Alan William Raitt, FRSL, FBA (21 September 1930 – 2 September 2006) was a British scholar of French literature, specialising in nineteenth-century French literature.[1] From 1992 to 1997, he was Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford.
Raitt was born on 21 September 1930 in Morpeth, Northumberland, England.[2] He was educated at The King Edward VI School, Morpeth, then an all-boys state grammar school.[3] He studied Modern Languages (French and German) at Magdalen College, Oxford,[4][2] graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1951.[4] His undergraduate tutor had been Austin Gill.[4] He remained at Magdalen College to undertake postgraduate research on "Villiers de l'Isle-Adam and the Symbolist movement",[4] completing his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1957.[3]
From 1953 to 1955, Raitt was a Fellow (by examination) of Magdalen College, Oxford.[3] From 1955 to 1966, he was Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.[4] In 1966, he returned to Magdalen College where he had been elected a fellow, and would remain there until his retirement in 1997; that year he was elected Fellow Emeritus.[3] He also held a number of positions at university level in the University of Oxford: he was a Special Lecturer in French Literature from 1976 to 1979, Reader from French Literature from 1979 to 1992, and Professor of French Literature from 1992 to 1997.[3][4]
Raitt also held a number of appointments outside of Oxford. He was visiting lecturer at the University of Georgia in 1986.[3] He was Visiting Professor at the Paris-Sorbonne University from 1987 to 1988.[3] From 1987 to 1997, he was General Editor of French Studies, the journal of the Society for French Studies.[4]
In 1959, Raitt married Janet Taylor. Together, they had two daughters. They divorced in 1971. In 1974, he married Lia Noémia Rodrigues Correia; she outlived him.[3]
In 1971, Raitt was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL).[2] In 1992, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the UK's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences.[4] In 1995, he was appointed a Commandeur de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques (Commander of the Order of Academic Palms) by the French government.[3]