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Marc Shell

Canadian literary critic

Marc Shell, born 1947 in Montreal, is a Canadian literary critic. He has interests in nationalism and kinship. He is Irving Babbitt Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English, Emeritus, at Harvard University. Over 5 of his publications have each been cited over 100 times.

01Education

Shell studied at McGill University and Trinity College, Cambridge, and earned a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. Before Harvard, he taught at The State University of New York (Buffalo) and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Shell received a MacArthur Fellowship.

02"New Economic Criticism"

Shell is one of the forerunners, along with Jean-Joseph Goux and others, of the literary-critical movement that has been dubbed 'New Economic Criticism '. His contributions to the study of relations between linguistic and literary economies are encompassed in several books, including:

  • The Economy of Literature (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978).
  • Money, Language, and Thought: Literary and Philosophical Economies from the Medieval to the Modern Era (University of California Press, 1982).
  • Art and Money (University of Chicago Press, 1995).

03Other Work

Shell co-founded Harvard's Longfellow Institute, devoted to the study of Non-English American literatures. His books about translation, language policy and bilingualism include:

  • The Multilingual Anthology of American Literature, co-edited with Werner Sollors (NYU Press, 2000)
  • American Babel: Literatures of the United States from Abnaki to Zuni (Harvard University Press, 2002)

Shell's books in disability studies include works about paralysis and stuttering.

  • Polio and its Aftermath (Harvard University Press, 2005)
  • Stutter (Harvard University Press, 2006)

Shell's writings about Canada and the United States include:

  • French-Canadian / American Literary Relations (McGill French Canada Studies Centre, 1968)
Watch videos about Marc ShellExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

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