{{Short description|British literary critic and theorist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{like resume|date=January 2015}} {{Infobox academic | name = Robert Eaglestone | birth_name = Robert Alexander Aldhelm Eaglestone | honorific_suffix = | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1968}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | nationality = | other_names = | education = | thesis_title = Emmanuel Lévinas and the ethics of criticism | thesis_url = https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683154 | thesis_year = 1995 | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * [[University of Manchester]] (BA)<ref name=pure/> * [[University of Southampton]] (MA)<ref name=pure/> * [[University of Wales, Lampeter]] (PhD)<ref name=eaglephd/>}} | occupation = Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought | years_active = | workplaces = [[Royal Holloway, University of London]] | agent = | known_for = [[Literary theory]], contemporary fiction, ethics | notable_works = ''Doing English: A Guide for Literature Students'', ''The Holocaust and the Postmodern'' | style = | influences = | influenced = | home_town = | television = | religion = | spouse = [[Poppy Corbett]]{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | awards = [[National Teaching Fellowship]] (2014)<ref name=ntfs>{{Cite web|url=https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/ntfs/professor-robert-eaglestone|title=Professor Robert Eaglestone | Advance HE|website=www.advance-he.ac.uk}}</ref> | website = {{URL|https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/robert-eaglestone(fb218d7c-da01-4aa8-84e0-09b5c5aec566).html}} }} '''Robert Eaglestone''' (born 1968){{citation needed|date=July 2021}} is a British literary critic and theorist. He is Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought in the Department of English at [[Royal Holloway, University of London]]. He works on [[contemporary literature]], [[literary theory]] and [[Contemporary philosophy|contemporary European philosophy]], and on [[Holocaust]] and [[genocide studies]]. He edits the ''Routledge Critical Thinkers'' series.<ref>{{cite web|last=Renfrew |first=Alastair |url=http://www.routledge.com/books/series/se0370/ |title=Critical Thinkers (Book Series) |publisher=Routledge |date= |accessdate=2014-02-17}} {{ISBN missing}}</ref><ref name="pure">{{Cite web|title=Professor Robert Eaglestone|url=https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/robert-eaglestone(fb218d7c-da01-4aa8-84e0-09b5c5aec566).html}}</ref>
In 2014, Eaglestone was the recipient of a [[National Teaching Fellowship]], among the highest awards for pedagogy at university level in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/national-teaching-fellows-announced/2013924.article|title = National Teaching Fellows announced|date = 2014-06-12|accessdate = 2015-12-31|website = Times Higher Education|publisher = TLS Group|last = Grove|first = Jack}}</ref> He was elected a fellow of the English Association in 2017.<ref name="English Assiociation Fellows">{{cite web |title=English Association Fellows |url=https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/fellowship/list |website=Leicester University English Association |accessdate=27 October 2019 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417112143/https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/english-association/fellowship/list/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Eaglestone also serves as a media commentator<ref>{{cite web |title=In Our Time - Hannah Arendt |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c2ljg |website=BBC Radio 4 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Great Lives - Elie Wiesel |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084x6m8 |website=BBC Radio 4 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref> and reviewer.<ref>{{cite web |title=Author Robert Eaglestone |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/author/robert-eaglestone |website=Times Higher Education |date=31 July 2015 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref>
==Education== Eaglestone was educated at the [[University of Manchester]] where he was awarded a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree<ref name=pure/> and the [[University of Southampton]] where he was awarded a [[Master of Arts]] degree.<ref name=pure/> He was awarded a [[PhD]] by the [[University of Wales, Lampeter]] in 1995 for research on [[Emmanuel Levinas]].<ref name=eaglephd>{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Wales Lampeter|url=https://discover.library.wales/permalink/f/1norb00/44NLW_ALMA21841330160002419|doi=|title=Emmanuel Lévinas and the ethics of criticism|first= Robert Alexander Aldhelm|last=Eaglestone|date=1995|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.683154}}|website=discover.library.wales|oclc=669700018|hdl=}}</ref>
==Career and research== Eaglestone has published books on fiction and the relationship between literature, ethics and history, ''Ethical Criticism: Reading After Levinas'' (1997), ''The Holocaust and the Postmodern'' (2004),<ref>{{cite web |title=The Holocaust and the Postmodern |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199265930.001.0001/acprof-9780199265930 |website=University Press Scholarship Online |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref> ''The Broken Voice: Reading Post-Holocaust Literature'' (2017)<ref>{{cite web |title=The Broken Voice: Reading Post Holocaust Literature |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198778363.001.0001/oso-9780198778363 |website=University Press Scholarship Online |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref> and articles on [[Martin Heidegger]], [[Emmanuel Levinas]], [[Hannah Arendt]] and [[Jacques Derrida]]. He has also edited books on [[Salman Rushdie]], [[J. M. Coetzee]] and on [[contemporary literature]].
Eaglestone is also the author of a textbook, ''Doing English: a Guide for Literature Students'' (4th ed 2017) (US edition: ''Studying Literature''). He has written about textbooks for AdvanceHE.<ref>{{cite web |title=Textbook Cinderellas: how metacognition takes a worn format to the ball |url=https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/textbook-cinderellas-how-metacognition-takes-worn-format-ball |website=AdvanceHE |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref>
Eaglestone edited a book on [[Brexit]], ''Brexit and Literature: Critical and Cultural Responses'' (2018), stating that Brexit is "a political, economic and administrative event: and it is a cultural one, too".<ref>{{cite web |title=Brexit and Literature: Critical and Cultural Responses |url=https://www.routledge.com/Brexit-and-Literature-Critical-and-Cultural-Responses-1st-Edition/Eaglestone/p/book/9780815376699 |website=Routledge |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref> He coined the term 'cruel nostalgia'<ref>{{cite web |title=Brexit and Literature: a year from Article 50 |url=https://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2018/03/brexit-and-literature-a-year-from-article-50/ |website=Backdoor Broadcasting Company - Academic Podcasts |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref> in this context.
Eaglestone is concerned with the condition of literature studies: on this, he published ''Literature: Why it matters'' (2019) and a co-edited collection with [https://www.reading.ac.uk/english-literature/aboutus/Staff/g-marshall.aspx Gail Marshall] ''English: Shared Futures'' (2018).
Eaglestone is a commentator in the national press on the study on literature<ref>{{cite news |title=English A-level suffers collapse in student numbers as teachers blame tougher GCSEs |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/13/english-a-level-suffers-collapse-student-numbers-teachers-blame/ |accessdate=27 October 2019 |date=14 August 2019}}</ref> at school and in Higher Education.<ref>{{cite news|author=Fernando Gil Díaz |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/english-why-the-discipline-may-not-be-too-big-to-fail/2008473.fullarticle |title=English: why the discipline may not be 'too big to fail' |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |date=2013-10-31 |accessdate=2014-02-17}}</ref> In ''English and its teachers: a history of Policy, Pedagogy and Practice'', Simon Gibbons writes that "Eaglestone was not simply an ivory-towered academic seeking to shore up his own position - he had consistently demonstrated his commitment to effective teaching in secondary schools".<ref>{{cite book |title=Simon Gibbons, English and its teachers: a history of Policy, Pedagogy and Practice |date=2017 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=9781138948938 |page=119 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315669366 |accessdate=27 October 2019}}</ref>
==Personal life== Eaglestone is married to [[Poppy Corbett]] and lives in [[Streatham|Streatham, London]].{{citation needed|date=July 2021}} He has two children from his first marriage.{{citation needed|date=July 2021}}
===Published books=== His publications<ref name=gs>{{Google scholar id}}</ref> include:
* ''Literature: Why It Matters'' (Cambridge: Polity, 2019) * ''The Broken Voice: Reading Post-Holocaust Literature'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017) * ''Contemporary Fiction: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) * ''Doing English: A Guide for Literature Students – fourth revised edition'' (London: Routledge, 2017) Japanese translation 2003. Arabic translation 2013. * ''The Holocaust and the Postmodern''<ref>The Holocaust and the Postmodern (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Japanese translation 2013.</ref> * ''Postmodernism and Holocaust Denial'' (Cambridge: Icon Books, 2001). Slovak translation, 2001; Turkish Translation, 2002; Japanese Translation 2004; Greek translation 2013. * ''Doing English: A Guide for Literature Students'' (London: Routledge, 1999). * ''Ethical Criticism: Reading After Levinas'' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997).
===As editor and co-editor=== * with Dan O'Gorman ''The Routledge Companion to Twenty First Century Literary Fiction'' (London: Routledge, 2019). * with Gail Marshall ''English: Shared Futures'' (English Association Essays and Studies, Boydell and Brewer, 2018). * ''Brexit and Literature: Critical and Cultural Responses'' (London: Routledge, 2018). * with Gert Buelens and Sam Durrant ''The Future of Trauma Theory'': Contemporary Literary and Cultural Criticism (London: Routledge, 2013). * with Martin MacQuillan, ''Salman Rushdie: Bloomsbury Contemporary Critical Perspectives'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2013). * ''Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Literary and Cultural Theory Volume 2'' (1966 to Present day) (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010). * with Elleke Boehmer and Katy Iddiols ''J.M. Coetzee in Context and Theory'' (London: Continuum, 2009). * with Simon Glendinning, ''Derrida's Legacies: Literature and Philosophy'' (London: Routledge, 2008). * with Barry Langford ''Teaching Holocaust Literature and Film'' (London: Palgrave, 2008). * ''Reading The Lord of the Rings'' (London: Continuum, 2005).
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eaglestone, Robert}} [[Category:1968 births]] [[Category:Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:British literary theorists]] [[Category:Scholars of contemporary philosophy]] [[Category:British academics of English literature]]