Andrew Karpati Kennedy

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Andrew Karpati Kennedy
Andrew Karpati Kennedy
Andrew Karpati Kennedy in 2009
Born
Kárpáti Andor Ödön

(1931-01-09)9 January 1931
Győr, Hungary
Died20 December 2016(2016-12-20) (aged 85)
Cambridge, England
Occupation(s)author and literary critic
Notable work
SpouseJudith Edmundson Hall (died 1992)
ChildrenVeronica and Nicholas

Andrew Edmund Karpati Kennedy (born Kárpáti Andor Ödön; 9 January 1931 – 20 December 2016) was a Hungarian-born British author, literary critic and academic with a passionate interest in the language of drama.[1]

Biography

Early years

Born in

Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944.[2]

The war years and post-war career

Following the Nazi invasion, Kennedy was deported not to

Bergen University, Norway in 1966.[8] In 1972, he was awarded his doctorate on the languages of drama by the University of Bristol.[9] In 1990, he became professor of British literature at Bergen.[10] He was a visiting scholar at the universities of Edinburgh, Washington and Princeton, and in 1979–80 a visiting fellow at Clare Hall
, Cambridge, where he became a Life Member.

Kennedy died in Cambridge on 20 December 2016.

Writings

"Andrew Kennedy's contribution to the field of literature has been substantial and spans several literary genres to which he has contributed both as a critic and as creative writer."[11] Whether writing literary criticism or a short story, Kennedy employed great economy of style, something he admired in Strindberg's Ghost Sonata, for example. The final duologue between the Student and the Young Lady, asserted Kennedy, "compresses a whole cycle of relationship – love, marriage and death – within the cycle of one sustained encounter."[12]

Both his book Six Dramatists in Search of a Language (1975, in which Kennedy explores the use of language by the playwrights Shaw, Eliot, Beckett, Pinter, Osborne and Arden) and Samuel Beckett were funded by grants from the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities (Norges Almenvitenskappelige Forskningsråd).

In a prefatory remark to The Antique Dealer's Women, George Steiner writing about Kennedy's earlier book Double Vision declared that Kennedy's stories "are vignettes of insightful and humane understanding. They are of a concise maturity all too rare in the current climate of narrative."[13] Writing about his novella The Antique Dealer's Women, Elaine Feinstein was full of praise: "The prose is so elegant, so sensuous, so assured. Wonderful writing."

Bibliography

Works of criticism

  • Six Dramatists in Search of a Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975
    OCLC 1323859
  • Dramatic Dialogue: The Duologue of Personal Encounter Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
    OCLC 8346125
  • Samuel Beckett Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (British and Irish Authors: Introductory Critical Studies), 1989
    OCLC 243385898
  • Excursions in Fiction: Essays in Honour of Professor Lars Hartveit on his 70th birthday (Andrew Kennedy and Orm Øverland, eds.) Oslo: Novus Forlag (Studia Anglistica Norvegica, 6), 1994
    OCLC 31987454

Short fiction and memoirs

Besides his literary criticism (books, conference papers and critical essays), Kennedy also published poems and short stories.[15]

Honours and awards

Lie, Ulf and Rønning, Anne Holden (eds.) Dialoguing on Genres. Essays in Honour of Andrew K. Kennedy on his 70th Birthday 9 January 2001, incl. "Andrew K[arpati] Kennedy: A Bibliography" compiled by Maya Thee. Oslo: Novus Forlag, 2001

OCLC 49679900

In the book's foreword Lie and Rønning write: "The editors undertook this project in appreciation of Andrew's love of literature, his contribution to it as author and critic and his readiness to discuss it and help others appreciate it, students as well as colleagues."

Notes and references

  1. ^ Death announcement in the Guardian, 30 December 2016, p. 31. See Guardian obituary.
  2. ^ The Debreceni Református Kollégium. See Chance Survivor, pp. 37–47.
  3. ^ Kennedy's memoir Chance Survivor gives an account.
  4. ^ Chance Survivor, pp. 37 and 127.
  5. ^ Chance Survivor, pp. 125–7.
  6. ^ Chance Survivor, p. 177.
  7. ^ Norwegian Death Index.
  8. ^ By publication of his book Six Dramatists in Search of a Language he had become senior lecturer, see title-page.
  9. ^ Chance Survivor, cover blurb.
  10. ^ På Høyden, University of Bergen's online magazine.
  11. ^ Lie & Rønning, p. 9.
  12. ^ Kennedy, 1983, p. 211.
  13. ^ The Antique Dealer's Women, p. iii.
  14. ^ Reprinted in full in Chance Survivor. pp. 80–4.
  15. ISSN 0038-9366
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrew_Karpati_Kennedy&oldid=1210639569"