Professor Philip Tew (born Enfield, Middlesex) is an English academic. A professor in English (Post-1900 Literature) in the School of Arts at Brunel University [1], Tew is a literary critic and theorist in the field of contemporary and modern British fiction after 1945, and of various strands of critical or 'high' theory, particularly metarealism and materialism. He has been an opponent of the essentialism and anti-realist orthodoxies underlying much of postmodernist and postcolonial criticism. Tew is the author of standard works on B.S. Johnson, Jim Crace, Zadie Smith, and the contemporary British novel. He has edited academic collections, series and journals. His recent work has focused on social gerontology and the use of narrative theories in social, cultural and policy analysis.
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Tew was born into a working class English family in the London Borough of Enfield. Tew's secondary education took place at Enfield Grammar School, which he entered in 1965. The school became comprehensive in Tew's second year.
After A-levels Tew attended the University of Leicester, where he gained a BA (Upper Second Class Hons.) in American Studies (with English and History). Subsequently he was awarded a PGCE in English (Middle and Secondary Schools), studying at Leicester Polytechnic (now De Montfort University). He worked in both primary and secondary schools in Leicester, Leicestershire and London. He also lectured in Further Education Colleges in English for the ILEA (Inner London Education Authority).
After part-time research, Tew gained an MPhil in modern American literature in 1985, his thesis focusing on the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. In 1995, Tew left full-time employment to enter the PhD programme at the University of Westminster. He completed his doctorate - on avant-garde, working class author, B.S. Johnson - in 1997: Manchester University Press published a revised version as an academic monograph in 2001.
Tew has held various full and part-time appointments at the following higher education establishments since 1990: University of Wolverhampton; University of Westminster; Jesus College, Cambridge; Debrecen University (Hungary); Szeged University (Hungary); Birmingham City University; University of Northampton and Brunel University. He was Reader (Associate Professor) in English at Debrecen University (Hungary) and Birmingham City University (formerly UCE Birmingham), and Professor of English at the University of Northampton and Brunel University (appointed in May 2006).
Tew has also had jobs outside education, including in the early 1980s as a playleader on a GLC (Greater London Council) inflatable scheme, and as an occasional stage hand at the English National Opera based at the London Coliseum theatre. From 1997–2001 Tew combined academic work with freelance assignments in television research and production for Café Productions and Dai-4 Films.[2] He continues as an occasional consultant for the latter.
Tew has lectured in North America, Taiwan, and Europe. His academic criticism is both recommended reading on university courses and stocked in college and university libraries worldwide. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]
Tew is the founding and executive Director of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies[16], joint managing editor of Symbiosis: a Journal of Anglo-American Literary Relations[17], and a member of a national panel to assess research funding submissions in the humanities (the AHRC Peer Review College) and Social Research in the ESRC Peer Review College. He is founding co-editor of Critical Engagements, a peer-reviewed journal affiliated to the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies, Since 1998 he has been a member of the Northeast Modern Languages Association (NEMLA), a regional scholarly organization for professionals in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and other modern languages based in the USA [18]. He is currently Director of the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing (BCCW), and Principal Investigator of the Fiction and the Cultural Mediation of Ageing Project (FCMAP), based at Brunel, funded by the Joint Research Councils (part of the New Dynamics of Ageing Initiative or NDA).
Tew's publications include the following books: B. S. Johnson: A Critical Reading (Manchester UP, 2001), Contemporary British Fiction (Polity, 2003) co-edited with Richard J. Lane and Rod Mengham (Reader in English, Jesus College, Cambridge), The Contemporary British Novel (Continuum, 2004; Svetovi Press Serbian translation 2006; second rev. ed. 2007), Jim Crace: A Critical Introduction (Manchester UP, 2006) [19], British Fiction Today co-edited with Rod Mengham (Continuum, 2006) [20] and Re-reading B. S. Johnson (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) a collection co-edited with Glyn White [21], and Writer's Talk co-edited with Fiona Tolan and Leigh Wilson (Continuum, 2008). Recent years have seen the publication of first Re-Envisioning the Pastoral (Fairleigh Dickinson UP) co-edited with David James, followed by Modernism Handbook (Continuum) co-edited with Alex Murray, and Beckett and Death (Continuum), and even more recently Tew has produced Zadie Smith (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) and Beckett and Death (Continuum, 2009) co-edited with Steve Barfield and Matthew Feldman. Tew is co-editor of two series: Palgrave Macmillan's New British Fiction (with Rod Mengham) and Continuum's Literature and Culture Handbooks (the first phase edited with Steven Barfield).
Tew lived in Leicester from 1972–1980, in Hackney and Islington variously until 1988 from which time he resided mainly in Tufnell Park in north London until 2009. Married in 1976, he was divorced in 1981. He has one son, born in 1980. Currently Tew lives in the Enfield Lock/Enfield Wash area in Middlesex (Greater London).
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Recordings
Recordings from The Shanghai To Shepperton International Conference on J.G. Ballard (the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom, Saturday 5th & Sunday 6 May 2007, organized by Dr. Jeanette Baxter):
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