Murray Krieger

Murray Krieger (November 27, 1923 – August 5, 2000) was an American literary critic and theorist.

Krieger argued that literary illusion, as illusion, offers society a critical perspective on the ideological systems by which beliefs are nourished and enforced as “true,” and he included among those systems any theoretical method that discounts the special status of literary forms.

Consequently, in an ironic reversal of the revolution he had helped bring about, Krieger spent the last two decades of his career arguing for the importance of literature to the study of theory.

[4] He received numerous awards and honors during his lifetime, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1983), the Humboldt Prize (1985), the UCI Medal (1990), and the Daniel G. Aldrich Award for Distinguished University Service (1993).

Following his retirement in 1994, he was appointed University Research Professor, and in that capacity he continued to write, teach, and lecture around the world until his death six years later.