American medieval literature professor (1921–1989)
Robert Kaske
Kaske, c. 1974[note 1]
Born
Robert Earl Kaske
(1921-06-01)June 1, 1921
Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died
August 8, 1989(1989-08-08) (aged 68)
Ithaca, New York, U.S.
Years active
1950–1989
Title
Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities
Spouses
Mildred Reinerman
(m. 1944, divorced)
Carol Vonckx
(m. 1958)
Children
2
Academic background
Education
Xavier University (BA)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MA, PhD)
Thesis
The nature and use of figurative expression in Piers Plowman, text B (1950)
Academic work
Discipline
Medieval literature
Institutions
Cornell University (from 1964)
Notable works
Medieval Christian Literary Imagery: A Guide to Interpretation (1988)
Military career
Service/branch
United States Army
Years of service
1942–1946
Rank
First lieutenant
Unit
819th Tank Destroyer Battalion
Battles/wars
World War II
Signature
Robert Earl Kaske (June 1, 1921 – August 8, 1989) was an American professor of medieval literature. He spent most of his career at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he was the Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, and where he founded one of the preeminent medieval studies graduate programs in North America. His published output included lengthy interpretations of Beowulf, and of poems and passages by Dante and Chaucer, and frequently constituted leading studies. Kaske particularly enjoyed solving cruxes, with articles on problematic passages in works such as Pearl, Piers Plowman, the Divine Comedy, "The Husband's Message", "The Descent into Hell", and Beowulf.
Born in Cincinnati and a straight-A student in high school, Kaske studied liberal arts at Xavier University and joined a variety of student literary organizations there. He was a four-year member of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and was commissioned a second lieutenant before his 1942 graduation; much of the next four years was spent with the Army in the South Pacific during World War II. While there he read a story about a dusk-to-dawn conversation between two professors and, entranced by the prospect of such intellectual discussions, decided on an academic career. Kaske enrolled in the English literature program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) on the back of the G.I. Bill, received his master's in 1947, and his PhD in 1950.
From 1950 to 1963 Kaske held posts at Washington University in St. Louis, Pennsylvania State University, UNC, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, rising from lecturer to full professor along the way; he termed his departure from UNC as the time he "published himself out of paradise".[4] A visiting professorship at Cornell in 1963 became permanent in 1964, and Kaske remained at the university for the rest of his life.
A popular and "Falstaffian" professor,[5] Kaske, along with the medieval studies program he founded, was credited by colleagues with producing the backbone of the discipline's next scholastic generation. His editorial imprint was visible in the works of many, including former students and those who submitted papers to the journal Traditio, which he edited. Over the course of his career he collected what one former student termed "most of the awards and honors possible for a medieval scholar",[6] including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, and two Guggenheim Fellowships.
^ abCornell Alumni News 1974, p. 23.
^Cite error: The named reference GS.about was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Cornell.Orestes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Kane, Leyerle & Robinson 1990, p. 819.
^Cite error: The named reference CU.20160509 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Groos et al. 1986, p. 5.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
Kaske or Kaské is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Charlot Kaské (fl. 1763–1765), Shawnee war chief Karlheinz Kaske (1928–1998), German...
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Fine Arts Research Simon Karlinsky Humanities Slavic Literature Robert Kaske Humanities Medieval Literature Friedrich Katz Iberian & Latin American History...
Quest in Wolfram's "Parzival." New York: Cornell University, 1995. Kaske, Robert E.; Groos, Arthur & Twomey, Michael W. (1988). Leyerle, John (ed.)....
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2023-06-09. Cromie, Robert, ed. (1961-10-22). "The Bystander". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois,...
China 1912-1949, Volume 12, part 1, 1983, p. 189. Harris (2009), p. 97. Kaske, Elizabeth, The Politics of Language in Chinese Education, 1895–1919 Boston...
Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 20 (1982): 7–49 (at p. 37, n. 124). Robert Earl Kaske, Arthur Groos and Michael W. Twomey, Medieval Christian Literary Imagery:...
0-88214-212-7 De vita libri tres (Three Books on Life, 1489) transl. by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clarke, Tempe, Arizona: The Renaissance Society of America,...
books in the library of the University of Cambridge. University Press. Kaske, Elisabeth (2008). The Politics of Language in Chinese Education: 1895–1919...
Encyclopedia. Psychology Press. p. 1519. ISBN 978-0-8240-4444-2. Robert Earl Kaske; Arthur Groos; Michael W. Twomey (1 January 1988). Medieval Christian...
program in role of an advisor. 2002 Prize of the Christoph and Stephan Kaske Foundation, with the Münchener Kammerorchester 2010 Kunstpreis des Saarlandes [de]...
Prologue to the Divine Comedy Annual Report of the Dante Society, pp. 1–7. Kaske, Robert Earl, et al. Medieval Christian Literary Imagery: A Guide to Interpretation...
2014. "Independent Study Program". whitney.org. Sarah Frier and Michelle Kaske (July 13, 2011), NYC’s Whitney Museum Pares Yield on Doubled Demand: Muni...
Bibcode:2021MGeol.44106594G. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2021.106594. S2CID 238783773. Kaskes, P.; de Graaf, S.J.; Feignon, J.-G.; et al. (2022). "Formation of the crater...
ISBN 9781291940411. Ficino, Marsilio (2002). Three Books on Life. Translated by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark. Tempe AZ: The Renaissance Society of America. Flint,...
characteribus Sinensium. Coblin (2000), p. 539. Kaske (2008), pp. 48–52. Coblin (2003), p. 353. Morrison, Robert (1815). A dictionary of the Chinese language:...
Siemens Corporate Website, Retrieved on 23 May 2023. Hess, Edward D., and Robert K. Kazanjian. "Siemens Medical Solutions: significant innovations". The...
Gallenberger's film John Rabe, also released in 2009, Ulrich Tukur played John Rabe. Robert Jacquinot de Besange, a French Jesuit who saved over half a million Chinese...
A.T. Kearney". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved April 13, 2014. Kaske, Michelle (March 12, 2012). "New York City Tops Global Competitiveness Rankings...