Nicholas Birns
- Columbia University (BA)
- New York University (PhD)
- The New School
- College of New Rochelle
- New York University
Nicholas Birns is a scholar of literature, including fantasy and Australian literature. As a Tolkien scholar he has written on a variety of topics including "The Scouring of the Shire" and Tolkien's biblical sources. His analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño has been admired by scholars.
Biography
Nicholas Birns took his BA at Columbia University in 1988.[1][2] He took his MA at New York University in 1990, and he completed his PhD in 1992, also at New York University.[1]
Birns was a visiting professor at Western Connecticut State University from 1992 to 1993.[1] He was a professor at the New School from 1995 to 2014.[1] He joined Eugene Lang College in 2005, teaching many different courses in literature.[1] He taught at the College of New Rochelle from 2012.[1] He is an adjunct instructor at the New York University School of Professional Studies.[3]
He is the editor of Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NZ Literature.[4] He is a noted Tolkien scholar, having written on topics including "The Scouring of the Shire",[5] The Children of Hurin,[6] the wizard Radagast,[7] and Tolkien's biblical sources.[8]
Reception
The scholar of English literature Christine Berberich, reviewing Birns's Understanding Anthony Powell for Modernism/modernity, described it as "a labor of love" and "a laudable task" undertaken with a "thorough knowledge of the subject matter", though she regretted the lack of discussion of the "influence of fascism on the British upper classes" in the 1930s, and of the holocaust, whereas the lesser-known Katyn massacre was covered in detail.[9]
The scholar of Spanish and Latin American literature Eduardo Gonzalez wrote that Roberto Bolaño as World Literature was "the best Bolaño critical ensemble since Bolaño Salvaje (2006)" and had an "exemplary introduction".[10]
The author and scholar of Australian literature Jean-Francois Vernay wrote of Birns's Contemporary Australian literature: A world not yet dead that it discussed the writings of Australian authors "within the wider international context, and in terms of the history of ideas". In his view, Birns "manages to think outside the box by applying tenets of neoliberalism to Australian literary studies and one learns much from this book, not least from its valuable discussions of the American reception of Australian fiction."[11]
Works
Books
- 2004: Understanding Anthony Powell, University of South Carolina Press.
- 2010: Theory After Theory: An Intellectual History of Literary Theory from 1950 to the Early Twenty-First Century, Broadview Press.
- 2013: Barbarian Memory: The Legacy of Early Medieval History in Early Modern Literature, Palgrave Macmillan.
- 2015: Contemporary Australian literature: A world not yet dead, Sydney University Press.
- 2017: Roberto Bolaño as World Literature, Bloomsbury Publishing.
- 2019: The Hyperlocal In Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Literary Space, Rowman & Littlefield.
- 2021: Anthony Trollope: A Companion (with John F. Wirenius), McFarland & Company.
- 2024: The Literary Role of History in the Fiction of J. R. R. Tolkien, Routledge.
Edited collections
- 2007: Companion to Twentieth Century Australian Literature, with Rebecca McNeer, Camden House Publishing.
- 2010: Reading Across The Pacific: Australian-United States Intellectual Histories (with Robert Dixon), Sydney University Press.
- 2010: Mario Vargas Llosa and Latin American Politics (with Juan E. De Castro), Palgrave Macmillan.
- 2011 Willa Cather: Critical Insights, Salem Press.
- 2012: Cultural Encounters, Salem Press.
- 2013: The Contemporary Spanish American Novel (with Will Corral and Juan E. De Castro), Bloomsbury Publishing.
- 2017: Roberto Bolaño as World Literature (with Juan E. De Castro), Bloomsbury Publishing.
- 2017: Options for Teaching Australian and New Zealand Literature (with Nicole Moore and Sarah Shieff), Modern Language Association.
- 2023: The Cambridge Companion to the Australian Novel (with Louis Klee), Cambridge University Press.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Birns, Nicholas (5 October 2014). "Nicholas Birns". Academia.edu. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
- ^ "Bookshelf | Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
- ^ "Faculty Profile: Nicholas Birns, Adjunct Instructor: NYU SPS Professional Pathways". www.sps.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
- ^ "Nicholas Birns". New York University. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
- ^ Birns, Nicholas (2012). "'You Have Grown Very Much': The Scouring of the Shire and the Novelistic Aspects of The Lord of the Rings". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 23 (1): 82–101. JSTOR 24353144.
- ^ Birns, Nicholas. "The Children of Húrin, Narn i Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin." Tolkien Studies 5.1 (2008): 189-200.
- ^ Birns, Nicholas. "The enigma of Radagast: revision, melodrama, and depth." Mythlore 26.1 (2007): 8.
- ^ Birns, Nicholas. Birns, Nicholas (2011). "The Stones and the Book: Tolkien, Mesopotamia, and Biblical Mythopoeia". In Fisher, Jason (ed.). Tolkien and the Study of his Sources: Critical essays. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 45–68. ISBN 978-0-7864-6482-1. OCLC 731009810.
- ^ Berberich, Christine (2005). "Understanding Anthony Powell (review)". Modernism/modernity. 12 (1): 200–202. doi:10.1353/mod.2005.0032. ISSN 1080-6601. S2CID 143015487.
- ^ González, Eduardo (2018). "Review of Roberto Bolaño as World Literature ed. by Nicholas Birns and Juan E. De Castro". Comparative Literature Studies. 55 (2): 466–469. doi:10.5325/complitstudies.55.2.0466.
- ^ Vernay, Jean-Francois (2016). Contemporary Australian literature: A world not yet dead [Book Review]. Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 38(2), 139–140. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.402191128833844
External links
- Official website
- v
- t
- e
and songs
- Songs for the Philologists (1936)
- The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son (1953)
- "A Walking Song" (1954)
- The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962)
- "Errantry"
- "Fastitocalon"
- "The Sea-Bell"
- "The Man in the Moon Stayed Up Too Late"
- The Road Goes Ever On (1967)
- Bilbo's Last Song (1974)
- List of Tolkien's alliterative verse
- The Hobbit (1937)
- "Leaf by Niggle" (1947)
- The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun (1945)
- Farmer Giles of Ham (1949)
- The Lord of the Rings:
- The Fellowship of the Ring (1954)
- The Two Towers (1954)
- The Return of the King (1955)
- Tree and Leaf (1964)
- The Tolkien Reader (1966)
- Smith of Wootton Major (1967)
fiction
- The Father Christmas Letters (1976)
- The Silmarillion (1977)
- Unfinished Tales (1980)
- Mr. Bliss (1982)
- The History of Middle-earth (1983–1996)
- Roverandom (1998)
- The Children of Húrin (2007)
- The History of The Hobbit (2007)
- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún (2009)
- The Fall of Arthur (2013)
- The Story of Kullervo (2015)
- Beren and Lúthien (2017)
- The Fall of Gondolin (2018)
- The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)
- The Fall of Númenor (2022)
works
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Middle English text, 1925)
- "The Devil's Coach Horses" (1925)
- "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad" (1929)
- "Sigelwara Land" (1932–34)
- "Chaucer as a Philologist: The Reeve's Tale" (1934)
- "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" (1936)
- "On Fairy-Stories" (1939)
- "On Translating Beowulf" (1940)
- Sir Orfeo (1944)
- Ancrene Wisse (1962)
- "English and Welsh" (1963)
- Jerusalem Bible (as translator and lexicographer, 1966)
academic
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo (translations, 1975)
- Exodus (1981)
- Finn and Hengest (1982)
- The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983)
- Beowulf and the Critics (2002)
- Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary with "Sellic Spell" (2014)
- A Secret Vice (2016)
Writers |
|
---|---|
Christian | |
Literary critics |
|
Linguists | |
Medievalists |
- A Tolkien Compass
- Family
- Influences
- Artwork
- J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator
- Languages constructed by Tolkien
- The Inklings
- The Keys of Middle-earth
- Mythlore
- Mythopoeic Society
- Picturing Tolkien
- Tolkien and the Classical World
- Tolkien's impact on fantasy
- Tolkien and the modernists
- Tolkien Estate
- Tolkien fandom
- The Tolkien Society
- Tolkien Studies
- Memorials
- Reception
- Tolkien research
- Works inspired by Tolkien
- J. R. R. Tolkien: A Biography (1977, authorized biography)
- The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide
- Master of Middle-Earth
- Perilous Realms
- Tolkien and the Great War
- The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien
- Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
- Tolkien: A Cultural Phenomenon
- Tolkien, Race and Cultural History
- Tolkien's Art: 'A Mythology for England'
- Tolkien (biographical film)
- Poems and Songs of Middle Earth (album)
- Language and Human Nature
- The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary
- Understanding The Lord of the Rings