Ihab Hassan

From an Interview with

Ihab Hassan

Postmodernism, Etc.:* By Ihab Hassan

A Plague of
by Frank L. Cioffi
Mendacity:
Princeton University
A Plea for Truth,
Trust, Altruism
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Ihab Hassan followed the path that many
bright young Egyptians took in the first half of this century: he From Postmodernism
trained to become an engineer. After graduating with highest to Postmodernity:
honors from the University of Cairo, Hassan came to the United the Local/Global
States to further his study of electrical engineering, and in 1948 Context
he earned his MS in that field at the University of Pennsylvania.
Yet he continued on at Penn, changing his field to something that The Eagle, the Olive
spoke to him, evidently, more deeply than did engineering. He Branch, and the
studied literature, and earned two degrees in English--an MA in Dream:
1950 and a PhD in 1953. Changing Perceptions
of America in the
After a brief period teaching at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, World
Hassan moved to Wesleyan University, where he taught from
1954-1970. Since 1970, he has been the Vilas Research Professor
of English and Comparative Literature at the University of About Ihab Hassan
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. During his professional career, he has
also held visiting professorships in Sweden, Japan, Germany, Frank Cioffi’s
France, and Austria - as well as at Yale, Trinity College, and the interview with
University of Washington. Ihab Hassan.

Jerzy Durczak’s
Over the last forty years, Hassan has won numerous awards and
interview with
fellowships, including Guggenheim Foundation fellowships;
Ihab Hassan.
Senior Fulbright lectureships; National Endowment for the
Humanities grants; research appointments in France, England,
Bibliography of Ihab
Italy, Japan, Australia, and Ireland; and teaching awards. He was
Hassan
awarded honorary degrees by the University of Uppsala (1996)
and the University of Giessen (1999). Currently he is Chairman
University
 Publishers
of the Executive Committee of the International Association of
University Professors of English. University of
Wisconsin-
Ihab Hassan’s bibliography is long, including some fifteen books Milwaukee
and 200-odd articles. Among his critical works are Radical
Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel (1961),
The Literature of Silence: Henry Miller and Samuel Beckett
(1967), The Dismemberment of Orpheus: Toward a Postmodern
Literature (1971), Paracriticisms: Seven Speculations of the
Times (1975), The Right Promethean Fire: Imagination, Science,
and Cultural Change (1980), and The Postmodern Turn: Essays
in Postmodern Theory and Culture (1987). In more recent years,
some of Hassan’s work has moved toward autobiography, some
toward travel writing: Out of Egypt: Fragments of an
Autobiography appeared in 1986, Selves at Risk: Patterns of
Quest in Contemporary American Letters in 1990, and Between
the Eagle and the Sun: Traces of Japan in 1996. His Rumors of
Change: Essays of Five Decades collects portions of earlier
works. Hassan continues actively publishing in academic
journals, and some of these articles will be alluded to in the
interview that follows. The last lustrum has witnessed his
publication of “Criticism in Our Clime: Parables of American
Academe,” “Negative Capability Reclaimed: Literature and
Philosophy contra Politics,” “The Expense of Spirit in
Postmodern Times: Between Nihilism and Belief,” contributions
to a PMLA “Forum on Intellectuals” and “Millennial Issue,”
“From Postmodernism to Postmodernity,” “Queries for
Postcolonial Studies,” “Globalism and Its Discontents” in
Profession 1999, “How Australian Is It?,” included in Best
Australian Essays 2000.

Hassan’s writings have been translated into sixteen different

languages.

*Used with permission from Style 33, 1 (Fall 1999)

Full text of Frank Cioffi’s interview of Ihab Hassan.