Christopher Heywood

Author of scholarly books on literature

Christopher Heywood was born in Banhoek, near Stellenbosch, 2 July 1928. After primary schooling in his mother's school on the farm (Katherine Heywood's Simonsberg Garden School), he joined Paul Roos Gymnasium (then still Stellenbosch Boys' High School): Matriculation First Class, 1945 (English, Latin, Afrikaans, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics). At Stellenbosch University, studied Afrikaans, French, Philosophy, Psychology and English, graduating Cum Laude in English and French, 1948. As Rhodes Scholar, studied English Language and Literature at New College, Oxford, graduating BA 1952, MA 1958. The postgraduate thesis titled 'The Influence of the French Realists on English Novelists and Critics 1880-1915) gained the degree BLitt (now MPhil) , 1958.
Present address: 28 South St., Gargrave, North Yorkshire, BD23 3RT, tel. [0] 1756 748242.
Career: As Research Fellow at Birmingham University (1954-6), studied George Eliot and other earlier Victorian Novelists; as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield (1956-1988), and Sub-Dean of the Faculty of Arts (1971-6), published numerous articles and books. As Professor of English and Head of the Department of English at the University of Ife, Nigeria (1966-1968, on leave of absence from Sheffield University), organised and contributed to the Ife Conference on African Literature. The commitment to African literature, including South African literature, appeared there.
As Jerwood Fellow at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo (1988-1989) and as Professor of English at Okayama University, Japan (1989-1995) and at Kobe Women's University, Japan (1995-1998), embarked on wider studies that will be incorporated in a future book on imperialism and literature. A British Academy award (1985) was to study the work in South Africa of W.H.I. Bleek. A Mellon award (2004) gave sustained access to research materials at the Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin and at other research Libraries in the USA.
Has served on the Committee of the British Comparative Literature Association and is a member of the Modern Language Association of America and the American Association for African Literature.
General: all the academic and research work has developed original discoveries that have been noted for the first time in print. In academic teaching I have introduced various innovations, notably at Sheffield, the Honours course 'American Literature', and the MA courses 'Modern African Literature' and 'English Literature 1880-1900'.
Interests include music (played second violin in various University orchestras), painting (exhibited works in Cape Town, Oxford, Sheffield, and Japan), and travel.
Last read: I've been convulsed with laughter over Wuthering Heights According to Spike Milligan - be warned and fasten seat belts, it's pretty Agricultural ie full of sex and muck, like Kingsley Amis and that crowd. Humour, according to George Orwell, is always subversive.

Research and publications: the research has three main parts: (a) Anglo-French literary relations, including the Brontës; (b) 19th and 20th century English and American writers; (c) African/South African literature. Numerous articles published in specialised scholarly journals.
A book provisionally titled 'The Brontës at Work' (on seven members of the Brontë family) is currently approaching completion. A further book provisionally titled 'Imperialism and Fiction 1840-1940' is under construction.

Books:Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë (editor), Calgary: Broadview Press, 2002 (550 pages with full corrected text, Introduction, Notes and Appendices. First exposition of this novel in the light of colonisation, slavery and anti-slavery movements around 1800-1840, with detailed discussion of hitherto unnoticed structural and thematic concerns; reprinted 2004, soon to come as The Brontës and their Novels)
D H Lawrence. New Studies, (contributing editor) London: Macmillan, and New York: St Martin's Press, 1985
A History of South African Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2005
Aspects of South African Literature (contributing editor), London: Heinemann, and New York: Africana Corporation, 1976
Perspectives on African Literature, (contributing editor). London: Heinemann, and New York: Africana Corp, 1972
Things Fall Apart: A Critical View. London: British Council, 1985
Nadine Gordimer. London: British Council, 1983