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Christopher Benfey

クリストファー・ベンフェイ

Christopher Benfey

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1954-10-28 （Merion, Pennsylvania, U.S.）
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Merion, Pennsylvania (birthplace) → Richmond, Indiana (childhood) → South Hadley, Massachusetts (works at Mount Holyoke College)

Career

Occupations
literary critic, scholar, professor
Active Years
1980-
Affiliations
Mount Holyoke College
Influenced By
Otto Theodor Benfey, Emily Dickinson (subject of scholarship)

Education

Earlham College (attended)
Country: United States
Began undergraduate studies here; completed B.A. at Guilford College
Guilford College
Degree: B.A.
Country: United States
Received B.A.
Harvard University
Comparative Literature
Degree: Ph.D.
Country: United States
Holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature

Awards

Guggenheim Fellowship
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable

1999 literary and art history, criticism

An interdisciplinary study situating Degas within New Orleans' cultural world and exploring encounters with writers like Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable.

intersection of art and literatureCreole culture19th-century American South

The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan

2003 history and cultural history

Nonfiction exploring cross-cultural encounters between late 19th-century Japan and the United States through individual lives.

cultural exchangemodernizationbiographical narratives

A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade

2008 biography and cultural history

Charts intersecting lives of 19th-century American writers and artists to illuminate love, art, and scandal in their era.

19th-century American literatureartist networkscultural intersections

American Audacity: Literary Essays North and South

2010 essays and criticism

A collection of essays examining literary works across North and South, critically engaging diverse aspects of American literature.

regionalism in literaturecultural identitycriticism

Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay

2012 cultural history and criticism

Essays and studies exploring American cultural formation through educational institutions and movements.

education and culturemodernismcommunities

IF: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years

2019 biography and literary history

A scholarly biography reexamining Rudyard Kipling's activities in America and their impacts.

transnational literaturebiographical studyempire and culture

Bibliography

  • Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable
  • The Great Wave: Gilded Age Misfits, Japanese Eccentrics, and the Opening of Old Japan
  • A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade
  • American Audacity: Literary Essays North and South
  • Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay
  • IF: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years

Style & Themes

Literary Style
scholarly yet essayistic prosefocus on historical context and intersections of art and literature
Recurring Motifs
19th-century American literaturecultural exchange and transnationalismconnections between art and literature

Legacy

Christopher Benfey is a critic and scholar known for his work on Emily Dickinson and 19th–20th century American literature; through scholarly and popular essays he has influenced a broad readership.

Trivia

  • His father is chemist Otto Theodor Benfey.
  • Has taught at Mount Holyoke College since 1989.
  • Has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow.