Sir Michael Edwards, OBE (born 29 April 1938) is an Anglo-French poet and academic.

Life

Born in Barnes, SW London, Edwards was educated at Kingston Grammar School and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he read French and Spanish. He wrote his doctoral thesis on Jean Racine, completing it in Paris. He was the longtime Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Warwick until 2002, when he was elected to a professorial chair for the Study of Literary Creation in the English Language at the Collège de France.

Michael Edwards (literary scholar)

Edwards was elected to one of the 40 seats in the Académie Française on 21 February 2013, becoming the first English person to be so honoured. He had been nominated previously in 2008, when he received the second highest number of votes in the fourth and final round of voting (eight votes, behind Michel Schneider who received 10) but since no candidate secured a majority the seat then remained vacant.

Michael Edwards (literary scholar)

Honours

Knighted in the 2014 New Year Honours for "services to British–French cultural relations", Sir Michael has received the following honours:

Michael Edwards (literary scholar)

Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur

Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres

OBE

Knight Bachelor

Bibliography

La tragédie racinienne, La pensée universelle, 1972

To Kindle the Starling, Aquila, 1972

Eliot/Language, Aquila, 1975

Éloge de l'attente, Belin, 1996

De Poetica Christiana, Hermeuneutikai Kutatokozpont, Budapest, 1997

Beckett ou le don des langues, Espaces 34, 1998

Leçons de poésie, PUF, 2001

De la poésie, avec Yves Bonnefoy, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 2001

Ombres de lune : réflexions sur la création littéraire, Espaces 34, 2001

Un monde même et autre, Desclée de Brouwer, janvier 2002

Rivage mobile, Arfuyen, 2003

Terre de poésie, Espaces 34, 2003

Shakespeare et la comédie de l'émerveillement, Desclée de Brouwer, 2003

Racine et Shakespeare, PUF, 2004

Shakespeare et l'œuvre de la tragédie, Belin, 2005

Le Génie de la poésie anglaise, Le Livre de poche, 2006

De l'émerveillement, Fayard, 2008

À la racine du feu, Caractères, coll. Planètes, 2009

Shakespeare : Le poète au théâtre, Fayard, 2009

Le bonheur d'être ici, Fayard, février 2011

Le rire de Molière, De Fallois, octobre 2012

Paris aubaine, Éditions de Corlevour, novembre 2012

References

1938 births

Living people

People from Barnes, London

People educated at Kingston Grammar School

Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge

Academics of the University of Warwick

Academic staff of the Collège de France

Members of the Académie Française

English expatriates in France

Knights of the Legion of Honour

Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Knights Bachelor

English male poets