Warner, Marina (1946–)

English literary critic and feminist writer. Born Nov 9, 1946, in London, England; attended Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; dau. of Italian mother and English father; m. William Shawcross (writer), 1971 (div.); children: 1 son.

Influential feminist, who focused on "the feminine" in myth and history and set out to deconstruct and explain underlying meanings of female archetypes, wrote The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz'u-his 1835–1908 (1972), Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (1981) and Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (1985), which won the Fawcett Book Prize; also published well-received fiction such as In a Dark Wood (1977), The Skating Party (1982) and The Lost Father (1988), which was shortlisted for Booker Prize; was only the 2nd woman to deliver BBC's Reith Lectures (1994), resulting in Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time (1994); also wrote children's books The Impossible Day (1981) and The Wobbly Tooth (1984) and libretti for children's opera, The Legs of the Queen of Sheba, produced by English National Opera (1991); was visiting professor of women's studies at University of Ulster (1994–95), Mellon Professor at Pittsburgh University (1997), visiting fellow commoner at Trinity College (1998), Tanner Lecturer at Yale University (1999), visiting fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford (2001) and professor of literature at University of Essex (2004); also wrote (novel) The Leto Bundle (2001), (short stories) Murderers I Have Known (2002) and(nonfiction) Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds (2002) and Signs & Wonders: Essays on Literature & Culture (2003); became fellow of Royal Society of Literature (1985).