John Lennard
Encyclopedia
John Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies
, Mona, Jamaica
, and a freelance academic and writer.
and New College, Oxford
. His doctoral thesis, on the use of brackets in English literature, was published by the Clarendon Press
as the monograph But I Digress, and called both "a delight-house of a book" and "the strangest book (I think) I have ever reviewed". He taught at the Open University
, the University of London
, and the University of Cambridge
before taking up his present chair at UWI. He is also a member of the Global Virtual Faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University
, and the general editor of the Genre Fiction Sightlines and Monographs series for Humanities-E-Books. http://www.humanities-ebooks.co.uk
Beyond his unusual work on punctuation Lennard's major work has been in literary handbooks for students in the last years of school and first of college. The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism (OUP
, 1996, 2nd edition 2005) has now sold more than 25,000 copies and has an associated website. It was followed by The Drama Handbook: A Guide to Reading Plays (co-written with Mary Luckhurst
, Professor of Modern Drama at the University of York
), trying to bridge the gap between text-based literary and more performative teaching.
Lennard's more recent involvement with work on genre fiction
, particularly Crime Writing
, Science fiction
, and Children's literature
, reflects a long history of 'unliterary' reading and interest in literature as a means of living as well as a subject of aesthetic and historical study. He has variously protested the application of class snobbery to literature, and But I Digress features parentheses by Elvis Costello
and Robert B. Parker
as well as chapters on Marvell
, Coleridge
, and T. S. Eliot
. Both Handbooks were similarly eclectic in choosing examples, and his annotated edition of the award-winning Jamaican verse-novel View from Mount Diablo
by Ralph Thompson
considers both the crime novel and the Bildungsroman
as models.
Lennard's former students include Maja Zade (dramaturg at the Schauspielhaus, Berlin
), Dr Anne Henry (Trinity College, Cambridge
), Steven Poole
of The Guardian
, Dr Gautam Chakravarty (University of Delhi
), Andrew Miller of The Economist
, and Tristram Stuart
(The Bloodless Revolution).
University of the West Indies
The University of the West Indies , is an autonomous regional institution supported by and serving 17 English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica,...
, Mona, Jamaica
Mona, Jamaica
Mona is a neighbourhood in southeastern Saint Andrew Parish, approximately five miles from Kingston, Jamaica. A former sugar plantation, it is the site of a reservoir serving the city of Kingston and of the main campus of the University of the West Indies...
, and a freelance academic and writer.
Biography
Lennard grew up in Bristol, England and was educated at Bristol Grammar SchoolBristol Grammar School
Bristol Grammar School is a co-educational independent school in Clifton, Bristol, England. The school was founded in 1532 by two brothers, Robert and Nicholas Thorne....
and New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
. His doctoral thesis, on the use of brackets in English literature, was published by the Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
as the monograph But I Digress, and called both "a delight-house of a book" and "the strangest book (I think) I have ever reviewed". He taught at the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
, the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, and the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
before taking up his present chair at UWI. He is also a member of the Global Virtual Faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Fairleigh Dickinson University is a private university founded as a junior college in 1942. It now has several campuses located in New Jersey, Canada, and the United Kingdom.-Description:...
, and the general editor of the Genre Fiction Sightlines and Monographs series for Humanities-E-Books. http://www.humanities-ebooks.co.uk
Beyond his unusual work on punctuation Lennard's major work has been in literary handbooks for students in the last years of school and first of college. The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism (OUP
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1996, 2nd edition 2005) has now sold more than 25,000 copies and has an associated website. It was followed by The Drama Handbook: A Guide to Reading Plays (co-written with Mary Luckhurst
Mary Luckhurst
Mary Luckhurst is Professor in Modern Drama at the University of York. She is also a playwright and director.- Biography :Luckhurst was educated at New Hall, Cambridge, reading French and German, and the London School of Economics...
, Professor of Modern Drama at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
), trying to bridge the gap between text-based literary and more performative teaching.
Lennard's more recent involvement with work on genre fiction
Genre fiction
Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre....
, particularly Crime Writing
History of crime fiction
Crime fiction is a typically 19th- and 20th-century genre, dominated by British and American writers. This article explores its historical development as a genre.-Crime fiction in history:...
, Science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, and Children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
, reflects a long history of 'unliterary' reading and interest in literature as a means of living as well as a subject of aesthetic and historical study. He has variously protested the application of class snobbery to literature, and But I Digress features parentheses by Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
and Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker
Robert Brown Parker was an American crime writer. His most famous works were the novels about the private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the late 1980s; a series of TV movies based on the character were also...
as well as chapters on Marvell
Andrew Marvell
Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, Parliamentarian, and the son of a Church of England clergyman . As a metaphysical poet, he is associated with John Donne and George Herbert...
, Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
, and T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
. Both Handbooks were similarly eclectic in choosing examples, and his annotated edition of the award-winning Jamaican verse-novel View from Mount Diablo
View from Mount Diablo
View from Mount Diablo is a verse novel by Ralph Thompson , which won the Jamaican National Literary Award in manuscript in 2001, and was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2003...
by Ralph Thompson
Ralph Thompson (poet)
Ralph Thompson, C.D. , is a Jamaican businessman, educational activist, artist and poet.- Life and Business Career :Thompson was born in Poughkeepsie, NY to a Jamaican mother and US father, but the marriage lasted only three years, and from 1931 he and his sister were raised in Jamaica...
considers both the crime novel and the Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
as models.
Lennard's former students include Maja Zade (dramaturg at the Schauspielhaus, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
), Dr Anne Henry (Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
), Steven Poole
Steven Poole
-Biography:Poole studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has subsequently written for publications including The Independent, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The Sunday Times, and the New Statesman...
of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Dr Gautam Chakravarty (University of Delhi
University of Delhi
The University of Delhi is a central university situated in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the Chancellor of the university...
), Andrew Miller of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, and Tristram Stuart
Tristram Stuart
Tristram Stuart is an English author and historian.Stuart read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 1999 and winning the Betha Wolferstan Rylands prize and the Graham Storey prize; his directors of studies were Peter Holland and John Lennard...
(The Bloodless Revolution).
Works
- But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse (Clarendon Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-811247-5
- The Poetry Handbook (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1996). Second edition, 2005. ISBN 0-19-926538-0 - The Drama Handbook (Oxford University Press, 2002). With Mary Luckhurst. ISBN 0-19-870070-9
- Of Modern Dragons and other essays on Genre Fiction (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Troubador, 2008; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-038-7 (digital ed.); ISBN 978-1-84760-069-1 (paperback ed.)
- Literature Insights: Shakespeare, Hamlet (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Troubador, 2008; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-028-8 (digital ed.); ISBN 978-1-84760-084-4 (paperback ed.)
- Genre Fiction Sightlines: Reginald Hill, On Beulah Height (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-035-6
- Genre Fiction Sightlines: Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-042-4
- Genre Fiction Sightlines: Octavia Butler, Xenogenesis / Lilith's Brood (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-036-3
- Genre Fiction Sightlines: Ian McDonald, Chaga / Evolution's Shore (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-039-4
- Genre Fiction Sightlines: Tamora Pierce, The Immortals: Wild Magic, Wolf-Speaker, The Emperor Mage, The Realms of the Gods (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-037-0
- Literature Insights: Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet & Staying On (Humanities-Ebooks, 2007; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-956-1
- Literature Insights: Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (Humanities-Ebooks, 2008; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-097-4
- Ralph Thompson, View from Mount Diablo: An Annotated Edition (Peepal Tree Press & Humanities-Ebooks, 2009; Kindle 2010). ISBN 978-1-84523-144-6 (paperback ed.); ISBN 978-1-84760-093-6 (digital ed.)
- Of Sex and Faerie: Further essays on Genre Fiction (Humanities-Ebooks, Troubador, & Kindle, 2010). ISBN 978-1-84760-171-1 (PDF) ISBN 978-1-84760-172-8 (Reflowable format) ISBN 978-1-84760-173-5 (paperback)
- ‘Punctuation: and – Pragmatics’, in A. Jucker, ed., Historical Pragmatics (Benjamins, 1995), pp. 65–98. ISBN 90-272-5047-2/1-55619-328-9
- ‘Writing to Form : Verse’, in John Singleton & Mary Luckhurst, eds, The Creative Writing Handbook: Techniques for New Writers (Macmillan, 1996; 2nd ed., 1999), pp. 164–200. ISBN 0-333-79226-2
- ‘Classical Learning in Regional Voices: The Work of Derek Walcott, Wole Soyinka, and Tony Harrison’, in Jean-Paul Lehners, Guy Schuller, & Janine Goedert, eds, Regions, nations, mondialisation: Aspects politiques, economiques, culturels (Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg, 1996), pp. 139–49. ISBN 2-87971-060-X
- ‘CrimeFiction’, ‘Period’, ‘Punctuation’, ‘Rhyme’, ‘Apestail’, ‘Apostrophe’, ‘Blank’, ‘Caesura’, ‘Guillemets’, ‘Mise-en-Page’, ‘Nota’, ‘Parenthesis’, ‘Rhyme Scheme’, ‘Scriptio Continua’ & ‘Wrenched Accent’, in J. A. Cuddon, ed., A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory (4th ed., rev. Claire Preston, Blackwell, 1998; Penguin, 1999). ISBN 0-631-20271-4
- ‘Mark, Space, Axis, Function: towards a (new) theory of punctuation on historical principles’, in Anne Henry, Joe Bray, & Miriam Fraser, eds, Ma(r)king the Text: The presentation of meaning on the literary page (Ashgate, 2000), pp. 1–11. ISBN 0-7546-0168-4
- ‘Reginald Hill’, in Jay Parini, ed., British Writers Supplement IX , (Scribner’s Sons, 2004), pp. 109–26. ISBN 0-684-31237-9
- ‘R. K. Narayan’, ‘Paul Scott’, & ‘Derek Walcott’, in Jay Parini, ed., World Writers in English (2 vols, Scribner’s Sons, 2004), II. 385-407, 645-64, 721-46. ISBN 0-684-31289-1
- ‘Ian Rankin’, in Jay Parini, ed., British Writers Supplement X , (Scribner’s Sons, 2004), pp. 243–60. ISBN 0-684-31312-X
- ‘Introduction’ to The Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes (OUP, 2006), pp. ix–xxxii. ISBN 0-19-280636-X
- ‘Staging ‘the Holocaust’ in England’, & (with Dawn Fowler) ‘On War: Charles Wood’s Military Conscience’, in Mary Luckhurst, ed., The Blackwell Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama (Blackwell, 2006). ISBN 1-4051-2228-5
- ‘Patrick O'Brian’, in Jay Parini, ed, British Writers Supplement XII, (Scribner's Sons, 2006), pp. 247–66. ISBN 0-684-31511-4
- Design and layout for Laura Curino, Passion (trans. Mary Luckhurst & Gabriella Giannachi), in Lizbeth GoodmanLizbeth GoodmanProf. Lizbeth Goodman is the Chair of Creative Technology Innovation and founder director of the and the MAGIC Multimedia & Games Innovation Centre, formerly at the University of East London, England, and elsewhere, now at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.Lizbeth Goodman founded the...
, ed., Mythic Women/Real Women: Plays and Performance Pieces by Women (Faber & Faber, 2000), pp. 87–112. ISBN 0-571-19140-1 - Commentary, background material, and student notes in April De AngelisApril De AngelisApril De Angelis is a British dramatist of part Sicilian descent. She is a graduate of Sussex University who trained at East 15 Acting School....
, A Laughing Matter (Faber & Faber/Out of Joint, 2002). ISBN 0-571-21772-9 - Programme essay and notes for Royal National TheatreRoyal National TheatreThe Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
/Out of Joint co-productions of She Stoops to ConquerShe Stoops to ConquerShe Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...
and A Laughing Matter (London & touring, 2002–03)
- ‘Dirty Weekend’, Times Literary Supplement 4591 (29/3/91)
- ‘Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord’, Times Literary Supplement 4603 (21/6/91)
- ‘Making Plays with Shakespeare’, The English Review 4.1 (9/93)
- ‘Shop Talk’, London Review of Books 16.2 (27/1/94)
- ‘When Thou hast Done...’, Essays in Criticism XLIV.2 (4/94)
- ‘Major Horsefeathers’, Times Literary Supplement 4751 (22/4/94)
- ‘The Redeemed Vicarage’, London Review of Books 16.9 (12/5/94)
- ‘The Gold in Them Thar Hills’, Threepenny Review 67 (Fall 1996)
- ‘Criminally Good’, The Guardian (London), 4/9/97, G2, p. 10
- [‘Mugging Up on India’], The Historical Journal 41.2 (1998)
- [‘The Left Hand of Marlowe’], Modern Language Review 96.3 (7/01)
- ‘To Review the Reviewer’, New Theatre Journal 2 (6/02)
- [‘Men, Myths, and Marlowe’], Modern Language Review 99.1 (1/04)
- ‘The Prodigal’, The Liberal : Poetry, Politics, Culture (February/March 2005), pp. 36–7
- ‘Informing a Voice’, The Sunday Observer (Kingston), 18/12/05, Lifestyle, p. 22
- ‘Without Title’, The Liberal : Poetry, Politics, Culture (February/March 2006), p. 55
- ‘Reservoirs of Blood’, The Liberal : Poetry, Politics, Culture (Autumn 2007), pp. 54–5
- ‘Plunder and Protection’, Jamaica Journal 31.3 (12/08), pp. 80–1
- ‘Chapters in Verse’, The Liberal : Poetry, Politics, Culture (Spring 2009), pp. 34–6