7]

Life

He was born in Beckenham, the younger son of James Bruce Ricks, who worked for the family overcoat manufacturing firm, and Gabrielle (née Roszak), daughter of a furrier of French origin.[8][9][10] Ricks was educated at King Alfred's School, Wantage[11] (a near-contemporary of the jockey Lester Piggott), then – as the first of his family to attend university[10] – studied at Balliol College, Oxford, where he graduated with a first in his B.A. in English in 1956, a B.Litt. in 1958, and M.A. in 1960.[11] He served in the Green Howards in the British Army in 1953/4 in Egypt. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Worcester College, Oxford, moving in 1968, after a sabbatical year at Stanford University, to become Professor of English at the University of Bristol.

During his time at Bristol he worked on Keats and Embarrassment (1974), in which he made revelatory connections between the letters and the poetry. It was also at Bristol that he first published his still-definitive edition of Tennyson's poetry. In 1975, Ricks moved to the University of Cambridge, where in 1982 he became King Edward VII Professor of English Literature in succession to Frank Kermode, before leaving for Boston University in 1986. In June 2011 it was announced he would join the professoriate of New College of the Humanities, a private college in London.[12]

He was knighted in the 2009 Birthday Honours.[13] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1970.[14]

Principles against theory

Ricks has distinguished himself as a vigorous upholder of traditional principles of reading based on practical criticism. He has opposed the theory-driven hermeneutics of the post-structuralist and postmodernist. This places him outside the post-New Critical literary theory, to which he prefers the Johnsonian principle.

In an important essay,[15] he contrasts principles derived empirically from a close parsing of texts, a tradition whose great exemplar was Samuel Johnson, to the fashionable mode for philosophical critique that deconstructs the "rhetorical" figures of a text and, in doing so, unwittingly disposes of the values and principles underlying the art of criticism itself. "Literature", he argues, "is, among other things, principled rhetoric".

Works

  • A Dissertation Upon English Typographical Founders and Founderies 1778 by Edward Rowe Mores (1961) editor with Harry Carter
  • Milton's Grand Style (1963)
  • Poems and Critics (1966) anthology
  • The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne (1967) editor with Graham Petrie
  • Twentieth Century Views: A. E. Housman (1968) editor
  • Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained by John Milton (1968) editor
  • English Poetry and Prose 1540–1674 (1970) editor
  • English Drama To 1710 (1971) editor
  • The Brownings: Letters and Poetry (1970) editor
  • Tennyson (1972)
  • A Collection of Poems By Alfred Tennyson (1972) editor
  • Selected Criticism of Matthew Arnold (1972) editor
  • Keats and Embarrassment (1974)
  • Geoffrey Hill and the Tongue's Atrocities (1978)
  • The State of the Language (1979) editor with Leonard Michaels, later edition 1990
  • The Force of Poetry (1984) essays
  • The Poems of Tennyson (1987) three volumes, editor
  • The Tennyson Archive (from 1987) editor with Aidan Day, 31 volumes
  • The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1987) editor
  • T. S. Eliot and Prejudice (1988)
  • A. E. Housman: Collected Poems and Selected Prose (1988) editor
  • The Faber Book of America (1992) editor with William L. Vance
  • The Golden Treasury (1991) editor
  • Beckett's Dying Words (1993)
  • Essays in Appreciation (1996)
  • Inventions of the March Hare: Poems, 1909–1917 by T. S. Eliot (1996) editor
  • The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999) editor
  • Allusion to the Poets (2002)
  • Selected Poems of James Henry (2002) editor
  • Reviewery (2003) essays
  • Dylan's Visions of Sin (2003)
  • Decisions and Revisions in T. S. Eliot (2003)
  • Samuel Menashe: Selected Poems (2005) editor
  • True Friendship: Geoffrey Hill, Anthony Hecht and Robert Lowell Under the Sign of Eliot and Pound (2010)
  • The Poems of T. S. Eliot (2015) editor with Jim McCue, 2 volumes
  • Along Heroic Lines (2021)

Footnotes

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External links

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  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Michael Gray (2006), The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, p. 571.
  3. ↑ A collection is in Reviewery.
  4. ↑ Hugh Kenner, A Sinking Island: The Modern English Writers, Knopf, New York 1988, p. 245
  5. ↑ Geoffrey Hill, Collected Critical Writings, OUP, Oxford 2008, p. 379
  6. ↑ Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Ricks, OUP 1999
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ The International Who's Who 1996-97. Europa Publications, 1996; p. 1298
  9. ↑ Contemporary Literary Critics, Elmer Borklund, Palgrave Macmillan, 1977, p. 445
  10. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ a b Contemporary Literary Critics, Elmer Borklund, Palgrave Macmillan, 1977, p. 445
  12. ↑ "The professoriate" Template:Webarchive, New College of the Humanities, accessed 8 June 2011.
  13. ↑ Template:London Gazette
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ "Literary Principles as against theory", in Christopher Ricks, Essays in Appreciation, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996, pp. 311–332, p. 312.
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