Eugène Vinaver
Eugène Vinaver | |
---|---|
Евгений Максимович Винавер | |
![]() Vinaver in 1930 | |
Born | Yevgeniĭ Maksimovich Vinaver 18 June 1899 Saint Petersburg, Russia |
Died | July 21, 1979 Kent, England | (aged 80)
Spouse |
Elizabeth Malet Vaudrey
(m. 1939) |
Children | 1 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Oxford University |
Thesis | Le Roman de Tristan et Iseut dans l'oeuvre de Thomas Malory (1925) |
Doctoral advisor | Joseph Bédier and Alfred Jeanroy |
Other advisors | Mildred Pope |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Medieval literature |
Sub-discipline | Chivalric romance, Arthurian literature |
Institutions | University of Manchester |
Notable works | Le Morte d'Arthur |
Eugène Vinaver (Russian: Евгений Максимович Винавер Yevgeniĭ Maksimovich Vinaver, 18 June 1899 – 21 July 1979) was a Russian-born British literary scholar who is best known today for his edition of the works of Sir Thomas Malory.
Early life
[edit]Vinaver was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of Jewish-Russian lawyer, national politician,[1] and Jewish community leader[2] Maxim Vinaver, who emigrated to France in 1919.[3]
Eugene Vinaver studied at the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, where he was a pupil of Joseph Bédier.
Life in England
[edit]From the late 1920s, he lived in England (one of his teachers was Mildred Pope[4]) and in 1933 he was appointed Professor of French Language and Literature at the University of Manchester. He received his doctorate from Oxford University in 1950.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ce/Truro_1930_photo_1_Arthurian_Society_photographer_unknown.jpg/220px-Truro_1930_photo_1_Arthurian_Society_photographer_unknown.jpg)
In 1928, Vinaver founded in Oxford the Arthurian Society, which published two volumes under the title Arthuriana (1929, 1930). This society was renamed the Society for the Study of the Medieval Languages and Literatures. Arthuriana became Medium Aevum. In 1948, the International Arthurian Society was organized by Eugène Vinaver and Jean Frappier.
In 1947, Eugène Vinaver published a new edition of Malory's Morte d'Arthur, based on the 15th-century Winchester Manuscript which W.F. Oakeshott had discovered in the Fellows' Library at Winchester College in 1934. He noted the structural differences between the text in the manuscript and Caxton's edition of Morte d'Arthur, such as chapter headings and divisions, and wording changes.
In addition to his interest in Arthurian legend, Vinaver was also a recognised authority on Racine and Flaubert.
Vinaver was a correspondent member of the British Academy, laureate of the French Academy of Sciences, and the Medieval Academy of America, and a foreign member of Académie royale de langue et de littérature française of Belgium. He was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor.
Vinaver died in Kent on 21 July 1979 of malignant lymphoma.[5]
Selected works
[edit]- French translation of the Russian lyrics to Lazare Saminsky's opera La Galliarde d'une Peste Joyeuse,[6] 1924
- The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (three volumes), 1947, 1967 (second edition)
- The Works of Sir Thomas Malory (one volume), 1954
- Form and Meaning in Medieval Romance, 1966
- À la recherche d'une poétique médiévale, 1970
- The Rise of Romance, 1971
References
[edit]- ^ Sophie Dubnov-Erlich (1991). The Life and Work of S.M. Dubnov: Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish History. The Modern Jewish Experience. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-253-31836-7. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
- ^ Robert M. Seltzer (2013). Simon Dubnow's New Judaism: Diaspora Nationalism and the World History of the Jews. Supplements to the Journal of Jewish Thought and Philosophy (Book 21). Leiden: Brill. p. 140. ISBN 9789004260528.
- ^ David Bradby (1993). The Theater of Michel Vinaver. Theater: Theory/Text/Performance. University of Michigan Press. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-472-10326-3. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
- ^ Kennedy, Elspeth (2005). "Mildred K. Pope (1872–1956): Anglo-Norman Scholar". In Jane Chance (ed.). Women medievalists and the academy. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 147–56. ISBN 978-0-299-20750-2.
- ^ Yee, Pamela M. (2013). Eugène Vinaver's Magnificent Malory: Exhibit Guide (pamphlet). Rochester, Michigan: Rossell Hope Robbins Library. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ La Galliarde d'une peste joyeuse (the Gagliarda of a merry plague) opéra-ballet en un acte. Partition, pour piano. Paris: éditions, Maurice Sénart. 1926.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- Biography (in French)
- International Arthurian Society; Archives of the Society
- Writers from Paris
- 1899 births
- 1979 deaths
- French scholars
- Arthurian scholars
- University of Paris alumni
- Jews from the Russian Empire
- French medievalists
- École pratique des hautes études alumni
- Comparative literature academics
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature)
- Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France
- Academics of the University of Manchester
- Scholars of English literature
- Knights of the Legion of Honour
- Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America
- Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
- British academic biography stubs
- French academic biography stubs