Jakob Lothe


Jakob Lothe is a Norwegian literary scholar and Professor of English literature at the University of Oslo.

Early life and education

After growing up in Lote, Norway, Lothe studied at the University of Bergen where he completed his undergraduate work. He then studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he obtained an MA degree in Comparative Literature, before receiving his doctorate in Bergen in 1986. In addition to his professorship in Oslo he has held positions at the University of Bergen and the University of Tromsø, and has been visiting professor at the University of Oxford, the University of Cape Town and Harvard University. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.

Writings

His books include Conrad's Narrative Method and Narrative in Fiction and Film. Lothe is also editor or co-editor of a number of books, including Joseph Conrad: Voice, Sequence, History, Genre, with James Phelan and Jeremy Hawthorn, Franz Kafka: Narration, Rhetoric, and Reading, with Beatrice Sandberg and Ronald Speirs, After Testimony: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Holocaust Narrative for the Future, with Susan Rubin Suleiman and James Phelan, Narrative Ethics, with Jeremy Hawthorn, and The Future of Literary Studies.
In 2006 Lothe co-edited Tidsvitner with Anette Storeide, a book documenting the stories of eight Norwegians who survived nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. The book was elected "Book of the Year" by the readers of the Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet. In 2013 he edited Kvinnelige Tidsvitner: Fortellinger fra Holocaust. The book documents the stories of ten Jewish women who survived the Holocaust.

Personal life

Lothe is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, where he in 2005-06 was leader of the research project "Narrative Theory and Analysis" at the Centre for Advanced Study. In the spring of 2018, Lothe was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. He is married to Elin Toft. Jakob Mathias Antonson Lothe was his grandfather.

Selected bibliography