David Musselwhite

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''David Musselwhite''' (3 December 1940 – 23 February 2010) was a British literary critic and academic.

== Life == He was born in Bristol and studied first at Cambridge University, then later at the University of Essex, where he subsequently became a Senior Lecturer. He also taught in Argentina, at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and at Curtin University in Western Australia.<ref>{{cite web|last=Reisz |first=Matthew |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410677&c=2 |title=David Musselwhite, 1940-2010 |publisher=Times Higher Education |date= 11 March 2010|accessdate=2010-10-15}}</ref>

He was the author of two books – ''Partings Welded Together: Politics and Desire in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel'' (Methuen, 1987), and ''Social Transformations in Hardy’s Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Both books were widely reviewed, with the latter described by Tim Armstrong as “...a theoretically provocative and fascinating study.” (''The Modern Language Review''<ref>{{citation |title=Social Transformation in Hardy's Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms |publisher=The Modern Language Review |date=January 2006 |author=Tim Armstrong |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7026/is_1_101/ai_n28345122/ |accessdate=2010-10-15}}</ref>) and by Andrew Radford as "...not only accessible to Hardy enthusiasts, but necessary to academic specialists".<ref>''Cambridge Quarterly'', 2004, 33: 4, 386-391</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saltpublishing.com/saltmagazine/issues/03/text/Musselwhite_David_Article.htm |title=David Musselwhite |publisher=Saltpublishing.com |date=2009-02-22 |accessdate=2010-10-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720105709/http://www.saltpublishing.com/saltmagazine/issues/03/text/Musselwhite_David_Article.htm |archivedate=2011-07-20 }}</ref>

He initiated the Essex Sociology of Literature Project at the University of Essex in 1976. This involved a set of conferences that according to literary critic, Terry Eagleton "...have a quasi-mythological status in the minds of some who weren’t even born at the time".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.essex.ac.uk/lifts/soclit/introduction.htm |title=Introduction |publisher=Essex.ac.uk |date=2002-08-05 |accessdate=2010-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110325073959/http://www.essex.ac.uk/lifts/soclit/introduction.htm |archive-date=2011-03-25 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

His main research areas were the English novel, Latin American literature, and the Enlightenment, and he published numerous articles in these fields.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.essex.ac.uk/lifts/archive/people(old)/fellows/davidMusselwhite.aspx |title=Department of Literature, Film, & Theatre Studies |publisher=Essex.ac.uk |date= |accessdate=2010-10-15 }}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== Publications ==

=== Books === ''Partings Welded Together: Politics and Desire in the Nineteenth-Century English Novel'', Methuen, 1987.

''Social Transformations in Hardy's Tragic Novels: Megamachines and Phantasms'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

=== Articles ===

* "El Perseguidor: un modelo para desarmar", ''Nuevos Aires'', No. 8, Buenos Aires, 1972, 23-36 * "El astillero en marcha", ''Nuevos Aires'', No. 11, Buenos Aires, 1973, 3-15 * "Cecilia Valdes", ''New World'', Jamaica, 1973 * "Los Premios entre lo todo y la nada", ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos'', Número 314-315, (Agosto-Septiembre), Madrid, 1976, 520-566 * "La vida y la muerte de Berthe Trepat", ''Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos'', Número 320-21 (Febrero y Marzo), Madrid 1977, 341-359 * "Women in Love: a flawed novel", ''Essays in Poetics'', Vol. I, No. 1 Keele 1976, 48-60 * "Wuthering Heights: the unacceptable text", ''Red Letters'', No. 2, 1976, 3-5 * "Towards a political aesthetics", ''Literature, Society and the Sociology of Literature, Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al., Essex, 1976, 8-17 * "The novel as narcotic", ''Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al. Essex, 1978, 207-224 * "The Trial of Warren Hastings", ''Proceedings of the Essex Conference'', ed. F. Barker et al., Essex, 1982, 226-251 * "Notes on a journey to Vanity Fair", ''Literature and History'', 1982 * "Reflections on Burke's Reflections 1790/1990", in ''The Enlightenment and its Shadows'', ed. Peter Hulme and Ludmilla Jordanova, Methuen, 1990, 142-162 * "Hardy's Mega-Machines", in ''Thomas Hardy: Revista Portuguesa de Estudios Anglo-Americanos'', Oporto, 1992, 69-92 * "Death and the Phantasm: A Reading of Cortázar's 'Babas del diablo!", ''Romance Studies'' 18, June 2000, 57-68 * "Phantasm and Nation: Sarmiento's Facundo", ''New Comparison'' 29 (Spring 2000), 5-26 * "Tess of the d'Urbervilles: 'A Becoming Woman' or Deleuze and Guattari go to Wessex", ''Textual Practice'', 14.3, 2000, 499-518 * "The Colombia of Maria: un paìs de cafres", ''Romance Studies'' Vol. 24 (1), March 2006, 41-54 * "Deleuze Goes to Xanadu", ''Deleuze Studies'', vol. 1 no. 2, Dec 2007, 100-125 * "''Heart of Darkness'': A Minority Report", ''Salt'', issue 3, 2010<ref>{{cite web|url=http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~muss/publications.htm |title=Publications |publisher=Privatewww.essex.ac.uk |accessdate=2010-10-15 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524002225/http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~muss/publications.htm |archivedate=2009-05-24 }}</ref>

== Obituary== * Del Valle Alcalá, Roberto (2010) "David E. Musselwhite, 1940-2010", 'The European English Messenger', 19.2 View entire article in pdf: http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/57457689/Obituaries

== References ==  {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musselwhite, David}} Category:1940 births Category:2010 deaths Category:British literary critics Category:Academics of the University of Essex Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge Category:Academic staff of the University of the West Indies Category:Academic staff of Curtin University