Robert Kroetsch
Robert Kroetsch (1927-2018) was a prominent Canadian poet, novelist, and literary critic known for his innovative approaches to language and storytelling. Born in Heisler, Alberta, his childhood was influenced by a farming background and a family tradition of oral storytelling, which informed his literary themes surrounding boundaries and the contrast between spoken and written language. He pursued higher education at the University of Alberta, McGill University, and the University of Iowa, ultimately earning a doctoral degree.
Kroetsch's literary work is marked by a playful irreverence toward language and a deep engagement with various literary theories, including postmodernism and phenomenology. His acclaimed novel, *The Studhorse Man*, won the Governor General's Award in 1970 and has been celebrated in both academic and popular contexts, including adaptations for the stage. He continued to receive recognition for his poetry, notably with *The Hornbooks of Rita K*, which garnered nominations for prestigious literary awards.
Throughout his career, Kroetsch taught at several universities in Canada and the United States, contributing to his reputation as a versatile and respected figure in Canadian literature. His papers are archived at the University of Calgary, preserving his legacy for future scholars and readers.
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Robert Kroetsch
Author
- Born: June 26, 1927
- Birthplace: Heisler, Alberta, Canada
- Died: June 21, 2011
Biography
Robert Kroetsch was born on June 26, 1927, in Heisler, Alberta, Canada, the son of Paul and Hilda (Weller) Kroetsch. His parents were farmers, and the family had a tradition of oral storytelling. Kroetsch suffered from allergies as a child, which kept him from the usual male farm employments. He was relegated to the garden, an area where gender roles overlapped, and this experience influenced his later interest in the theme of borderlands or boundaries.
Kroetsch earned a B.A. in 1948 from the University of Alberta and later undertook graduate studies at McGill University. He earned an M.A. degree at an American institution, Middlebury College in Vermont, in 1956, and went on to complete his doctoral degree at the University of Iowa in 1961. In 1956, he married Mary Jane Lewis; this marriage produced two daughters, Laura Caroline Kroetsch and Margaret Ann Kroetsch, and ended in divorce in 1979. Subsequently, he married Greek writer Smaro Kamboureli in1982. Kroetsch has taught writing and literature at universities in the United States as well as in his native Canada.
Kroetsch is well regarded as a poet, novelist, and literary critic. His literary interests include phenomenology, structuralism, poststructuralism, and linguistics, and his poetry, in particular, exhibits an irreverence toward language that is calculated to subvert language’s inherent limitations. Another of Kroetsch’s interests is the contrast between spoken and written language, between oral and literary expression. Although often identified with postmodern or deconstructionist aesthetics, Kroetsch is also admired for his openness to a range of literary styles and modes and for his painstakingly accurate depiction of Canadian landscape and culture.
In 1970, Kroetsch received a Governor General’s Award, Canada’s most prestigious literary prize, for his third novel, The Studhorse Man (1969). His work is admired by academic as well as popular audiences; The Studhorse Man, for example, is used as a literary text in university courses and was adapted into a long-running play. More recently, his poetry collection, The Hornbooks of Rita K (2001), was nominated in 2001 for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, and in 2002 for Trade Book of the Year by the Alberta Book Awards. Kroetsch’s papers are at the University of Calgary library.