Austin Warren
Encyclopedia
Austin Warren was an American literary critic, author, and professor of English.
on July 4, 1899 as the elder of two sons by Edward Austin Warren, city alderman of Waltham and expert butcher, and Nellie Myra Anderson Warren. He attended public grammar school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts
and briefly attended Waltham High School, where he received instruction in Latin and studied Esperanto
independently. At the age of thirteen, Warren and his family relocated to a lonely farm in Stow, Massachusetts
. He attended Hale High School and received additional training in Latin; he would later consider this instruction responsible for his classical major at college.
Warren entered Wesleyan University
unenthusiastically in the fall of 1916. There he discovered the works of Jane Austen
, Emily Dickinson
, and Emanuel Swedenborg
. As a senior he dabbled in writing poetry and criticism and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; at his commencement, he was class poet. He graduated with a major in Latin and a minor in English.
Warren entered the Graduate School of Harvard University
in the fall of 1921. There he studied Romanticism
with Irving Babbitt
, whom he admired greatly. In the fall of 1922, Warren entered the Graduate College of Princeton University
where he received a Ph.D. in 1926 for his doctoral dissertation, titled Pope as Literary Critic, under the direction of Robert Wilbur Root.
hired him as an instructor of English. After his year at Harvard
, he taught at the University of Minnesota
. While he was a graduate student at Princeton
, Warren cofounded St. Peter's School of Liberal and Humane Studies with Benny Bissell, a fellow young academic, and served as dean for two weeks during each summer until 1931.
Warren began teaching at Boston University
's College of Practical Arts and Letters in 1926. In 1930 he left Boston to study for a year in London on a fellowship founded by the American Council of Learned Societies
. He worked part-time at the British Museum
and made progress on the works he later published as Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility and Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist. Warren made the acquaintances of T. S. Eliot
and Evelyn Underhill
before returning to Boston University in the fall of 1931, where he became a Professor of English before his departure in 1939.
In 1939 Warren joined the English Department of the University of Iowa
to teach criticism and the history of criticism. He married Eleanor Blake on September 13, 1941 and soon met René Wellek
, with whom he collaborated on A Theory of Literature from 1944 to 1946, though Eleanor Blake's death in January 1946 interfered with the book's production schedule. He befriended Allen Tate
in 1947 before leaving for the University of Michigan
in the fall of 1948.
Warren taught at the University of Michigan for twenty years. During this period he was Fellow of the Kenyon
School of English during the summers of 1948-1950, a Senior Fellow of Indiana University
's School of Letters from 1950 to 1964 and New York University
's Berg Visiting Professor of English from 1953 to 1954. In 1951 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
. On September 5, 1959 he married Antonia Degen Keese. Warren retired from the University of Michigan in 1968. He was known for his then-revolutionary abandonment of the formal lecture.
in 1970. He received a Literary Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973, an Honorary Litt.D. from Brown University
in 1974, and was offered membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1975. He lived in Providence until his death on August 20, 1986. He was 87 years old and was survived by his wife, Antonia.
" and did not disagree with his contemporary structuralist
critics, though he modestly confessed that he did not always understand them. Despite this self-description, Warren was independent in his critical views, often refusing to approach literature from any one set of theoretical methodology. He was not a religious critic, but he often approached works in the contexts of spirituality and Christianity.
In a preface to his essay collection, Connections, Warren professed his critical stance:
Warren's generalism, however, was not entirely undecided. He expressed ideals commonly referred to by other New Critics of his time when he said that "The final necessity for the critic is, ideally, space and time for withdrawal, for critical distancing; absorption, withdrawal, often repeated, are constantly procedures of criticism."
, Warren authored the landmark classic Theory of Literature in 1944-46, an influential and comprehensive analysis of the American New Criticism
movement. According to Wellek, the work was written with the idea between Warren and himself that “we should rather combine our forces to produce a book which would formulate a theory of literature with an emphasis on the aesthetic fact which cannot be divorced from evaluation and hence from criticism.”
Wellek contributed insights he acquired from his familiarities with Russian formalism
, the Prague Linguistic Circle
, the phenomenology of Roman Ingarden
, and the movements of German Geistesgeschichte
and stylistics. Warren’s contributions to the work stemmed from his knowledge of American New Criticism
, aesthetics
, and the history of criticism. Harcourt, Brace and Company published Theory of Literature in December 1948 with an imprint of 1949, and at the time of the publication of Teacher & Critic: Essays by and about Austin Warren, it had been translated into eighteen languages (Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Hebrew, Danish, Serbocroat, modern Greek, Swedish, Rumanian, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, French, and Hungarian, in order).
The work encompasses "definitions and distinctions" of the natures and functions of literature; literary theory, criticism, and history; and general, comparative, and national literature. Warren and Wellek discuss an extrinsic approach to the study of literature involving approaching literature from perspectives of biography, psychology, society, ideas, and other arts. Theory of Literature also discusses an intrinsic approach to studying literature, discussing the use of devices such as euphony, rhythm, meter, stylistics, imagery, metaphor, symbols, and myth. The work concludes with a discussion of literary genres, history, and the study of literature in the graduate school.
Since its publication, Terence B. Spencer, a former Director of the Shakespeare Institute
at University of Birmingham
, has testified that it “broke our [English] resistance to literary concepts and woke us from our lethargy.” Allen Tate
has professed that “Theory of Literature has done more towards civilizing the teaching of literature than any other work of our time.”
Childhood and Education
Edward Austin Warren Jr. was born in Waltham, MassachusettsWaltham, Massachusetts
Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, was an early center for the labor movement, and major contributor to the American Industrial Revolution. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th century industrial city planning,...
on July 4, 1899 as the elder of two sons by Edward Austin Warren, city alderman of Waltham and expert butcher, and Nellie Myra Anderson Warren. He attended public grammar school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,546 people, 1,929 households, and 1,541 families residing in the town. The population density was 143.4 people per square mile . There were 2,204 housing units at an average density of 57.0 per square mile...
and briefly attended Waltham High School, where he received instruction in Latin and studied Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
independently. At the age of thirteen, Warren and his family relocated to a lonely farm in Stow, Massachusetts
Stow, Massachusetts
Stow is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,590 at the 2010 census.- History :Stow was first settled c. 1660 by Matthew Boon and John Kettell...
. He attended Hale High School and received additional training in Latin; he would later consider this instruction responsible for his classical major at college.
Warren entered Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...
unenthusiastically in the fall of 1916. There he discovered the works of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
, and Emanuel Swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
. As a senior he dabbled in writing poetry and criticism and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; at his commencement, he was class poet. He graduated with a major in Latin and a minor in English.
Warren entered the Graduate School of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in the fall of 1921. There he studied Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
with Irving Babbitt
Irving Babbitt
Irving Babbitt was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period between 1910 to 1930...
, whom he admired greatly. In the fall of 1922, Warren entered the Graduate College 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....
where he received a Ph.D. in 1926 for his doctoral dissertation, titled Pope as Literary Critic, under the direction of Robert Wilbur Root.
Warren as an educator
When Warren was 21 years old the University of KentuckyUniversity of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
hired him as an instructor of English. After his year at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, he taught at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
. While he was a graduate student at Princeton
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....
, Warren cofounded St. Peter's School of Liberal and Humane Studies with Benny Bissell, a fellow young academic, and served as dean for two weeks during each summer until 1931.
Warren began teaching at Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
's College of Practical Arts and Letters in 1926. In 1930 he left Boston to study for a year in London on a fellowship founded by the American Council of Learned Societies
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies , founded in 1919, is a private nonprofit federation of seventy scholarly organizations.ACLS is best known as a funder of humanities research through fellowships and grants awards. ACLS Fellowships are designed to permit scholars holding the Ph.D...
. He worked part-time at the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
and made progress on the works he later published as Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility and Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist. Warren made the acquaintances of 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...
and Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill
Evelyn Underhill was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual practice, in particular Christian mysticism....
before returning to Boston University in the fall of 1931, where he became a Professor of English before his departure in 1939.
In 1939 Warren joined the English Department of the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
to teach criticism and the history of criticism. He married Eleanor Blake on September 13, 1941 and soon met René Wellek
René Wellek
René Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and "fair-minded critic of critics."René Wellek was born and raised in Vienna, speaking Czech and German...
, with whom he collaborated on A Theory of Literature from 1944 to 1946, though Eleanor Blake's death in January 1946 interfered with the book's production schedule. He befriended Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
in 1947 before leaving for the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in the fall of 1948.
Warren taught at the University of Michigan for twenty years. During this period he was Fellow of the Kenyon
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...
School of English during the summers of 1948-1950, a Senior Fellow of Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
's School of Letters from 1950 to 1964 and New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
's Berg Visiting Professor of English from 1953 to 1954. In 1951 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. On September 5, 1959 he married Antonia Degen Keese. Warren retired from the University of Michigan in 1968. He was known for his then-revolutionary abandonment of the formal lecture.
Later life
Warren moved to Providence, Rhode IslandProvidence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
in 1970. He received a Literary Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1973, an Honorary Litt.D. from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
in 1974, and was offered membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1975. He lived in Providence until his death on August 20, 1986. He was 87 years old and was survived by his wife, Antonia.
Warren as Critic
Generally, Warren described himself as an "old New CriticNew Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
" and did not disagree with his contemporary structuralist
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
critics, though he modestly confessed that he did not always understand them. Despite this self-description, Warren was independent in his critical views, often refusing to approach literature from any one set of theoretical methodology. He was not a religious critic, but he often approached works in the contexts of spirituality and Christianity.
In a preface to his essay collection, Connections, Warren professed his critical stance:
As a literary critic, I have no "method," no specialty, but am what is called, in another discipline, a "general practitioner" . . . I look through my repertory for the methods and the mixture of methods appropriate to the case before me—in consequence of which the proportion of stylistic analysis to biographical, or biographical to ideological, will be found to vary from essay to essay.
Warren's generalism, however, was not entirely undecided. He expressed ideals commonly referred to by other New Critics of his time when he said that "The final necessity for the critic is, ideally, space and time for withdrawal, for critical distancing; absorption, withdrawal, often repeated, are constantly procedures of criticism."
Theory of Literature
With René WellekRené Wellek
René Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and "fair-minded critic of critics."René Wellek was born and raised in Vienna, speaking Czech and German...
, Warren authored the landmark classic Theory of Literature in 1944-46, an influential and comprehensive analysis of the American New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
movement. According to Wellek, the work was written with the idea between Warren and himself that “we should rather combine our forces to produce a book which would formulate a theory of literature with an emphasis on the aesthetic fact which cannot be divorced from evaluation and hence from criticism.”
Wellek contributed insights he acquired from his familiarities with Russian formalism
Russian formalism
Russian formalism was an influential school of literary criticism in Russia from the 1910s to the 1930s. It includes the work of a number of highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars such as Viktor Shklovsky, Yuri Tynianov, Vladimir Propp, Boris Eichenbaum, Roman Jakobson, Grigory Vinokur who...
, the Prague Linguistic Circle
Prague linguistic circle
The Prague school or the Prague linguistic circle was an influential group of literary critics and linguists in Prague. Its proponents developed methods of structuralist literary analysis during the years 1928–1939. It has had significant continuing influence on linguistics and semiotics...
, the phenomenology of Roman Ingarden
Roman Ingarden
Roman Witold Ingarden was a Polish philosopher who worked in phenomenology, ontology and aesthetics.Before World War II, Ingarden published his works mainly in the German language...
, and the movements of German Geistesgeschichte
Geistesgeschichte
Geistesgeschichte , a concept in the history of ideas denoting the branch of study concerned with the undercurrents of cultural manifestations, within the history of a people, that are peculiar to a specific timeframe...
and stylistics. Warren’s contributions to the work stemmed from his knowledge of American New Criticism
New Criticism
New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic...
, aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
, and the history of criticism. Harcourt, Brace and Company published Theory of Literature in December 1948 with an imprint of 1949, and at the time of the publication of Teacher & Critic: Essays by and about Austin Warren, it had been translated into eighteen languages (Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, German, Portuguese, Hebrew, Danish, Serbocroat, modern Greek, Swedish, Rumanian, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, French, and Hungarian, in order).
The work encompasses "definitions and distinctions" of the natures and functions of literature; literary theory, criticism, and history; and general, comparative, and national literature. Warren and Wellek discuss an extrinsic approach to the study of literature involving approaching literature from perspectives of biography, psychology, society, ideas, and other arts. Theory of Literature also discusses an intrinsic approach to studying literature, discussing the use of devices such as euphony, rhythm, meter, stylistics, imagery, metaphor, symbols, and myth. The work concludes with a discussion of literary genres, history, and the study of literature in the graduate school.
Since its publication, Terence B. Spencer, a former Director of the Shakespeare Institute
Shakespeare Institute
The Shakespeare Institute is a centre for postgraduate study dedicated to the study of William Shakespeare and the literature of the English Renaissance. It is part of the University of Birmingham, and is located in Stratford-upon-Avon....
at University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, has testified that it “broke our [English] resistance to literary concepts and woke us from our lethargy.” Allen Tate
Allen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
has professed that “Theory of Literature has done more towards civilizing the teaching of literature than any other work of our time.”
Selected bibliography
- Alexander Pope as Critic and Humanist (1929)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne: Representative Selections (editor) (1934)
- The Elder Henry James (1934)
- Richard Crashaw: A Study in the Baroque Sensibility (1939)
- Literary Scholarship: Its Aims and Methods (with Norman Foerster, J. C. McGalliard, René WellekRené WellekRené Wellek was a Czech-American comparative literary critic. Like Erich Auerbach, Wellek was an eminent product of the Central European philological tradition and was known as a vastly erudite and "fair-minded critic of critics."René Wellek was born and raised in Vienna, speaking Czech and German...
, W. L. Schramm) (1941) - Rage for Order: Essays in Criticism (1948)
- Theory of Literature (with René Wellek) (1949)
- New England Saints (1956)
- The New England Conscience (1966)
- They Will Remain: Poems by Susan Pendleton (editor) (1966)
- Connections (1970)
- Teacher and Critic: Essays by and about Austin Warren (edited by Myron Simon and Harvey Gross) (1976)
- Becoming What One Is, 1899-1936 (1995)
- In Continuity: The Last Essays of Austin Warren (introduced and edited by George A. Panichas) (1996)