Helen Cooper

FBA
Born (1947-02-06) 6 February 1947
Nottingham, England
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Academic, literary critic
Academic background
EducationNottingham Girls' High School
Alma materNew Hall, Cambridge
ThesisThe mediaeval background of English Renaissance pastoral literature (1971)
Academic work
Sub-discipline
InstitutionsNew Hall, Cambridge
University College, Oxford
Magdelene College, Cambridge

Elizabeth Helen Cooper, FBA (born 6 February 1947), known as Helen Cooper, is a British literary scholar. From 2004 to 2014, she was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.[1]

Early life and education

Cooper was born on 6 February 1947 in Nottingham, England.[1][2] Her parents were Percy Edward Kent, an exploration geologist, and Betty Kent.[1][2] She was educated at Nottingham Girls' High School, an all-girls private school.[2] She studied at New Hall, Cambridge, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1968: as per tradition, her BA was promoted to a Master of Arts (MA Cantab) degree.[1] She remained at New Hall to undertake postgraduate study, one of her supervisors was Jack A. W. Bennett, and she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1971.[1][2] Her doctoral thesis was titled "The mediaeval background of English Renaissance pastoral literature".[3]

Academic career

From 1971 to 1974, Cooper was a junior research fellow at New Hall, Cambridge.[1][4] In 1978, she was elected a fellow at University College, Oxford: she was the first woman to become a fellow at the formerly all-male college.[2][4] During this time, she was also a lecturer in English at the University of Oxford,[1] rising to become chair of its Faculty of English. In 1996, she was awarded a Title of Distinction by the University of Oxford as Professor of English Language and Literature.[5] From 2000 to 2002, she was also the president of the New Chaucer Society.[1]

In 2004, Cooper moved to the University of Cambridge, having been appointed to its Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English.[4][6] She was also elected a professorial fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.[2] She retired from full-time academics in 2014, and was appointed Professor Emeritus by Oxford and made a Life Fellow at Magdalene College.[1][2]

Her research is in the continuity of literature across the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Her latest book is Shakespeare and the Medieval World, published in 2010 as part of the Arden Shakespeare series.

Personal life

In 1970, she married Michael Cooper, a fellow academic: he died in 2007.[4] Together they had two daughters.[1]

Honours

In 2001, Cooper was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) degree by Washington and Lee University in Virginia.[1] In 2006, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[6] In 2016 she delivered the British Academy's Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture.[7]

Selected works

  • Cooper, H. (1978). Pastoral: Mediaeval into Renaissance. D. S. Brewer
  • Cooper, H. (1983). The Structure of the Canterbury Tales. Duckworth and University of Georgia Press
  • Cooper, H (1996) Oxford Guides to Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales, Oxford University Press.
  • Cooper, H. & Mapstone, S. (1997). The Long Fifteenth Century: Essays for Douglas Gray Counter-Romance: Civil Strife and Father-killing in the Prose Romances. Oxford University Press
  • Cooper, H. (1998). Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthur – Winchester Manuscript. Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics)
  • Cooper, H. (1999). The Four Last Things in Chaucer and Dante: Ugolino in the House of Rumour. New Medieval Literatures 3
  • Cooper, H. (2003). Chaucerian Representation; Chaucerian Poetics. In: New Readings of Chaucer's Poetry, ed. Robert G. Benson and Susan J. Ridyard, Chaucer Studies. D. S. Brewer
  • Cooper, H. (2004). Speaking for the Victim. In: Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses to Warfare, eds. Corinne Saunders, Francois Le Saux and Neil Wright. D. S. Brewer
  • Cooper, H. (2004). The English Romance in Time: Transforming Motifs from Geoffrey of Monmouth to the Death of Shakespeare. Oxford University Press
  • Cooper, H. (2010). Shakespeare and the Medieval World, Arden Companions to Shakespeare. A & C Black.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Cooper, Prof. (Elizabeth) Helen". Who's Who 2018. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2017. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.44792. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Professor Helen Cooper FBA". Magdalene College. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  3. ↑ Cooper, E. H. (1971). The mediaeval background of English Renaissance pastoral literature. E-Thesis Online Service (Ph.D). The British Library Board. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Prof Helen Cooper, Magdalene". Faculty of English. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Recognition of Distinction" Archived 24 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Gazette, Supplement (2) to no. 4408, 22 July 1996. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Professor Helen Cooper". British Academy. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lectures". The British Academy. text audio
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.