Marilyn Butler

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Marilyn Speers Butler (born February 11, 1937 in Kingston upon Thames as Marilyn Speers Evans , † March 11, 2014 ) was a British literary scholar. Her research focus was on English Romanticism , for which she was considered the leading expert of her generation, with a particular interest in the writer Jane Austen .

Life

She was born in Kingston upon Thames, southwest London , in 1937 , the daughter of correspondent Trevor Evans and his wife Margaret (nee Gribbin). She attended Wimbledon High School . After studying originally planned story, she decided shortly to English Literature at St Hilda's College of the University of Oxford to study. After finishing her studies in 1960, she became a trainee at the BBC and worked in newsrooms in London and Manchester . She later became a producer.

In 1962 she married the election researcher David Butler , who worked at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. The marriage produced three sons. When she got married, she moved back to Oxford and took up postgraduate studies at St Hilda's College. In 1966 she received her doctorate in philology. The title of her dissertation was Education and public life: major themes in the novels of Maria Edgeworth . In 1970 she received a junior research fellowship at St Hilda's College, which in 1972 led to her first book publication, a biography of Maria Edgeworth . In 1973 she became a fellow and tutor at St Hugh's College . From 1985 to 1986 she was a University Lecturer at the university.

In 1986 she was appointed King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge . She was also a fellow at King's College from 1988 to 1993 . In 1993 she returned to Oxford and became the principal of Exeter College , a position she was the first woman to hold. In 2004 she retired.

In 2002 she became a Fellow of the British Academy .

Publications (selection)

  • Maria Edgeworth: A Literary Biography (1972)
  • Jane Austen and the War of Ideas (1975)
  • Peacock Displayed (1979),
  • Romantics, Rebels and Reactionaries (1981)
  • with Janet Todd [Ed.]: The Works of Mary Wollstonecraft (1989)
  • Jane Austen (2007)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Education and public life: major themes in the novels of Maria Edgeworth , E-Thesis Online Service . British Library website
  2. ↑ a b [1]
personal data
SURNAME Butler, Marilyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Butler, Marilyn Speers (full name); Evans, Marilyn Speers (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingston upon Thames
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 2014