Tzvetan Todorov (; ; ; 1 March 1939 – 7 February 2017) was a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He was the author of many books and essays, which have had a significant influence in anthropology, sociology, semiotics, literary theory, intellectual history and culture theory.

Early life

Tzvetan Todorov was born on 1 March 1939 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He earned an M.A. in philology at the University of Sofia in 1963. He enrolled at the University of Paris to do his doctorat de troisième cycle (equivalent to the Ph.D.) in 1966 and his doctorat ès lettres in 1970.

Career

Todorov was appointed to his post as a director of research at the French Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1968. In 1970, he helped to found the journal Poétique, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences. In 2015, he was awarded the [Wayne C. Booth] Award for lifetime achievement in narrative studies by the International Society for the Study of Narrative.

Personal life and death

Tzvetan Todorov was born in the family of Todor Borov, a Bulgarian linguist and intellectualist from the early 20th century. His brother is the Bulgarian mathematician and theoretical physicist Ivan Todorov.

Todorov was married twice. His first wife was the scholar Martine van Woerkens, with whom he had a son, Boris. (2001), translated by John T. Scott and Robert D. Zaretsky

  • Imperfect garden: the legacy of humanism (2002), translated by Carol Cosman
  • Hope and memory: lessons from the twentieth century (2003), translated by David Bellos (French: Mémoire du mal, tentation du bien, 2000)
  • New world disorder: reflections of a European (2005), preface by Stanley Hoffmann; translated by Andrew Brown
  • Torture and the War on Terror (2009), translated by Gila Walker
  • In Defence of the Enlightenment (2009), translated by Gila Walker
  • The fear of barbarians: beyond the clash of civilizations (2010), translated by Andrew Brown
  • Memory as a Remedy for Evil (2010), translated by Gila Walker
  • Muros caídos, muros erigidos (2011), translated by Zoraida de Torres Burgos
  • The Totalitarian Experience, translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Kolkata, India: Seagull Books, 2011
  • The Inner Enemies of Democracy, translated by Andrew Brown. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2014
  • Insoumis: essai. Paris: Robert Laffont: Versilio, 2015

;Articles

See also

  • Genre studies
  • The Possibility of Hope

References

  • The Tzvetan Todorov Book Interview
  • Interview with Tzvetan Todorov: "It is surprising to see so many walls erected in the midst of globalisation", Barcelona Metropolis, num. 78, Spring 2010