David Daiches

David Daiches (born September 2, 1912 in Sunderland , Tyne and Wear , England , † July 15, 2005 in Edinburgh , Scotland ) was a British university professor , literary historian and literary critic .

Life

Daiches, who grew up as the son of a rabbi in Edinburgh , studied first at the University of Edinburgh after attending school and then devoted himself to research into English-language translations of the Biblia Hebraica during his studies at the University of Oxford , before studying at the University of in 1937 Chicago continued.

During the Second World War he worked as an employee at the British Embassy in the USA and then from 1947 to 1951 as a visiting scholar at Cornell University . After his return to Great Britain he became a lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 1951 and then took over a professorship for literature at the University of Sussex from 1961 until his retirement in 1977 .

In addition to his teaching activities, he has published numerous significant contributions to literary criticism, particularly through his insistence on the inclusion of contemporary literature in the academic curriculum. One of his best-known works was a book on Robert Burns (1950), which was published in a revised edition in 1966 and was the first comprehensive work on the poet to include the other literary and intellectual movements of the period. In 1956 the autobiographical book Two Worlds appeared , which dealt with his growing up in Edinburgh, and in 1964 The Paradox of Scottish Culture , a provocative study of the Age of Enlightenment in Scotland, the so-called " Scottish Enlightenment ".

After his retirement he was director of the Institute for Applied Humanities Studies at the University of Edinburgh between 1980 and 1986.

Works

• The King James version of the English Bible , 1941
• A study of literature for readers and critics , 1948
• Robert Burns , 1950
• Critical approaches to literature , 1956
• Two worlds: an Edinburgh Jewish childhood , autobiography, 1956
• A critical history of English literature , 1960
• The novel and the modern world , 1960
• Studies in english literature , 1963
• A study of literature , 1968
• More literary essays , 1968
• The idea of ​​a new university , 1970
• Sir Walter Scott and his world , 1971
• A third world , autobiography, 1971
• Charles Edward Stuart. The life and times of Bonnie Prince Charlie , Thames & Hudson, London 1973, ISBN 0-500-25034-0
• Robert Louis Stevenson and his World , Thames and Hudson, London 1973, ISBN 0-500-13045-0
• What: A pastime from time past , autobiography, 1975
• Scotch whiskey , 1977
• Literary landscapes of the British Isles , 1979

in German translation

• Scotch Whiskey , 1971, ISBN 3-7658-0122-4

literature

• Una McGovern (Ed.): Chambers Biographical Dictionary . Chambers, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-550-10051-2 , p. 390.
• Alan Riach: At 88, subversive and refreshing: Alan Riach meets David Daiches , 2001.
• Jenni Calder : Reading, writing and reverberations , 2003.
• Michael Lister: Reading David Daiches , 2004.

Web links

• Literature by and about David Daiches in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about David Daiches at Open Library