John David Guillory
Born
John David Guillory

1952 (age 71–72)
United States
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Literary critic, author

John David Guillory (born 1952) is an American literary critic best known for his book Cultural Capital (1993). He is the Julius Silver Professor of English at New York University.

Life

Guillory "grew up in New Orleans in a working-class Catholic family, and attended Jesuit schools."[1] Guillory gained his BA at Tulane University, and a PhD in English from Yale University in 1979.[2] His PhD, Poetry and Authority: Spenser, Milton, and Literary History,[3] was subsequently published as a monograph. Guillory taught at Yale University[4] (1979–89), Johns Hopkins University[5] (1989–97), and Harvard University (1997–99) before moving to New York University in 1999.[6]

Guillory's book Cultural Capital (1993) argued that "the category of 'literature' names the cultural capital of the old bourgeoisie, a form of capital increasingly marginal to the social function of the present educational system".[7] After an opening chapter on the debate over the literary canon, Cultural Capital took up several 'case studies': Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, the close reading of New Criticism, and literary theory after Paul De Man.[8] Guillory viewed the rigour of 'Theory' as an attempt by literary scholars to reclaim its cultural capital from a newly ascendant technical professional class. Its unconscious aim was "to model the intellectual work of the theorist on the new social form of intellectual work, the technobureaucratic labour of the new professional-managerial class."[9] A final chapter gave a history of the concept of value from Adam Smith to Barbara Herrnstein Smith.

Awards and honors

1992: Best American Essays[10] for "Canon, Syllabus, List"[11]

1994: René Wellek Prize from the American Comparative Literature Association for Cultural Capital, "an uncompromising study of the problem of canon formation itself and what that problem tells us about the crisis in contemporary education."[12]

1997: Class of 1932 Fellow of the Council of the Humanities, Princeton University[13]

2001: Tanner Lectures on Human Values at UC Berkeley,[14] respondent to Sir Frank Kermode[15]

2016: Francis Andrew March Award from the Association of Departments of English for "Distinguished Service to the Profession of English Studies."

2016: Golden Dozen Award for teaching, New York University

Books

References

  1. ↑ Schuessler, Jennifer (2023-02-03). "What Is Literary Criticism For?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  2. ↑ "Monuments and Documents: On the Object of Study in the Humanities" (PDF). Humanities Institute at Stony Brook. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  3. ↑ Guillory, John (1979). Poetry and authority Spenser, Milton, and literary history (Thesis). OCLC 917951510.
  4. ↑ Guillory, John; Williams, Jeffrey J. (2004). "Toward a Sociology of Literature: An Interview with John Guillory". Minnesota Review. 61 (1): 95–109. ISSN 2157-4189.
  5. ↑ "Johns Hopkins Magazine - April 1994 Issue". pages.jh.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  6. ↑ Scott Heller; Alison Schneider; Katharine Mangan (29 January 1999). "Noted Scholar Moves From Harvard to NYU for Geographic Reasons; UNLV's Business Dean Cites Research Deficiencies in Leaving; Yale Grants Tenure to 3 Women". Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  7. ↑ Guillory, John (1993). Cultural Capital. University of Chicago Press. p. 186. Cited in Redfield, Marc (May 2005). "Professing Literature: John Guillory's Misreading of Paul de Man". Romantic Circles. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  8. ↑ Redfield, Marc (May 2005). "Professing Literature: John Guillory's Misreading of Paul de Man". Romantic Circles. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  9. ↑ Guillory, John (1993). Cultural Capital. University of Chicago Press. p. 186. Cited in Ruth, JEnnifer (2006). Novel Professions: Interested Disinterest and the Making of the Professional in the Victorian Novel. Ohio State University Press. p. 11.
  10. ↑ "Best American Essays 1992 – Transition Magazine". transitionmagazine.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  11. ↑ Guillory, John (1991). "Canon, Syllabus, List: A Note on the Pedagogic Imaginary". Transition (52): 36–54. doi:10.2307/2935123. ISSN 0041-1191. JSTOR 2935123.
  12. ↑ "The René Wellek Prize Citation 1994 | American Comparative Literature Association". www.acla.org. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  13. ↑ "NYU Prof. to Discuss the Difference Between Professional and Lay Reading". Office of Communications. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  14. ↑ "2001-2002 Lecture Series | Tanner Lectures". tannerlectures.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  15. ↑ Guillory, John. ""It Must Be Abstract"". academic.oup.com. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  16. ↑ Cultural Capital. University of Chicago Press.
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