Professor of English Literature and Culture

Guido Latré

Professor of English Literature and Culture

Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

CURRICULUM VITAE

Guido Latré read English and Dutch Literature and Linguistics at LeuvenUniversity (Ph.D. Eng. Lit., 1982). From 1983 to 2001, he taught English Literature at K.U.Leuven (Belgium). In June/July 1999, he was a visiting professor at PointLomaNazareneUniversity, San Diego (U.S.A.). In 2001, he became a Senior Lecturer at Université Catholique de Louvain, where he is currently a professor of English Literature and Culture. His main focus for research is on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. From 1990-96, he was a member of the Board of Governors at WestminsterCollege in Oxford. From 1999 to 2004 he coordinated a large-scale project on early English Bibles printed in Antwerp, and he is a Member of the Advisory Board of Reformation. In 2002, he was awarded the Churchill Medal for his research and teaching of English language, literature and culture in a European context. He has been involved in the production of several documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 (including the BBC docudrama Devil's Word: The Battle for and English Bible (script by Peter Ackroyd).

A SELECTION OF PUBLICATIONS

Books and Articles

"Yelping for Arthur: Adventure and (Meta)fiction in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," in Willy Van Hoecke, Gilbert Tournoy en Werner Verbeke (ed.), Arthurus Rex, vol 2: ActaConventus Lovanienses 1987, Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, Series I, Studia XVII, Leuven: Universitaire Pers, 1991, pp. 186-203.

Abstract:

For a mediaeval author, the Gawain-poet shows a remarkable awareness of metafiction in his Arthurian masterpiece. This article discusses in detail the images and narrative developments in which, through a procedure of mirror text (“mise-en-abyme”), the author comments on the tension between realistic awareness and fictional dream. Parallels are drawn in the end between Cervantes’ and the Gawain-poet’s perception of the chivalric ethos and aspirations.

"The 1535 Coverdale Bible and Its Antwerp Origins," in Orlaith O'Sullivan (ed.), The Bible as Book: The Reformation, London: The British Library and Oak Knoll Press, 2000, pp. 38 b,c,d and pp. 89-102.

Of all Latré’s publications, this one has attracted most international attention. It has been accepted as establishing definitively the place of origin of what is arguably the most influential book ever published in the English language: the Coverdale Bible, which is largely Tyndale’s work and which, in slightly adapted versions from 1538 onwards, exerted a profound influence on the formation of the English language and nation.

In the Exodus chapters of this Bible, there is an illustration of the Tabernacle in which Dutch words occur (Oost, Suiid, Ijsachar). This had hitherto escaped the attention of the bibliographers, who were confused about the place of origin of this book (Zurich? Cologne? Marburg?). It now appears that both its preparation and its printing were done in Antwerp. The article gives an idea of the typographical circumstances allowing Coverdale, pupil of Tyndale, to print his Bible. The ground is now clear for a further investigation of the intellectual climate in which this monumental work originated (humanism, religious reform, and new “Erasmian” linguistic and literary interpretations).

The new National Dictionary of Biography (NDB), which will appear shortly, has already accepted this new definition of the place of publication of the 1535 Coverdale.

"But What Does the Fleming Say?: The Two Flemish Proverbs and Their Contexts in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales," in Leeds Studies in English (March 2001, special volume on mediaeval literature, New Series 32), pp. 255-73.

This article demonstrates the subtle game Chaucer plays with two Flemish proverbs and their contexts, and leads to a further appraisal of Chaucer’s humour. It will appear at the beginning of 2001 in the reputable refereed journal mentioned above.

Professor Sarah Carpenter (Professor of Mediaeval Studies, BristolUniversity) has written the following: “Dr Latré’s article . . . is particularly welcome, and judges the audience of the volume with sensitivity. He blends the necessary precise and scholary philological detail with such humour as his narrative unfolds, that a subject with some potential for dryness is a joy to read.”

"More than an Order of Words: Prayer as an Analogon for Poetry in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets," in Yoko Wada (ed.), Perigrinator: Essays on Literature in English, Tokyo: Shohakusha Press, 2003, pp. 72-85.

Two metaphoric layers in Eliot’s masterpiece are related to each other systematically. Implicitly, Eliot appears to suggest a synthesis between the ever-changing formal patterns of the poem, and the eternal truths of its contents. This unity between the opposite poles is also applied to the inspired prayer.

This article will appear shortly in a publication associated with Prof. Akira Yasukawa, eminent specialist on the Japanese interests of the modernist Ezra Pound, who exerted a strong influence on Eliot.

Tyndale’s Testament. Turnhout/ New York, 2002 (195 large format pages).

Guido Latré is one of the three editors of this standard work on the Antwerp context of the most important years of the English Bible translator William Tyndale. Co-editors: Paul Arblaster and Gergely Juhasz.

"Was van Haemstede a Direct Source for Foxe?: On le Blas' Pijnbanck and Other Borrowings," in David Loades (ed.), John Foxe at Home and Abroad, Aldershot and Burlington: Ashgate,2004, pp. 151-55.

This is a significant contribution to a major publication of the British Academy John Foxe Project. It reveals the hitherto underestimated literary and literal influences the Low Countries martyrologist Haemstede had on John Foxe's famous Book of Martyrs. Together with the Book of Comman Prayer and above all the Bible, Foxe's book is considered to be one of the most influential publications in the context of the building of the English nation. The argument developed by Latré is based on a philological analysis of words and phrases Foxe borrows from Haemstede, and on the narratological and stylistic features of the texts as a whole. The most convincing direct borrowings and parallels had never been pointed out before.

In collaboration with Kirby Joris, "Lectures culturelles de la Bible dans les pays de langue anglaise," Revue théologique de Louvain, 38, 2007, pp. 352-372.

An investigation of readings in the Bible in popular culture, especially in the U.K. and the U.S.

Contributions to Documentaries

Devil’s Words: The Battle for an English Bible. Docu-drama on Tyndale’s Bible, in collaboration with the BBC. Script: Peter Ackroyd. Producer: Tim Niel.

Guido Latré’s contribution includes elaborate scholarly advice, most of which has been taken on board in the script; the choice of locations for filming in Antwerp and Vilvoorde; and interviews. Nominated best BBC programme of March 2003.

William Tyndale: His Life, His Legacy. The History of the English Bible Series, Tennessee: Avalon Press, 2005.

DVD based on research by and interviews with Guido Latré and Emeritus Professor David Daniell (honorary fellow Hertford College Oxford; Chairman of the Tyndale Society), hosted by Dr. William H. Noah.

Guido Latré contributed in conjunction with the Erasmus House, Anderlecht. The DVD received The Gold Special Jury Award of the Worldfest International Film Festival, 2005.

The Battle for the English Bible. Docudrama for Channel 4 (Easter 2007). Producer David Wilson (Pioneer Productions).

With Archbishop Rowan Williams, Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, readings by Kenneth Brannagh, and others, and recorded scenes in Antwerp based on interviews with and scholarly preparation by Guido Latré. The American version lasts only one hour. The U.K. version (lasting two hours) has interviews and comments by journalist Rod Liddle.