{{Short description|French-American writer}} {{more citations needed|date=December 2016}} '''Alain Renoir''' (October 31, 1921 – December 12, 2008) was a French-American literary critic and professor of Medieval literature, son of the filmmaker [[Jean Renoir]] and actress [[Catherine Hessling]], and grandson of the impressionist painter [[Pierre-Auguste Renoir]].
Renoir was born in [[Cagnes-sur-Mer]], the only child of Jean Renoir. As a teenager, he worked in a few of his father's films, including ''House Party'' (1936), and as an assistant cameraman on ''[[La Bête Humaine (film)|The Human Beast]]'' (1938) and ''[[The Rules of the Game]]'' (1939). In 1942, after serving time in the French Army, he joined his father in Los Angeles. His father encouraged him to fight for his new country, and so he enlisted in the American Army and served in combat in the Pacific.
After the war, he studied English and comparative literature at the [[University of California Santa Barbara]], eventually earning his doctorate from [[Harvard University]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2001/07/unique-film-of-impressionist-renoir-at-work-is-found-at-department-of-comparative-literature/|title = Unique film of Impressionist Renoir at work is found at Department of Comparative Literature|date = 19 July 2001}}</ref> where he studied under [[Francis Peabody Magoun]]. It was at Harvard that he was introduced to the work of [[Milman Parry]] and [[Albert Lord]] on the oral-formulaic theory of epic poetry, and he went on to become a passionate proponent of this theory throughout most of his critical works, culminating in his final publication (and sole book), ''A Key to Old Poems: The Oral-Formulaic Approach to the Interpretation of West-Germanic Verse'' (Penn State University Press, 1990)<ref>{{Cite book | url= https://www.amazon.com/Key-Poems-Oral-Formulaic-Interpretation-West-Germanic/dp/0271004827 | title = A Key to Old Poems: The Oral-Formulaic Approach to the Interpretation of West-Germanic Verse. |isbn = 978-0271004822|last1 = Renoir|first1 = Alain|date = 1990|publisher = Penn State University Press}}.</ref>
In 1956, Renoir became a professor of the Department of English at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], the institution where he was to remain for the rest of his career. In 1966, he founded the Department of Comparative Literature<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J3qNgjUxCQC&pg=PA296 |title = Enlarging America: The Cultural Work of Jewish Literary Scholars, 1930-1990|isbn = 9780815605409|last1 = Klingenstein|first1 = Susanne|date = December 1998| publisher=Syracuse University Press }}</ref> but returned to the Department of English some dozen years later. He was considered a leading scholar of medieval, and particularly, Old English, literature, and published many articles on ''[[Beowulf]]'' and other Old and Middle English poetry. In 1992, the oral-formulaic scholar [[John Miles Foley]] honored Renoir with the ''festschrift'', ''De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir''.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_tfQgAACAAJ |title = De Gustibus: Essays for Alain Renoir. |isbn = 0815303955|last1 = Foley|first1 = John M.|date = 1992|publisher = Garland }}</ref>
After retiring from UC Berkeley in 1988, Renoir spent his last years running a small sustainable farm in north central California, doing much of the work himself.
With his wife, Jane, he had three children, John, Peter, and Anne.
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003839/bio IMDb database bio]
{{Jean Renoir}} {{Pierre-Auguste Renoir|state=collapsed}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Renoir, Alain}} [[Category:1921 births]] [[Category:2008 deaths]] [[Category:People from Cagnes-sur-Mer]] [[Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:French emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:Renoir family|Alain]]