[Vwoolf] Fwd: [Msa-members] In Memoriam: Laura Marcus

[Anne Fernald]

Dear Woolfians,

I wrote this tribute to Laura from the MSA & wanted to share it with you,

Anne

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kappeler, Erin J <ekappeler at tulane.edu>
Date: Thu, Sep 23, 2021 at 2:21 PM
Subject: [Msa-members] In Memoriam: Laura Marcus
To: msa-members at chaos.press.jhu.edu <msa-members at chaos.press.jhu.edu>
CC: msa-discuss at chaos.press.jhu.edu <msa-discuss at chaos.press.jhu.edu>


*In Memoriam: Laura Marcus*



We are very sorry to learn of the unexpected death of our friend and
colleague Laura Marcus, and we join her colleagues worldwide in
acknowledging her passing. Laura Marcus, Goldsmiths Professor of English
Literature at the University of Oxford, was a giant in modernist studies.
Her book publications include *Auto/biographical Discourses: Theory,
Criticism, Practice* (1994), *Virginia Woolf: Writers and their Work*
(1997/2004), and the MLA prize-winning essay collection, *The Tenth Muse:
Writing about Cinema in the Modernist Period* (2007). At the time of her
death, she was completing a project on the concept of “rhythm” in late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century contexts and we join our colleagues
at Oxford University and Oxford University Press in the hope that it will
be seen to completion. Her intellectual interests were wide-ranging,
including but not limited to nineteenth & twentieth century literature &
visual culture; early film & literature, Virginia Woolf & Bloomsbury
culture, modernism, autobiography, and life-writing.



In a review of Marcus’s *Dreams of Modernity* (2014), Jacqueline Shin
notes, “One can imagine, or indeed, almost feel synapses firing as Marcus
reveals unexpected and ‘complex interrelations’ between various phenomena
of the period,” marveling at “the satisfying range of topics covered” in
this collection of her essays on film. The breadth and velocity of her
intellect made her well-suited for studying modernism and gave us a rich
body of work to read. Her 2014 plenary talk on film at the MSA in
Pittsburgh is remembered for its brilliance, range of reference and
clarity. She served on the editorial board of several academic journals,
including *Modernism/modernity*, and her acuity as a reader and precision
as a writer was a model of professionalism.



She leaves behind a truly impressive body of work and career, but one of
the joys of knowing Laura, as some of us were privileged to have done, was
that she bore that knowledge not with flash, but with an authority
accompanied by a wonderful calm, leavened by delightful sparkle of wit. As
tributes have been pouring in, colleagues are consistently remembering her
generosity with students, her professionalism in keeping the work
going—serving on committees, questioning doctoral candidates, advising
theses, offering counsel.



Virginia Woolf was at the heart of Marcus’s work. She shared Woolf’s
interest in biography and autobiography, film, and psychoanalysis. And,
like Woolf, she had a gift for friendship. Following Woolf, who rejected
the hagiographic Victorian biographies, experimenting instead with new ways
to approach the complex and impossible task of summing up a life in words,
we might ask, what does it mean for a society to commemorate the life of a
beloved and prominent colleague? A list of books, yes, but also the memory
of playing Frisbee with her, or catching sight of her at the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, also playing hooky from the conference for an afternoon. She was
a really lovely person and a brilliant academic. Laura Marcus is survived
by her husband William, son Daniel, and the many students, friends,
scholars, and readers who have benefited from her wisdom, insight, and
generosity.




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