D. J. Enright: Life, The "Enright Affair", Timeline, Works, and a List of Books by Author D. J. Enright

Search - List of Books by D. J. Enright

Dennis Joseph Enright (11 March 1920 — 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic, and general man of letters.

Life more less

The "Enright Affair" more less

Enright gained some notoriety in Singapore after his inaugural lecture at the University of Singapore on 17 November 1960, titled "Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism". His introductory remarks on the state of culture in Singapore were the subject of a Straits Times article "'Hands Off' Challenge to 'Culture Vultures'" the next day. Among other things, he had said that it wasimportant for Singapore and Malaya to remain "culturally open", that culture was something to be left for the people to build up, and that for the government to institute "a sarong culture, complete with pantun competitions and so forth" was futile. Some quotes include:

Art does not begin in a test-tube, it does not take its origin in good sentiments and clean-shaven, upstanding young thoughts.

Leave the people free to make their own mistakes, to suffer and to discover. Authority must leave us to fight even that deadly battle over whether or not to enter a place of entertainment wherein lurks a juke-box, and whether or not to slip a coin into the machine.

The following day, Enright was summoned by the Ministry for Labour and Law regarding his foreigner work permit, and was handed a letter there by the Minister for Culture S. Rajaratnam, which had also been released to the press. This letter admonished Enright for "involv[ing] [himself] in political affairs which are the concern of local people", not "visitors, including mendicant professors", and said that the government "ha[s] no time for asinine sneers by passing aliens about the futility of 'sarong culture complete with pantun competitions' particularly when it comes from beatnik professors." There was also some criticism that Enright had been insensitive towards Malays and their so-called "sarong culture."

With some mediation from the Academic Staff Association of the university, it was agreed that to put the matter to rest, Enright would write a letter of apology and clarification, the government would reply, and both were to be printed in the newspapers. Although the affair was "essentially dead" after that, according to Enright, it would still be brought up periodicially in discussions of local culture and academic freedom.

Enright gives his account of the incident in his Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor (pp. 124-151).

Timeline more less

Works more less

A Commentary on Goethe's Faust (1949)
The Laughing Hyena and Other Poems (1953)
Poets of the 1950s (1955) editor, anthology
Academic Year (1955) novel
The World of Dew: Aspects of Living Japan (1955)
Bread Rather than Blossoms (1956) poems
The Year of the Monkey (1956) poems
The Apothecary's Shop (1957) essays
Heaven Knows Where (1957) novel
The Poetry of Living Japan (1958) editor with Takamichi Ninomiya
Insufficient Poppy (1960) novel
Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism (1960)
Some Men Are Brothers (1960) poems
Addictions (1962) poems
English Critical Texts 16th Century to 20th Century (1963) editor with Ernst de Chickera
The Old Adam (1965)
Conspirators and Poets (1966) essays
Selected Poems (1968)
Unlawful Assembly (1968) poems
Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor (1969)
Shakespeare And The Students (1970)
In the Basilica of the Annunciation (1971) broadsheet poem
Daughters of Earth (1972) poems
Foreign Devils (1972) poems
Man is an Onion: Reviews and Essays (1972)
The Terrible Shears - Scenes from a Twenties Childhood (1973)
Rhyme times rhyme (1974)
The Rebel (1974) poem
A Choice of Milton's Verse (1975) editor
Penguin Modern Poets 26 (1975) with Dannie Abse and Michael Longley
Sad Ires (1975) poems
The Joke Shop (1976) novel
Paradise Illustrated (1978) poems
Wild Ghost Chase (1978) novel
A Faust Book (1979) poems
Walking in the Harz Mountains, Faust Senses the Presence of God (1979) poem
Beyond Land's End (1979) novel
The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse 1945 —1980 (1980) editor
Collected Poems (1981)
A Mania for Sentences: Essays on G. Grass, H. Boll, Frisch, Flaubert & Others (1983)
Fair of Speech: The Uses of Euphemism (1985) editor
Instant Chronicles: A Life (1985)
The Oxford Book of Death (1985) editor
The Alluring Problem - An Essay on Irony (1986)
Collected Poems 1987 (1987)
Fields of Vision: Essays on Literature, Language, and Television (1988)
Ill at Ease: Writers on Ailments Real and Imagined (1989) editor
The Faber Book of Fevers and Frets (1989) editor
Oxford Book of Friendship (1991) editor with David Rawlinson
Selected Poems 1990, Oxford, (1990)
Under the Circumstances : Poems and Prose (1991)
The Way of The Cat (1992)
Old Men and Comets (1993) poems
The Oxford Book of the Supernatural (1994) editor
Interplay: A Kind of Commonplace Book (1995)
Collected Poems: 1948-1998 (1998)
Telling Tales (1999)
Play Resumed: A Journal
Signs and Wonders: Selected Essays (2001)
Injury Time (2003)

Total Books: 38

The Alluring Problem an Essay on Irony (Hardcover) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780192821454
ISBN-10: 0192821458

The Apothecary's Shop Essays on Literature (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780837182223
ISBN-10: 0837182220

Collected Poems (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780192119414
ISBN-10: 0192119419
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Collected Poems 19481998 [Oxford Poets] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192880772
ISBN-10: 0192880772
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Collected Poems 1987 [Oxford Poets] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192820617
ISBN-10: 0192820613
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Commentary on Goethe's Faust [The Direction series] (Other)
ISBN-13: 9780849513015
ISBN-10: 0849513014

Daughters of Earth [The Phoenix Living Poets] (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780701119102
ISBN-10: 0701119101

English Critical Texts (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780194167116
ISBN-10: 0194167119

Fields of VIsion Essays on Literature Language and Television (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780192122698
ISBN-10: 019212269X
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Foreign Devils (Paperback) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780902843202
ISBN-10: 0902843206

The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia [Penguin Classics] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780140431087
ISBN-10: 014043108X
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Currently 4.2/5 Stars.

Injury Time (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9781844133154
ISBN-10: 184413315X
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs

Interplay a Kind of Commonplace Book (Hardcover) → Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780192824936
ISBN-10: 0192824937
Genre: Literature & Fiction

The Joke Shop (Hardcover) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780679203858
ISBN-10: 0679203850

Literature for Man's Sake Critical Essays (Other)

Mania for Sentences (Hardcover) → Hardcover

Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor (Paperback) → Hardcover
ISBN-13: 9780856358593
ISBN-10: 0856358592
Genres: Biographies & Memoirs, Literature & Fiction

Old Men and Comets [Oxford Poets] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192831767
ISBN-10: 0192831763

The Oxford Book of Contemporary Verse 19451980 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192812605
ISBN-10: 0192812602
Genre: Literature & Fiction

The Oxford Book of Death (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192820136
ISBN-10: 0192820133
Genres: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Reference, Religion & Spirituality, Nonfiction

Paradise Illustrated [Phoenix living poets] (Other)
ISBN-13: 9780701123208
ISBN-10: 0701123206

Play Resumed a Journal (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9780192881083
ISBN-10: 0192881086
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism (Other)

Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism Inaugural Lecture (Other)

Robert Graves and the Decline of Modernism Inaugural Lecture Delivered on 17 November 1960 in the New Lecture Theatre (Other)

Selected Poems 1990 [Oxford Paperbacks] (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 9780192826251
ISBN-10: 0192826255
Genre: Literature & Fiction

Shakespeare and the Students (Other) → Paperback, Hardcover

Signs Wonders Selected Essays (Paperback)

Swann's Way [In Search of Lost Time] (Other) → Paperback

Telling Tales Paradise Illustrated a Faust Book [Oxford Poets] (Paperback)

The Terrible Shears Scenes From a Twenties Childhood [Wesleyan Poetry Program Series : Vol 73] (Paperback)

Unlawful Assembly (Hardcover)

The Way of the Cat (Hardcover) → Paperback, Hardcover

The Way of the Cat (Paperback) → Hardcover

Search - List of Books by D. J. Enright

Life more less

The "Enright Affair" more less

Timeline more less

Works more less

Loading...