F. R. Leavis

Chris Joyce (University of Cambridge)
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F. R. Leavis was one of the most influential literary critics of the twentieth century, that influence being at its height in the period between the Second War and the 1960s. He lived in Cambridge all his life and taught at the university there from 1925 until his retirement in 1962. After this time he held a number of visiting professorships elsewhere. Despite the passage of time since his period of dominance – during which his name has been in partial eclipse – the mark which he made on the study and teaching of literature remains plainly visible today. This is most obviously so in the continued emphasis on close reading and, more generally, in the broad acceptance of his reassessment of the English literary canon.

4917 words

Citation: Joyce, Chris. "F. R. Leavis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 August 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2661, accessed 28 March 2024.]

2661 F. R. Leavis 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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