Ralph Rader, at 77; theorist on novels
Ralph W. Rader, whose theories on the development of the novel as a genre came at a time when the novel was still considered "bathroom reading" by some of his colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley, died Nov. 23. He was 77.
A professor emeritus of English at Berkeley, Dr. Rader died of congestive heart failure at nearby Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, his daughter Nancy said.
He became interested in the novel as a literary form after he had established himself as a specialist on the British poet Alfred Tennyson. Dr. Rader found autobiographical elements in the love poem "Maud," and wrote the book "Tennyson's Maud: The Biographical Genesis" in 1963.
He then explored the concept of an "autobiographical core" in fiction, using seminal works from the 18th to the 20th centuries as examples. One example was "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens, who wrote in the novel about the injustices of child labor out of his own experience as a boy working in a factory.
Dr. Rader found similar biographical strands in novels by Charlotte Bronte, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and others.
It was a bold step for an English professor to take the novel as seriously as Dr. Rader did, starting in the early 1970s. "The study of the novel as a genre, as a literary artifact, was new," said Dorothy Hale, a former student of Mr. Rader and now a professor of English at Berkeley. "One Shakespeare professor on campus told me that the novel is bathroom reading," she recalled.
Dr. Rader believed in the concept of a literary canon of great novels, with a subheading for masterpieces. Although colleagues questioned the whole idea, "Ralph would say that you can measure a masterwork by its endurance and continuing readership," Hale said.
Prominent colleagues in the field developed their own theories about the influence of social trends, political dynamics, cultural dominance, and other factors on novelists and poets. Dr. Rader countered that the main influence on novelists was great fiction from the past.
"His theory was quite controversial and not universally accepted," Hale said. It was outlined most famously by Harold Bloom in his 1973 book, "The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry."
"For Ralph, it was a matter of influence without the anxiety," Hale said.
A native of Muskegon, Mich., Dr. Rader joined the faculty of the English department at Berkeley in 1956 and served as chairman for two terms.
