Barbara Johnson
Barbara Ellen Johnson (October 4, 1947 – August 27, 2009) was an American
literary critic and translator, born in
Boston. She was a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and the
Fredric Wertham Professor of
Law and
Psychiatry in Society at
Harvard University. Her scholarship incorporated a variety of
structuralist and
poststructuralist perspectives—including
deconstruction,
Lacanian
psychoanalysis, and
feminist theory—into a critical,
interdisciplinary study of literature. As a scholar, teacher, and translator, Johnson helped make the theories of French philosopher
Jacques Derrida accessible to English-speaking audiences in the United States at a time when they had just begun to gain recognition in France. Accordingly, she is often associated with the "
Yale School" of academic literary criticism.
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