Timothy Brennan

Background

Timothy was born September 13, 1953, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States; son of Joseph Killorin (an attorney) and Virginia Mae (a homemaker; maiden name, Andres) Brennan.

Education

Timothy studied at University of Wisconsin, Madison and received B.A., 1976. Later, he studied at Columbia University and finished it with M.A., 1981, Ph.D., 1987.

Career

Timothy started at Purdue University, Purdue as assistant professor of English and comparative literature and worked there for two years. Later, he was the assistant professor at State University of New York - Stony Brook, associate professor of English. From 1998 he worked at University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in the positions of associate professor and professor of comparative literature and English. He also was visiting professor at University of Michigan during 1989-90 and at Rutgers University during 1993-94, and at Cornell University, 1996-97.

He is a talented writer. For example, Anuradha Dingwaney Needham wrote about his work Salman Rushdie and the Third World: Myths of the Nation the following: Brennan “has written an important book; its frames of reference... and terms for discussing Rushdie... will resonate in critical debates on ‘Third’ world texts and cultures.” “What Brennan does best is to illustrate the coherence of Rushdie’s work,” commented Abdulrazak Gumah in the Times Literary Supplement. “His discussion of it is assured and well informed, adding to our understanding of the novels’ achievement by revealing their complexities.”

In his late years he is working over Cultures of Belief: Avant Gardes, Communists, Colonies, and Culture, 1910-1945.

Achievements

• Timothy Brennan is best-known as an associate professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Brennan’s expertise is in the areas of twentieth-century literary and cultural theory, especially theories of culture, the German philosophical tradition, and theories of colonialism, European modernity and its relationship to the New World. He also has researched the triangular relationship between Latin America and the Caribbean, the United States, and postwar Britain.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Salman Rushdie and the Third World: Myths of the Nation
  • At Home in the World: Cosmopolitanism Now
  • Music in Cuba

Views

Brennan includes Rushdie in the group of Third World writers he describes as “cosmopolitan” or “world writers.” Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, Bharati Mukherjee, and Derek Walcott also fall into this category.

Brennan told: “I am interested in the margins as expressed through the ‘center’ - that is, the role of the minority arts and movements of cultural belief in defining a collective modernity. One example of this complicated process can be seen in the part played by colonial intellectuals (often based in Europe or New York) in the exchange between European theories of history and language and non-Western forms of art and cultural practice.

My areas of special interest include cultural theory, theories of colonialism, translation theory, Latin America, and the twentieth century Marxist tradition (Lukács, Gramsci, Adomo, Brecht, Lefebvre, Williams, Jameson). Apart from this lineage, my interests extend to critics such as Bataille, Heidegger, and to the cross-section of institutional critiques of the media and discursive or aesthetic accounts of social being. My literary interests are found in the comparative literature of the 20th century, particularly the historical European and American novel, and narratives of African and Afro-Latin diasporas in the Caribbean basin, the United States, and postwar Britain.”

Membership

Timothy is a member of International Association of Philosophy and Literature, Modern Language Association, American Comparative Literature Association, Latin-American Studies Association, Teachers for a Democratic Culture, Intercampus Faculty Committee for Peace and Justice.

Interests

• piano, swimming, singing

Connections

Timothy Brennan married Keya Ganguly (a professor), January 4, 1997.

Father:

Joseph Killorin

Mother:

Virginia Mae (Andres) Brennan

Spouse:

Keya Ganguly

coworker:

Alan Wast

coworker:

Richard Schwartz

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 181