People

Obituary

Dr Elaine Jordan

The death of Elaine Jordan will come as a great shock and a matter of deep regret to many in this university and the legion of former members and students who valued her as a personal friend and colleague and admired her as a dedicated and inspiring teacher.

She was a model of punctilious preparation of classes and lectures and always scrupulously concerned with the well-being, both intellectual and personal, of her students. Her MA in Womens Studies was innovatory and in its heyday attracted students from all over the nation and the world.

She came to the Department of Literature in 1979 from Durham, after a pause in her career to bring up her young family. Her reputation as a literary scholar however was already well established: she had made an important contribution to the research that underpinned CR Ricks’s monumental edition of Tennyson. Thereafter much of her research and critical thought was devoted to the nineteenth century novel.

Feminist issues and perspectives, firmly but not dogmatically or abstractly advanced, were at the core of her thinking. She wrote and lectured frequently in this university and elsewhere on Jane Austen, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell and Angela Carter. Her last considerable book was on Joseph Conrad. In the early nineties, such was her reputation, that Elaine was considered a serious contender for a number of university chairs. Illness, alas, put an end to a promising career. She retired in 2001 but remained a fellow of the department until the time of her death.

Elaine came to the Department as a bright star among a galaxy of young literary scholars of her generation. Her handsome features, her eagerness in debate, her unswerving love of literature in and for itself, were among her most conspicuous feature and none of these were fatally diminished in retirement and in the shadow of illness. It is true that she will be much missed; but also true that, though somewhat abbreviated, her career and achievement were substantial entities and that she lived the life she wanted to live. 

Professor Gabriel Pearson
Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies

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Literary legend at the Lakeside

A packed Lakeside Theatre saw Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott receive an honorary degree from the University.

Despite a bad cold, Derek Walcott then stayed on stage for a reading and conversation with Professor Marina Warner and Dr Maria Cristina Fumagalli from the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies.

The celebrated Caribbean poet, playwright, essayist, and visual artist read poems from his new work, White Egrets, due out in November. He also talked about his current project directing The Burial of Thebes in London.

Earlier in the day, Derek Walcott spent two hours talking to PhD students from the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies who are studying his writing.

Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:

• ISER director joins government panel
• Top award for UCS graduate