Martha Banta (May 11, 1928 – March 31, 2020) was an American literary scholar.
Martha Banta was born on May 11, 1928, in Muncie, Indiana.[1] She received a BA from Indiana University in 1950 and a PhD, also from Indiana, in 1964.[1] She taught English at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1983 onwards, and was named a distinguished professor there.[2]
In 1982, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[3] From 1990 to 1991, Banta was the president of the American Studies Association.[2] She received the Carl Bode–Norman Holmes Pearson Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Service from the ASA in 2002.[2][4]
From 1997 to 2000, she edited PMLA, the journal of the Modern Language Association.[2]
Banta died on March 31, 2020, in Pasadena, California.[2]
Works
- Henry James and the Occult: The Great Extension (Indiana University Press, 1972)[5]
- Failure and Success in America: A Literary Debate (Princeton University Press, 1978)[6]
- Imaging American Women: Idea and Ideals in Cultural History (Columbia University Press, 1987)[7]
- Taylored Lives: Narrative Productions in the Age of Taylor, Veblen, and Ford (University of Chicago Press, 1993)[8]
- Barbaric Intercourse: Caricature and the Culture of Conduct, 1841–1936 (University of Chicago Press, 2003)[9]
- One True Theory and the Quest for an American Aesthetic (Yale University Press, 2007)[10]
- Henry James: An Alien's "History" of America (Sapienza Università Editrice, 2016)[11]
Further reading
- Walker, Pierre A. (2021). "In Memoriam: Martha Banta 1928–2020". The Henry James Review. 42 (2): 95–97. doi:10.1353/hjr.2021.0011. ISSN 1080-6555. Project MUSE 793310.
References
- May, Hal; Lesniak, James G., eds. (1990). "Banta, Martha 1928-". Contemporary Authors. New Revision Series. Vol. 29. Gale. p. 36. ISBN 0-8103-1983-7. ISSN 0275-7176.
- "Obituary" (PDF). Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles. Retrieved May 10, 2026.
- "Martha Banta". Guggenheim Fellowships. Retrieved May 13, 2026.
- "Bode-Pearson Prize". American Studies Association. Retrieved May 10, 2026.
- Miller, James E. (1973). "Henry James and the Occult". Modern Fiction Studies. 19 (2): 267–270. ISSN 0026-7724. JSTOR 26279027.
- Reviews of Failure and Success in America:
- Rowe, John Carlos (June 1980). "Failure and Success in America". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 35 (1): 81–84. doi:10.2307/2933482. ISSN 0029-0564. JSTOR 2933482.
- Baym, Nina (1979). "Failure and Success in America". Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 78 (4): 584–587. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27708573.
- Bush, Clive (1980). "Failure and Success in America". Journal of American Studies. 14 (2): 296–299. doi:10.1017/S002187580000219X. ISSN 0021-8758. JSTOR 27553849.
- Reviews of Imaging American Women:
- Bolt, Christine (1989). "Imaging American Women". History. 74 (242): 447–448. ISSN 0018-2648. JSTOR 24414309.
- Boris, Eileen (October 1988). "Imaging American Women". The American Historical Review. 93 (4): 1123. doi:10.2307/1863690. JSTOR 1863690.
- Halttunen, Karen (March 1989). "The Life and Times of the American Girl". American Quarterly. 41 (1): 190–195. doi:10.2307/2713207. JSTOR 2713207.
- Buhle, Mari Jo (June 1988). "Imaging American Women". The Journal of American History. 75 (1): 229. doi:10.2307/1889682. JSTOR 1889682.
- Reviews of Taylored Lives:
- Biggs, Lindy (October 1996). "Taylored Lives". Technology and Culture. 37 (4): 846. doi:10.2307/3107111. JSTOR 3107111.
- Rodgers, Daniel T. (October 1994). "Taylored Lives". The American Historical Review. 99 (4): 1396. doi:10.2307/2168934. JSTOR 2168934.
- Godden, Richard (1994). "Taylored Lives". Journal of American Studies. 28 (3): 467–468. doi:10.1017/S0021875800027845. ISSN 0021-8758. JSTOR 27555856.
- Reviews of Barbaric Intercourse:
- Hoekema, David A. (2009). "One True Theory and the Quest for an American Aesthetic". American Studies. 50: 137–138. ISSN 0026-3079. JSTOR 41287755.
- Reviews of Henry James:
- De Biasio, Anna (February 2019). "Henry James". Journal of American Studies. 53 (1). doi:10.1017/S0021875818001767. ISSN 0021-8758.
- Walker, Pierre A. (2017). "Henry James". The Henry James Review. 38 (1): E1–E4. doi:10.1353/hjr.2017.0000. ISSN 1080-6555. Project MUSE 648948.