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[NABOKOV-L] Beaver Sir William Empson: an addendym
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Selected items about W.Empson: his acquaintance with Wittgenstein at
Cambridge in the twenties. A reference to F.Kermode, recently brought up at
the List by Stan K-B.
Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 - 15 April 1984) was an English
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> literary
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_critic> critic and poet
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet> .
He was widely influential for his practice of closely
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading> reading literary works,
fundamental to the New Critics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Critics> .
Jonathan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bate> Bate has said that
the three greatest English Literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th
centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the
funniest".
Empson has been styled a "critic of genius" by Sir
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Frank_Kermode> Frank Kermode, who
qualified his praise by identifying willfully perverse readings of certain
authors; and Harold <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloom> Bloom has
stated that Empson is among a handful of critics who matter most to him,
because of their force and eccentricity. Empson's bluntness led to
controversy both during his life and after his death, and a reputation in
part also as a "licensed buffoon" (Empson's own phrase).
.....................................
In 1925, Empson won a scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_College,_Cambridge> and achieved a
double first
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification>
in Mathematics and English in 1929. His supervisor in Mathematics, the
father of the mathematician and philosopher Frank
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey> P. Ramsey, expressed regret
at Empson's decision to pursue English rather than Mathematics, since it was
a discipline for which Empson showed great talent. I.A. Richards
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._A._Richards> , the director of studies in
English, recalled the genesis of Empson's first major work, Seven Types of
Ambiguity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity_(Empson)> ,
composed when Empson was not yet 22 and published when he was 24:
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein> was an acquaintance at
Cambridge, but Empson consistently denied any previous or direct influence
on his work.
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Cambridge in the twenties. A reference to F.Kermode, recently brought up at
the List by Stan K-B.
Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 - 15 April 1984) was an English
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> literary
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_critic> critic and poet
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet> .
He was widely influential for his practice of closely
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_reading> reading literary works,
fundamental to the New Critics <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Critics> .
Jonathan <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Bate> Bate has said that
the three greatest English Literary critics of the 18th, 19th and 20th
centuries are Johnson, Hazlitt and Empson, "not least because they are the
funniest".
Empson has been styled a "critic of genius" by Sir
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Frank_Kermode> Frank Kermode, who
qualified his praise by identifying willfully perverse readings of certain
authors; and Harold <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloom> Bloom has
stated that Empson is among a handful of critics who matter most to him,
because of their force and eccentricity. Empson's bluntness led to
controversy both during his life and after his death, and a reputation in
part also as a "licensed buffoon" (Empson's own phrase).
.....................................
In 1925, Empson won a scholarship to Magdalene College, Cambridge
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_College,_Cambridge> and achieved a
double first
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_undergraduate_degree_classification>
in Mathematics and English in 1929. His supervisor in Mathematics, the
father of the mathematician and philosopher Frank
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey> P. Ramsey, expressed regret
at Empson's decision to pursue English rather than Mathematics, since it was
a discipline for which Empson showed great talent. I.A. Richards
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I._A._Richards> , the director of studies in
English, recalled the genesis of Empson's first major work, Seven Types of
Ambiguity <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Types_of_Ambiguity_(Empson)> ,
composed when Empson was not yet 22 and published when he was 24:
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein> was an acquaintance at
Cambridge, but Empson consistently denied any previous or direct influence
on his work.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/