F. R. Leavis

Chris Joyce (University of Cambridge)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

Born 14 Jul 1895
Died 14 Apr 1978
Activity 1915-1978

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Literary Critic/ Historian

Resources

Leavis' Works

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F. R. Leavis was one of the most influential literary critics of the twentieth century, that influence being at its height in the period between the Second War and the 1960s. He lived in Cambridge all his life and taught at the university there from 1925 until his retirement in 1962. After this time he held a number of visiting professorships elsewhere. Despite the passage of time since his period of dominance – during which his name has been in partial eclipse – the mark which he made on the study and teaching of literature remains plainly visible today. This is most obviously so in the continued emphasis on close reading and, more generally, in the broad acceptance of his reassessment of the English literary canon.

Leavis's central achievement resides in five books, which shape the

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5190 words

Citation: Joyce, Chris. "F. R. Leavis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 August 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2661, accessed 24 November 2024.]