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Arnold L. Weinstein

Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor:
Comparative Literature
Phone:
Arnold_Weinstein@brown.edu

Arnold Weinstein researches European and American narrative, Scandinavian literature, American fiction, literature and medicine, and the city theme in literature. His publications include Vision and Response in Modern Fiction (Cornell University Press, 1974), Fictions of the Self: 1550-1800 (Princeton University Press, 1981), The Fiction of Relationship (Princeton, 1988), Nobody's Home: Speech, Self and Place in American Fiction from Hawthorne to DeLillo (Oxford University Press, 2003), A Scream Goes Through the House: What Literature Teaches Us About Life (Random House, 2003), Recovering Your Story: Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Morrison (Random House, 2006).

Biography

Arnold Weinstein received his B.A. in Romance Languages from Princeton University (1962), and both his M.A. (1964) and Ph.D. (1968) in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. He studied at the Université de Paris (1960-61), the Freie Universität Berlin (1962-63) and the Université de Lyon (1966-67). His doctoral thesis dealt with the impact of William Faulkner's novels on the French nouveau roman. Professor Weinstein came to Brown University in 1968: his initial appointment was in the French Department, but soon his full-time appointment was in the Department of Comparative Literature. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1973, to Full Professor in 1978, He was named to the Henry Merritt Wriston Chair in 1990, and he became the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature in 1995.

Professor Weinstein's books include Vision and Response in Modern Fiction (Cornell UP, 1974), Fictions of the Self: 1550-1800 (Princeton UP, 1981), The Fiction of Relationship (Princeton UP, 1988), Nobody's Home: Speech, Self and Place in American Fiction from Hawthorne to DeLillo (Oxford UP, 1993), A Scream Goes Through the House: What Literature Teaches Us About Life (Random House, 2003), and Recovering Your Story: Proust, Joyce, Woolf, Faulkner, Morrison (Random House, 2006). He has published articles on American, French, German and Scandinavian literature. He was Associate Editor of the journal, Literature and Medicine, from 1998 to 2003, and he edited a Special Volume of Literature and Medicine: Infection and Contagion in 2003.


Professor Weinstein's honors include a Special Fellowship to the Freie Universität Berlin (1962-63), a Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship (1963-64), a Fulbright Grant (1966-67), a research Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1971-72, a Fulbright Professorship in Stockholm, Sweden in 1982-83, a stint as Professeur Invité in American Literature at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1996, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship in 1997-98. He received the John Rowe Workman Award for Best Teacher in the Humanities in 1995. In 2005 Oprah Winfrey asked him to give four lectures on William Faulkner, to be produced online in her Summer Book Club.


Professor Weinstein has given six courses for The Teaching Company: 'The Soul and the City: Art, Literature and Urban Life' (8 lectures, 1991), a segment of 'Great Authors of Western Literature' (21 lectures, 1993), 'Drama, Poetry and Narrative: Understanding Literature and Life' (64 lectures, 1995), 'Death and Disease: Using Literature to Understand the Human Side of Medicine' (10 lectures, 1995), '20th Century American Fiction' (32 lectures, 1997), and 'American Literary Classics' (84 lectures, 1997). These lectures have been produced in audio, video and DVD format.


Professor Weinstein has been Director of 'Texts & Teachers' from its inception in 1998 to 2006. 'Texts & Teachers' is an NEH-funded and Brown University-funded collaborative program in educational reform (nationally and regionally), designed to create a partnership between the university professoriate, high school English teachers, and their respective students.

Interests

Arnold Weinstein has been director of Texts & Teachers from its inception in 1998 to 2006. Texts & Teachers is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) funded and Brown University-funded collaborative program in educational reform (nationally and regionally), designed to create a partnership between the university professoriate, high school English teachers, and their respective students.


He is currently completing a book-length study, Breaking Through: Power and Expression in Scandinavian Art and Literature, under contract with Princeton University Press. He is also beginning work on Literature and the Phases of Life: Growing Up and Growing Old, under contract with Random House. Further projects include a volume on the character of urban life as reflected in literature and art.

Awards

Special Fellowship, Freie Universität Berlin, 1962-63

Woodrow Wilson National Teaching Fellowship, 1963-64

Fulbright Scholar, Université de Lyon, 1966-67

Younger Humanist Award, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), 1971-72

Salomon Incentive Grant, summer 1977 and summer 1980

Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award, Stockholm, Sweden, 1983

Visiting professor of American Literature at Stockholm University, 1983

Brown University Incentive Grant (Scandinavian literature), summer 1983

Member of the Academy of Literary Studies, 1984-present

Director, NEH-funded Program in Great Books, 1988-present

Invited to give paper at British Comparative Literature Triennial Congress, July 1989

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Travel Grant to deliver a paper at the British Comparative Literature Association (BCLA) in Leicester, England, summer 1989

Named the Henry Merritt Wriston Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature, Brown University, spring 1990

Named the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature, Brown University, spring 1995

Received the John Rowe Workman Faculty Award for Best Humanities Teacher of the Year, Brown University, spring 1995

Guest professor of American literature, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, spring 1996

NEH Fellowship for University Teachers to pursue research on literature and medicine project,A Scream Goes Through the House: Art and Illness, December 1997

Affiliations

Academy of Literary Studies

Modern Language Association

American Comparative Literature Association

Funded Research

N/A

Web Links

Curriculum Vitae

Download Arnold L. Weinstein's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format