Terence Cave - Biography#

Terence Christopher Cave, born on 1st December 1938, is a British citizen.

He is Emeritus Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford and Emeritus Research Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford.

After earning his BA and PhD at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he became Assistant Lecturer (1962-3) and Lecturer (1963-5) at St Andrew’s University. He then moved to the University of Warwick, where he was Lecturer (1965-70) and Senior Lecturer (1970-2). In 1972 he joined St John’s College, Oxford, as Fellow and Tutor in French (1972-2001), and subsequently became Professor of French at the University of Oxford (1989-2001).

He was also Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (1971) and Visiting Professor at Cornell University (1967-69), University of California, Santa Barbara (1976), University of Virginia, Charlottesville (1979), University of Toronto (1991), University of Alberta (1992), University of Paris VII (1995), University of California, Los Angeles (1997) and Royal Holloway, University of London (2001-04).

In December 2001, he took early retirement in order to concentrate on his research. He is a scholar of international distinction and a leading exponent of interdisciplinary work.

Terence Cave is Member of the Academia Europaea (1990), Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Romance Studies of the University of London (1990), Fellow of the British Academy (1991), Member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Science and Letters, Trondheim (1993), Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (1997), Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (2001), Honorary DLit, University of London (2007).

He is a leader in the field of Early Modern French Literature.

Professor Cave has published introductions to a variety of classic literary works in both French and English and is the author of a large number of articles, review articles and essays.