George Steiner

George Steiner (1929-2020) was one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century, writer, critic and theorist of literature and culture, emeritus professor at Churchill College, Cambridge University and St Anne’s College, University of Cambridge. Oxford. His work focused on the history of culture, where he framed his concerns: the crisis of humanism in relation with the scientific and technological rise, the Holocaust and its consequences, the relationship between language and thought and the irreducibility of languages and their future. His essays include The Death of Tragedy (1961), Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967), In Bluebeard’s Castle: Some Notes Towards the Redefinition of Culture (1971), After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation (1975), On Difficulty and Other Essays (1978), Real Presences: Is there Anything We Say? (1989), Errata: An Examined Life (1997), Grammars of Creation (2001), Lessons of the Masters (2003), Nostalgia for the Absolute (2004) and My Unwritten Books (2008). In 2001 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Communication and Humanities.