Brian O. Murdoch | |
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Born | London, England | 26 June 1944
Nationality | British |
Spouse | Ursula Irene Riffer (m. 1967) |
Children | 2 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Philology |
Sub-discipline | |
Institutions | |
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Brian Oliver Murdoch FRHistS (born 26 June 1944) is a British philologist who is Emeritus Professor of German at the University of Stirling. He specializes in the study of early Germanic and Celtic literature,on which he has authored and edited several influential works.
Brian O. Murdoch was born in London,England,on 26 June 1944,the son of Cecil O. and Jane A. Murdoch. He gained his B.A. first class honours from the University of Exeter,and his PhD from Jesus College,Cambridge,in 1969. [1]
From 1968 to 1970,Murdoch was lecturer in German at the University of Glasgow. From 1970 to 1972,he was Assistant Professor of German at the University of Illinois at Chicago. From 1972 to 2007,he served as lecturer,senior lecturer and from 1991 professor of German at the University of Stirling. He received an A.Mus. from Trinity College London in 1982,was Visiting Fellow at Trinity Hall,Cambridge,in 1989,received a Litt.D. from Jesus College,Cambridge,in 1992,and was a Fellow at the University of Oxford in 1994 and 2002. [1] [2]
Murdoch retired from Stirling as Emeritus Professor in 2007,but is still involved with the school. He continues to write and research. Murdoch is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society,and a member of the editorial board of the Medieval and Renaissance Authors and Texts series,published by Brill. [3]
Murdoch teaches early Germanic and Celtic literature,on which he has authored and edited a number of notable works. He has translated works of medieval literature,such as Kudrun ,into the English language.
Murdoch is particularly interested in religious texts. [1] His earliest work is concerned with the Altdeutsche Genesis and other German Adam Books,later exploring the same theme in other vernaculars. In several hundred published works he established the centrality of the "popular" (as opposed to the exegetical) understanding of the "protoplasts" in far wider areas of medieval thought than had hitherto been appreciated. He demonstrated that an awareness of Adam motifs allows an entirely new reading of some of the classics of medieval literature,most notably Hartmann's Gregorius. The broader impact of these studies has been to raise awareness of vernacular Bible traditions in many aspects of Medieval Studies.[ citation needed ]
Murdoch is also known for his work on Erich Maria Remarque,author of All Quiet on the Western Front . [4]
On 25 March 1967,Murdoch married Ursula Irene Riffer,a teacher,with whom he has a son and a daughter. [1]
Erich Maria Remarque was a German-born novelist. His landmark novel All Quiet on the Western Front (1928),based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World War I,an international bestseller which created a new literary genre of veterans writing about conflict. The book was adapted to film several times. Remarque's anti-war themes led to his condemnation by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as "unpatriotic." He was able to use his literary success and fame,to relocate to Switzerland as refugee,and to the United States,where he became a Naturalized citizen.
Siegbert Salomon Prawer was Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.
The Dream Room was Erich Maria Remarque's first novel,published under the name Erich Remark. He started writing it at the age of sixteen and completed it after his service in World War I,but it was not published until 1920.
Kudrun,is an anonymous Middle High German heroic epic. The poem was likely composed in either Austria or Bavaria around 1250. It tells the story of three generations of the ruling house of Hetelings on the North Sea,but is primarily the story of Kudrun,who is abducted by the Norman prince Hartmut who desires to marry her. Kudrun remains true to her fiancéHerwig and eventually is rescued. After the defeat of the Normans,however,Kudrun ensures that peace will be kept between the two peoples by arranging for marriages and alliances.
Peter John Heather is a British historian of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Heather is Chair of the Medieval History Department and Professor of Medieval History at King's College London. He specialises in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Goths,on which he for decades has been considered the world's leading authority.
Herwig Wolfram is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the Institute of Austrian Historical Research. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History,and internationally known for his authoritative works on the history of Austria,the Goths,and relationships between the Germanic peoples and the Roman Empire.
Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto,teaching classes on folklore,20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages,Old and Middle English,and the monstrous. Dendle has written books and articles on a number of topics,including cryptozoology,philology,the demonic in literature,zombie movies,and Medieval plants and medicine. His work on zombies was featured by NPR.
Germanic heroic legend is the heroic literary tradition of the Germanic-speaking peoples,most of which originates or is set in the Migration Period. Stories from this time period,to which others were added later,were transmitted orally,traveled widely among the Germanic speaking peoples,and were known in many variants. These legends typically reworked historical events or personages in the manner of oral poetry,forming a heroic age. Heroes in these legends often display a heroic ethos emphasizing honor,glory,and loyalty above other concerns. Like Germanic mythology,heroic legend is a genre of Germanic folklore.
Lee Milton Hollander was an American philologist who specialized in Old Norse studies. Hollander was for many years head of the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas at Austin. He is best known for his research on Old Norse literature.
Wolfhart P. Heinrichs was a German-born scholar of Arabic. He was James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic at Harvard University,and a co-editor of the second edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. He taught Classical Arabic language and literature,particularly Arabic literary theory and criticism.
Veronica O'Mara is a historian at the University of Hull who is a specialist in medieval English religious literature,particularly sermons,and female literacy. She is joint editor with Carolyn Muessig of Medieval Sermon Studies. O'Mara is engaged in a long-term project on Nuns' Literacies in Medieval Europe which has resulted in conferences in Hull (2011),Missouri-Kansas City (2012),and Antwerp (2013).
Dennis Howard Green was an English philologist who was Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge. He specialized in Germanic philology,particularly the study of Medieval German literature,Germanic languages and Germanic antiquity. Green was considered one of the world's leading authorities in these subjects,on which he was the author of numerous influential works.
Ernst Eduard Martin was a German philologist of Romance and Germanic studies. He was the son of gynecologist Eduard Arnold Martin (1809–1875).
Alastair J. Minnis is a Northern Irish literary critic and historian of ideas who has written extensively about medieval literature,and contributed substantially to the study of late-medieval theology and philosophy. Having gained a first-class B.A. degree at the Queen's University of Belfast,he matriculated at Keble College,Oxford as a visiting graduate student,where he completed work on his Belfast Ph.D.,having been mentored by M.B. Parkes and Beryl Smalley. Following appointments at the Queen's University of Belfast and Bristol University,he was appointed Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York;also Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies and later Head of English &Related Literature. From 2003 to 2006,he was a Humanities Distinguished Professor at Ohio State University,Columbus,from where he moved to Yale University. In 2008,he was named Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale.
Sebastian Sobecki is a medievalist specialising in English literature,history,and manuscript studies.
Mirjam Pressler,born Mirjam Gunkel was a German novelist and translator. Being the author of more than 30 children's and teenage books,she also translated into German more than 300 works by other writers from Hebrew,English,Dutch and Afrikaans. She is also known for translating a revision of Anne Frank's diary,The Diary of a Young Girl,in 1991,thus renewing its copyright.
Cyril William Edwards was a British medievalist and translator. Teaching in London and Oxford,he published extensively on the medieval German lyric and Old High German literature,and translated four of the major Middle High German verse narratives.
Robert Dennis Fulk is an American philologist and medievalist who is Professor Emeritus of English and Germanic Studies at Indiana University Bloomington.
Language and history in the early Germanic world is a book by Dennis Howard Green,the Schröder Professor of German at the University of Cambridge. It was published in hardback by Cambridge University Press in 1998. The book uses linguistic evidence for the study of early Germanic culture and history. A paperback edition was published by Cambridge University Press in 2000. An Italian translation was published in 2015.
Early Germanic Literature and Culture is a book edited by Brian O. Murdoch and Malcolm Read. The book was published by Camden House in 2004. It covers anthropological,archaeological and philological aspects of the study on early Germanic culture and literature. The chapters of the book are written by individual specialists in these fields.