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Helen Vendler

ヘレン・ヴェンドラー

Helen Vendler

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1933-04-30 （Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.）
Died
2024-04-23 （Laguna Niguel, California, U.S.） age 90
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Boston (birth / early life) → Ithaca, NY (Cornell University) → Cambridge, MA (Harvard University) → Laguna Niguel, CA (later life)

Career

Occupations
literary critic, professor
Active Years
1956-2024
Affiliations
Harvard University, Boston University, Cornell University, Swarthmore College, Haverford College, Smith College, University of Bordeaux (Fulbright Lecturer), Magdalene College, Cambridge
Memberships
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society
Influenced By
Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, John Keats, Wallace Stevens, Seamus Heaney, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare
Influenced
Jorie Graham (helped establish reputation), Rita Dove (helped establish reputation), Seamus Heaney (critical reputation influenced)

Education

Emmanuel College (Massachusetts)
Chemistry (undergraduate major)
Degree: A.B.
Year of Graduation: 1954
Country: United States
Majored in chemistry as an undergraduate; later shifted focus to English literature.
Harvard University (Radcliffe)
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences / English and American Literature
Degree: Ph.D.
Year of Graduation: 1960
Country: United States
Earned a Ph.D. in English and American literature.

Awards

Fulbright Fellowship
1954
Organization: Fulbright Program
Result: 受賞
James Russell Lowell Prize
1969
Organization: Modern Language Association (MLA)
Result: 受賞
American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
1970
Organization: American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Result: 受賞
Metcalf Cup & Prize
1975
Organization: Boston University
Result: 受賞
National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
1980
Category: 批評
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: 受賞
Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism
1996
Category: 文学批評
Organization: Iowa Writers' Workshop / University of Iowa
Result: 受賞
Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities
2004
Work: The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar
Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
Result: 選出・講演
Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies
2013
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Result: 受賞
Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism (American Academy of Arts and Letters)
2023
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Yeats's Vision and the Later Plays

1963 literary criticism

A detailed critical analysis of W. B. Yeats's later works and plays.

poetic formYeats's later thought

On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens' Longer Poems

1969 literary criticism

Close readings of Wallace Stevens's longer poems, elucidating themes and technique.

modern poetrylanguage and imagery in poetry

The Odes of John Keats

1983 literary criticism / commentary

Close readings of Keats's odes, examining their form and meaning.

Romanticismlyric technique

Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology

2002 anthology / introduction

An introduction to contemporary poetry with selected poems and commentary on reading.

contemporary American poetrypoetic reading

Bibliography

  • Yeats's Vision and the Later Plays (1963)
  • On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens' Longer Poems (1969)
  • The Poetry of George Herbert (1975)
  • Part of Nature, Part of Us: Modern American Poets (1980)
  • The Odes of John Keats (1983)
  • Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen out of Desire (1986)
  • The Given and the Made (1995)
  • The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1997)
  • Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology (2002)
  • Coming of Age as a Poet (2003)
  • Invisible Listeners (2005)
  • Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form (2007)
  • The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar (2015)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
close-reading focused textual analysisapproach of reading from the writer's point of viewclear, explanatory critical prose
Recurring Motifs
lyric voice and formrole of sound and imagery in poetryrelationship between a poet's voice and technique

Legacy

Helen Vendler was a preeminent American poetry critic whose close readings helped establish and secure the reputations of numerous poets and left a lasting impact on literary scholarship and pedagogy.

Academic Societies

  • Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • American Philosophical Society

Archives

  • Harvard University archives (related holdings)
  • Boston University libraries (related holdings)

In Popular Culture

  • Profiles and obituaries in major newspapers (The New York Times, The Boston Globe)

Quotes

  • She described close reading as "reading from the point of view of a writer."
    Source: The New York Times (profile) (2006)

Trivia

  • She majored in chemistry as an undergraduate before switching to English literature.
  • In 1959 she was one of the first women offered an instructor position in Harvard's English department, which she declined at the time.