Prof Stefan Collini, Clare Hall

sc107@cam.ac.uk

 

Biographical Information

Stefan Collini is Professor Emeritus of Intellectual History and English Literature.  After degrees at Cambridge and Yale, he taught at the University of Sussex before moving to a post in the Faculty in 1986, retiring as Professor in 2014.  He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a frequent contributor to The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, The Nation, and other periodicals, and an occasional broadcaster.

Research Interests

Professor Collini’s work deals with the relations between literature and intellectual history in Britain from the mid nineteenth century to the present.  He has published extensively on the question of intellectuals, on forms of cultural criticism, and on the role of critics in public debate, including recent work on such figures as T.S. Eliot, F.R. Leavis, George Orwell, William Empson, and Raymond Williams.  His current research focuses on the history of ‘English’ as an academic discipline. He has also contributed to public discussion about the role of universities, including critiques of recent higher education policy.

Selected Publications

• George Orwell, Selected Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press [‘Oxford World’s Classics’], 2021), edition with introduction, note on the text, chronology, further reading, explanatory notes, etc.
  
  (with Helen Thaventhiran) William Empson, The Structure of Complex Words and Related Writings (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020), edition with introduction), note on the text, commentary, textual notes, etc
  
  The Nostalgic Imagination: History in English Criticism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019 [pbk 2020]), pp.x + 246
      
  Speaking of Universities (London: Verso, 2017 [pbk 2018]), pp.ii  + 296
      
  Common Writing: Essays on Literary Culture and Public Debate (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 [pbk 2018]), pp.viii + 354
  Essays in Criticism, 52 (2002), 101-125