Safer, Elaine B. 1937-

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SAFER, Elaine B. 1937-

(Elaine Berkman Safer)

PERSONAL: Born September 18, 1937, in Brooklyn, NY; daughter of Israel (a social worker) and Sally (Bernstein) Berkman; married Daniel Safer (a physician), June 5, 1960 (divorced, 1994); children: Debra, Alan, Judith. Education: Brooklyn College (now Brooklyn College of the City University of New York), B.A., 1958; University of Wisconsin, M.S., 1959; Case Western Reserve University, M.A., 1961, Ph.D., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of English, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19711. E-mail—safer@ udel.edu.

CAREER: Writer. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, instructor in English, 1963–66; University of Delaware, Newark, assistant professor, 1967–73, associate professor, 1973–88, professor of English, 1988–, chair of Committee on Academic Freedom, 1977–78. Université Jean-Moulin Lyon III, distinguished professor, 1990, and annually, 1992–96; conference presenter in the United States and abroad. Member of editorial board, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Literature, 1987–, Studies in American Jewish Literature, 1993–, Studies in American Humor, 1996–, and Saul Bellow Journal.

MEMBER: International Society for Humor Studies (member of executive board, 1990–93), American Literature Association, American Humor Studies Association (member of executive board, 1991–; president, 1997), Milton Society of America, Philip Roth Society, Modern Language Association of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grant from National Endowment for the Humanities, 1983; Fulbright scholar, 1990; fellow of Center for Advanced Studies, 1997–98.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Thomas Erskine) John Milton: L'Allegro and Il Penseroso, C. E. Merrill (Columbus, OH), 1970.

The Contemporary American Comic Epic: The Novels of Barth, Pynchon, Gaddis, and Kesey, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 1988.

Mocking the Age: The Later Novels of Philip Roth, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), in press.

Contributor to books, including A Milton Encyclopedia, edited by William B. Hunter and others, Bucknell University Press (Lewisburg, PA), 1979; The American Writer and the University, edited by Ben Siegel, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1989; Tradition, Voices, and Dreams: The American Novel since the 1960s, edited by Ben Siegel and Melvin J. Friedman, University of Delaware Press (Newark, DE), 1995; and to reference books. Contributor of articles and reviews to periodicals, including International Journal of Humor Research, Melus: Society for the Study of MultiEthnic Literature of the United States, Studies in American Fiction, Renascence, Literature/Film Quarterly, Studies in the Novel, Milton Quarterly, Improving College and University Teaching, Milton Studies, and Literature Film Quarterly. Coeditor of special issue, Saul Bellow Journal, spring, 2003.