{{Short description|American literary critic, author, and academic}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata |fetchwikidata=ALL |noicon=on |dateformat=mdy }} '''Rachel M. Brownstein''' (born 1937) is an American feminist literary critic, author, and academic.<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite web |title=Rachel M. Brownstein |url=https://www.britannica.com/contributor/Rachel-M-Brownstein/9428565 |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=Britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Early life == Rachel M. Brownstein was born in Manhattan, was graduated from Hunter College High School and Barnard College, and received her PhD in English from Yale University.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Rachel M. Brownstein |publisher=CUNY Graduate Center |url=https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/rachel-m-brownstein |access-date=23 October 2023}}</ref>

== Academic career == Brownstein is an emeritus professor of English at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Cheryl |title=The Divine Miss Jane: A review of Why Jane Austen?, by Rachel M. Brownstein |url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-divine-miss-jane/ |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=Claremont Review of Books |language=en-US}}</ref> She is known for her contributions to the field of English literature and her work on the novel, particularly the 18th and 19th century British novel. Her research and writing have focused on various aspects of literature, including narrative theory, women writers, and the intersections of literature and culture.

She is the author of four books, ''Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels'';<ref>{{Cite web |title=Becoming a heroine : reading about women in novels / Rachel M. Brownstein – Catalogue {{!}} National Library of Australia |url=https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1749902 |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=catalogue.nla.gov.au |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Margolis |first1=Anne T. |date=April 1984 |title=Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels . Rachel M. Brownstein Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth . Nina Auerbach |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=493–496 |doi=10.1086/494074}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Alden |first1=Patricia |date=1985 |title=Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels, and: The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelly, and Jane Austen, and: Writing Woman: Women Writers and Women in Literature, Medieval to Modern (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/428535/summary |journal=Minnesota Review |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=152–155 |issn=2157-4189}}</ref> ''Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française'';<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ferris |first1=Lesley |last2=Henneke |date=October 1994 |title=Review: [Untitled] |journal=Theatre Journal |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=432 |doi=10.2307/3208633|jstor=3208633 }}</ref> ''Why Jane Austen?'';<ref>{{Cite news |last=Seymour |first=Miranda |date=2011-06-10 |title=Lessons From Jane Austen |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-a-jane-austen-education-and-why-jane-austen.html |access-date=2023-10-27 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Brownstein |first=Rachel |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-jane-austen/9780231153904 |title=Why Jane Austen? |date=2011 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-52724-8}}</ref> and ''American Born: an Immigrant's Story, a Daughter's Memoir''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel M. Brownstein |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/B/R/au102127728.html |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=University of Chicago Press |language=en}}</ref><ref name="auto" /> She was a MacDowell Foundation fellow (1980)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rachel Brownstein – Artist |url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/rachel-brownstein |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=MacDowell |language=en}}</ref> and spent a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Center in Bellagio, Italy (1996). She was a fellow at the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University (2016–2017). In 1993, she received the George Freedley Award from the Theatre Library Association for ''Tragic Muse'' and it was listed as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review.<ref>{{cite news |title=Freedley Awards 1969–Present |publisher=Theater Library Association |url=https://www.tla-online.org/awards/bookawards/freedley-award-winners/ |access-date=24 October 2023 }}</ref>

She is considered a foundational feminist literary critic and a leading scholar of Jane Austen's works.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lessons From Jane Austen |first=Miranda |last=Seymour |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 10, 2011 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-a-jane-austen-education-and-why-jane-austen.html?_r=1&ref=review |access-date=24 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Woman Who Was France |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 2, 1993 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/02/books/the-woman-who-was-france.html |access-date=24 October 2023 |last1=Martin |first1=Julie }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Read |first=Bridget |date=19 October 2017 |title=Barack Obama's (Slightly Cringeworthy) College Love Letters Are Exactly What You Need Today |url=https://www.vogue.com/article/barack-obama-college-love-letters-emory-university-library |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=Vogue |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Selected publications == *{{Cite book |last=Brownstein |first=Rachel M. |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/becoming-a-heroine/9780231100007 |title=Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels |date= May 1994|publisher=Viking 1982, Penguin 1984, Columbia U. Press 1994 |isbn= 978-0-231-10000-7|edition= |language=en}} *{{Cite book |last=Brownstein |first=Rachel M. |title=Tragic Muse: Rachel of the Comédie-Française |date= |url=https://www.dukeupress.edu/tragic-muse |publisher=Knopf 1993, Duke U. Press 1995 |isbn=978-0-394-57451-6}} *{{Cite book |last=Brownstein |first=Rachel M. |url=http://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-jane-austen/9780231153904 |title=Why Jane Austen? |date=2022 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-52724-8}} *{{Cite book |last=Brownstein |first=Rachel M. |title=American Born: an Immigrant's Story, a Daughter's Memoir |date=2023 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/B/R/au102127728.html |isbn=978-0226823065}}

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownstein, Rachel M.}} Category:Living people Category:1937 births Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:American feminist writers Category:American women literary critics Category:Barnard College alumni Category:Brooklyn College faculty Category:Hunter College alumni Category:Writers from Queens, New York Category:Yale University alumni