It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Professor Michael Sheringham, who died peacefully at home on Thursday, 21 January 2016. Michael (known to many as Micky) studied for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Kent between 1966 and 1973. He was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and latterly Professor of French Literature at the University of Kent from 1974 to 1995, and Professor of French at Royal Holloway, University of London from 1995 to 2004, before his appointment to the Marshal Foch Chair of French Literature at the University of Oxford from 2004 until his recent retirement in 2015. He maintained close links with Kent even after he had been appointed elsewhere, returning, for example, as an invited speaker and as External Examiner for the undergraduate programme in French.
Michael Sheringham was one of the leading figures in French studies of his generation. He made a profound impact on the field of modern French literary and cultural study with works on French autobiography, everyday life, and a wide range of contributions on modern and contemporary poetry and prose fiction, Surrealism, and most recently on memory and the archive. He was also a hugely likeable person with a warm sense of humour.
An international conference, ‘What Forms Can Do: Attending to the Real in 20th– and 21st-Century French Literature’, was held at All Souls College Oxford in honour of Professor Michael Sheringham from 11th to 13th January 2016. The speakers included Johnnie Gratton, Emeritus Professor of French, Trinity College Dublin, who was awarded a BA at Kent in 1972 and who, like Michael Sheringham, went on to study for a PhD at Kent under the supervision of Professor Roger Cardinal. Professor Peter Read from the Department of Modern Languages also spoke at the conference. Professor Sheringham followed the proceedings from his home in Oxford, via Skype.
Michael Sheringham’s funeral will take place in the chapel of All Souls College, on Friday 5th February 2016, beginning at 1.30pm. Our sincere condolences go to his family, friends and former colleagues.
Tom Baldwin
Head of Department of Modern Languages
Michael Sheringham’s obituary appeared in The Guardian on Monday 15 February 2016 and is available at www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/15/michael-sheringham-obituary
A selection of Michael Sheringham’s work:
- Everyday Life: Theories and Practices from Surrealism to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006; paperback, 2009; French translation, 2013).
- French Autobiography: Devices and Desires. Rousseau to Perec (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993).
- Beckett: Molloy (London: Grant and Cutler, 1985).
- André Breton: A Bibliography (London: Grant and Cutler, 1972).