Toril Moi

About

Toril Moi is a professor whose work involves literary studies, criticism, and theory. Her recent publications include a review essay on books related to literary studies, and she has contributed to discussions on the crisis in the profession. She has been interviewed by various media outlets, including Danish newspapers, and her academic interests encompass feminism, gender, literary theory, and the intersection of literature and philosophy. Her engagement with prominent thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir and Stanley Cavell indicates a focus on feminist theory and philosophical approaches to literature. Her contributions extend to public intellectual discourse through essays, interviews, and media appearances, reflecting her active role in contemporary literary and cultural debates.

Research topics

• Philosophy
• Literature
• Art
• Psychology
• History
• Epistemology
• Linguistics
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Character

  2019-01-01 · 104 citations

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Philosophy and Autobiography

  Bloomsbury Academic eBooks · 2020 · 10 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Wittgensteinian Phenomenology of Criticism

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2022 · 8 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Can there be something like a "Wittgensteinian" literary criticism? If so, what could it possibly be, given that Wittgenstein sought to make us give up the craving for generality? Through an analysis of "The Avoidance of Love," Stanley Cavell's epochal 1969 essay on King Lear, Toril Moi shows that a reader inspired by Wittgenstein does not have to set out to apply a given theory, or to answer certain "Wittgensteinian" questions. Rather it entails a wish to acknowledge the concerns of the text, a…

  PublisherDOI

• Character: Three Inquiries in Literary Studies

  2019-10-23 · 3 citations

  bookOpen accessSenior author

  Over the last few decades, character-based criticism has been seen as either naive or obsolete. But now questions of character are attracting renewed interest. Making the case for a broad-based revision of our understanding of character, Character rethinks these questions from the ground up. Is it really necessary to remind literary critics that characters are made up of words? Must we forbid identification with characters? Does character-discussion force critics to embrace humanism and outmoded…

  PublisherOA PDF

• From femininity to finitude: Freud, Lacan, and feminism, again

  2018-03-26 · 3 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  For a long time, the author used to think that feminists ought to choose Lacan's femininity theory over Freud's. Although the author consider Freud the greater thinker, his eternal harping on penis envy and motherhood as the solution to the "problem" of femininity struck the author as intellectually wrongheaded, and misogynist too. Compared to this, Lacan seemed positively upbeat. For him, femininity is a position constructed in language, a position that can be taken up by men as well…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Gayle Greene

  Scripps College

  4 shared

• Coppélia Kahn

  4 shared

• Elaine Marks

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  3 shared

• Rita Felski

  University of Virginia

  3 shared

• Elaine Showalter

  3 shared

• Janet Batsleer

  2 shared

• Barbara Johnson

  2 shared

• Jane Flax

  2 shared

Education

• Ph.D., English Literature

  Yale University

  1981

• M.A., English Literature

  University of Bergen

  1976

• B.A., English Literature

  University of Bergen

  1973

Awards & honors

• MLA's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for the best book in C…
• Duke University's Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award (1998)
• Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring of Graduate Student…
• Fellow of the British Academy (2016)

Similar researchers at Duke University

• Priscilla Waldh-19
• David Aersh-17
• Marianna Torgovnickh-14