Charles Ruas
Encyclopedia
Charles Ruas, born in Tianjin
, China, is an American author and intellectual, particularly known for his work as an interviewer, literary
and art critic
, and translator.
A graduate of Princeton University
(BA 1960, MA 1963, PhD 1970), Ruas was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sorbonne
(1963–64). He is a specialist in French
, English
, and Comparative Literature
, which he has taught at universities
in the United States, France, and China.
Ruas was for a time in the late 1970s Director of the Drama and Literature Department of WBAI
, where he initiated separate coverage of all the arts. Within this programming Susan Howe
produced her own series and specials on poetry
Other innovative programming initiated by Ruas at WBAI included the Audio-Experimental Theatre, for which multi-media performers, including poets, playwrights, video artists, and dancers were invited to create a work for radio broadcast. Performers included Meredith Monk
, Vito Acconci
, John Cage
, Phillip Glass, Joan Jonas
, Yvonne Rainer
, Ed Bowes, Robert Wilson
, Richard Foreman
, and Helen Adam
.
Ruas also produced The Reading Experiment, a year-long series of readings from Marguerite Young
's novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. The programs were scored by Rob Wynne with a collage of music and concrete sound effects. The readers came from a wide variety of artistic backgrounds and included Anaïs Nin
, Marian Seldes
, Novella Nelson
, Leo Lerman
, Owen Dodson
, Wyatt Cooper, Anne Fremantle, and Ruth Ford
, among others.
He has also produced arts and literature programming for PS1.
A literary critic for the Soho Weekly News until 1982, Ruas has been a frequent contributor to ArtNews
and Art in America
.
Ruas currently lives and works in New York City.
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
, China, is an American author and intellectual, particularly known for his work as an interviewer, literary
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
and art critic
Art criticism
Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art.Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty...
, and translator.
A graduate of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
(BA 1960, MA 1963, PhD 1970), Ruas was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sorbonne
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
(1963–64). He is a specialist in French
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
, English
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
, and Comparative Literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
, which he has taught at universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
in the United States, France, and China.
Ruas was for a time in the late 1970s Director of the Drama and Literature Department of WBAI
WBAI
WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied...
, where he initiated separate coverage of all the arts. Within this programming Susan Howe
Susan Howe
Susan Howe is a American poet, scholar, essayist and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among others poetry movements. Her work is often classified as Postmodern because it expands traditional notions of genre...
produced her own series and specials on poetry
Other innovative programming initiated by Ruas at WBAI included the Audio-Experimental Theatre, for which multi-media performers, including poets, playwrights, video artists, and dancers were invited to create a work for radio broadcast. Performers included Meredith Monk
Meredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...
, Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, Phillip Glass, Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.She began her career in New York City as a sculptor...
, Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer
Yvonne Rainer is an American dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is frequently challenging and experimental. Her work is classified as minimalist art.- Early life :...
, Ed Bowes, Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson may refer to:In politics:* Rob Wilson , British politician and entrepreneur, MP for Reading East* Robert J. Wilson, candidate in the 1953 Manitoba provincial election* Robert John Wilson, Member of Parliament for Jarrow...
, Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman
Richard Foreman is an American playwright and avant-garde theater pioneer. He is the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater.-Life :...
, and Helen Adam
Helen Adam
Helen Adam was a Scottish poet, collagist and photographer who was an active participant in The San Francisco Renaissance, a literary movement contemporaneous to the Beat Generation that occurred in San Francisco during the 1950s and 1960s...
.
Ruas also produced The Reading Experiment, a year-long series of readings from Marguerite Young
Marguerite Young
Marguerite Vivian Young was an American author of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and criticism. Her work evinced an interest in social issues and environmentalism....
's novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. The programs were scored by Rob Wynne with a collage of music and concrete sound effects. The readers came from a wide variety of artistic backgrounds and included Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories...
, Marian Seldes
Marian Seldes
Marian Hall Seldes is an American stage, film, radio, and television actress whose career has spanned six decades and who was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Life and career:...
, Novella Nelson
Novella Nelson
Novella Nelson is an American actress and singer.Nelson was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Evelyn Hines and James Nelson. Her career in films did not begin until she was approaching middle age, with a small part in 1978's An Unmarried Woman. Over the next thirty years, she continued...
, Leo Lerman
Leo Lerman
Leo Lerman was an American writer and editor who worked for Condé Nast Publications for more than 50 years. Lerman also wrote for the New York Herald Tribune, Harper's Bazaar, Dance Magazine, and Playbill.Lerman grew up in a Jewish immigrant family in East Harlem and Queens, New York...
, Owen Dodson
Owen Dodson
Owen Vincent Dodson was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was one of the leading African American poets of his time, associated with the generation of black poets following the Harlem Renaissance....
, Wyatt Cooper, Anne Fremantle, and Ruth Ford
Ruth Ford (actress)
Ruth Ford was an American model and stage and film actress. Her brother was the bohemian surrealist Charles Henri Ford. Their parents managed the Tennessee Hotel in Clarksville, Tennessee.-Life and career:As a model she posed for Harper's, Town and Country and Mademoiselle...
, among others.
He has also produced arts and literature programming for PS1.
P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center
MoMA PS1 is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. It is located in the Long Island City neighborhood of New York City...
A literary critic for the Soho Weekly News until 1982, Ruas has been a frequent contributor to ArtNews
ARTnews
ARTnews is an arts magazine based in New York, founded by James Clarence Hyde in 1902 as Hyde’s Weekly Art News. It is published 11 times a year.ARTnews covers all art, from ancient to Post-modernism...
and Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
.
Ruas currently lives and works in New York City.
Works
- Conversations with American Writers – Charles Ruas. Knopf, 1985, ISBN 978-0-394-52787-1
- Death and the Labyrinth – Michel Foucault. John Ashbery (Introduction), Charles Ruas (Translator). Doubleday, 1986, ISBN 978-0-385-27854-6 / Continuum, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8264-9362-0
- An Artful Life: The Biography of D.H. Kahnweiler – Pierre Assouline. Charles Ruas (Translator). Grove/Atlantic, 1990, ISBN 978-0-8021-1227-9
- Harp Song for a Radical: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs – Marguerite Young. Charles Ruas (Editor). Knopf, 1999, ISBN 978-0-679-42757-5
- Grace: An American Woman in China, 1934–1974 – Eleanor McCallie Cooper, William Liu. Charles Ruas (Introduction). Soho Press, 2003, ISBN 978-1-56947-350-4
- Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin -- Pierre Assouline. Charles Ruas (Translator). Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-539759-8
- "New Directions: An Interview with James Laughlin," with Susan Howe; "The Struggle Against Censorship: with Maurice Girodias, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Carl Solomon, and James Grauerholtz." In The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors and Their Craft, edited by Bill Henderson. Pushcart Press, 1980, ISBN 0-916366-05-7
- "Carlos Fuentes: An Interview," with Alfred MacAdam. Writers at Work, Sixth Series, edited by George Plimpton. The Viking Press, 1984, ISBN 0-670-79099-0
- "China's Other Cultural Revolution: History and Chinese Art." Art in America, 9/1/98.