NINA AUERBACH

1943 - 2017

AUERBACH--Nina,

died February 3, 2017 in New York City, of respiratory failure. Born May 24, 1943, Nina was the daughter of Arnold Auerbach, a comedy writer for radio, television, and theatre, and Justine Auerbach, a painter. She attended the Walden School, and received her B.A. at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her Ph.D in English Literature from Columbia University. She taught at Hunter College and Cal State University Los Angeles, before joining the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was the John Welsh Centennial Professor of English, until her retirement in 2010. A prolific scholar, well known in the fields of Victorian literature, Feminist Criticism, Theater History, and Horror fiction and film, Nina was the recipient of multiple awards including Guggenheim and Ford Foundation Fellowships. As a valued teacher and dissertation advisor for Ph.D students, many of whom became major scholars themselves, she was honored with a Lindback Award for distinguished teaching. From Jane Austen and Lewis Carroll to popular theatricals and vampires, Nina brought a penetrating and creative eye to the largely unexplored power, complexity, and influence of women and female myths. Her published work includes "Communities of Women: An Idea in Fiction" (1978); "Woman and the Demon: The Life of a Victorian Myth" (1982), hailed by George Levine in The New York times, as a "daring and important book of cultural criticism... beautifully written and... moving... a subversive rereading of Victorian culture"; "Romantic Imprisonment: Women and Other Glorified Outcasts" (1986); "Ellen Terry: Player in Her Time" (1987); "Private Theatricals: The Lives of the Victorians" (1990); "Our Vampires, Ourselves" (1995), ("each age embraces the vampire it needs, and gets the vampire it deserves.") in this book, she examines how the changing nature of fear throughout American history is entwined with charismatic American presidents. It was acclaimed by Wendy Doniger in The Nation as a "seductive work" that "offers profound insights into many of the urgent concerns of our time"; and "Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress" (2000). She was the co-editor of the Norton Critical edition of Bram Stoker's "Dracula." Nina was interviewed on film for the award winning vampire series "True Blood," and received the distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts. Prior to her death, Nina was working on "Lost Lives," a study of ghosts and their purposes, and completed an essay on the 1940 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" for a collection edited by Richard Kaye to be published by Oxford University Press in 2018. Nina will be profoundly missed by her friends and colleagues, as well as her family. She is survived by her devoted brother Andrew Auerbach, her beloved dog Mickey, and her cousins Deborah Offner, David Eliscu, James Rubin, Patricia Sacks, and Jane Hoffman. A memorial is planned for April 18th at the University of Pennsylvania. Gifts can be made to the Nina J. Auerbach Scholarship Fund to provide fellowships for graduate students interested in studying Victorian Literature, by mailing a check payable to: Trustees, University of Pennsylvania, with a memo line specifying The Nina J. Auerbach Scholarship fund. Checks can be mailed to: Jean-Marie Kneeley, School of Arts and Science, U. of P., 3600 Market St., Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3284.