Peter L. Thorslev Jr.

Peter L. Thorslev Jr.
Born(1929-10-17)October 17, 1929
Harlan, Iowa, U.S.
DiedOctober 13, 2011(2011-10-13) (aged 81)
Burbank, California, U.S.
OccupationLiterary scholar
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (1965)
Academic background
Alma mater
ThesisThe Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes (1959)
Academic work
Sub-disciplineRomantic-era literature
Institutions

Peter Larsen Thorslev Jr. (October 17, 1929 – October 13, 2011) was an American literary scholar. A 1965 Guggenheim Fellow, he wrote two books on Romantic era literature: The Byronic Hero (1962) and Romantic Contraries (1984). He was one of the first openly LGBT academics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Biography

Thorslev was born on October 17, 1929, in Harlan, Iowa.[1] His father Peter Larsen Thorslev emigrated from Denmark and worked as a minister in Canada, before becoming pastor of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kennard, Nebraska.[2][3] Later moving to Kennard,[4] he obtained his BA from Dana College in 1950.[1]

He did graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, obtaining his MA in 1957 and PhD in 1959;[1] his doctoral dissertation was titled The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes.[5] After spending one year at Northwestern University as an English instructor (1959-1960), he moved to the University of California, Los Angeles as assistant professor of English.[1] In 1966, he was promoted to associate professor.[1]

Thorslev specialized in Romantic-era literature. In 1962, he published The Byronic Hero, a monograph on the character archetype of the same name.[6] In 1965, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship "for a study of free will and determinism in the Romantic period".[1] Another book in the field, Romantic Contraries, was published in 1984.[7]

Thorslev was gay, reportedly being one of the first UCLA faculty members to come out.[8] He chaired the UCLA senate's academic freedom committee.[9] In 1988, he voiced concern about the state of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives (now part of the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives) after they lost their original storage space due to financial issues.[10]

Thorslev died on October 13, 2011, at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.[11] He was cremated and interred at St. James' Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, while a funeral took place on October 20 at St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in North Hollywood.[11]

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Reports of the President and the Treasurer. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 1965. p. 201.
  2. ^ "Kennard Has New Pastor". The Pilot-Tribune. November 21, 1946. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Rev. Thorslev Died Thursday. Services Saturday". The Pilot-Tribune. October 3, 1966. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Thorslev, Christensen Win College Honors". The Pilot-Tribune. May 27, 1948. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes (PhD thesis). University of Minnesota Graduate School. 1959. OCLC 44074426.
  6. ^ "The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes". JSTOR.
  7. ^ a b Punter, David (1986). "Peter L. Thorslev Jr., Romantic Contraries: Freedom versus Destiny". Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly. 20 (2).
  8. ^ "History Timeline". UCLA LGBTQ Campus. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
  9. ^ Thorslev, Peter L. Jr (November 16, 1969). "Academic Freedom's Meaning, Value". The Los Angeles Times. p. F7 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Gay archives in search of new home". The San Bernardino County Sun. November 7, 1988. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ a b "Peter Thorslev Obituary (1929 - 2011)". Legacy.com. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
  12. ^ Fleischmann, Wolfgang Bernard (1964). "Review of The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes". Comparative Literature Studies. 1 (1): 73–75. ISSN 0010-4132. JSTOR 40245629.
  13. ^ Hooker, Z. V., II (August 12, 1962). "The Byronic Hero And His Origins". The Roanoke Times. p. E8 – via Newspapers.com.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Jump, J. D. (1964). "Review of The Byronic Hero. Types and Prototypes". The Review of English Studies. 15 (57): 100–101. ISSN 0034-6551. JSTOR 513338.
  15. ^ Rutherford, Andrew (1964). "Review of The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes". The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 63 (4): 814–816. ISSN 0363-6941. JSTOR 27714563.
  16. ^ West, Paul (1963). "Review of The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes". The Modern Language Review. 58 (4): 567–568. doi:10.2307/3719947. ISSN 0026-7937. JSTOR 3719947.
  17. ^ Behrendt, Stephen C. (1985). "Review of Romantic Contraries: Freedom versus Destiny". Criticism. 27 (4): 418–421. ISSN 0011-1589. JSTOR 23110456.
  18. ^ Gleckner, Robert F. (1985). "Review of Romantic Contraries: Freedom versus Destiny". Keats-Shelley Journal. 34: 172–175. ISSN 0453-4387. JSTOR 30210225.
  19. ^ Robinson, Alan (1986). "Review of Romantic Contraries: Freedom versus Destiny". The Review of English Studies. 37 (146): 269–270. ISSN 0034-6551. JSTOR 516999.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.