Andrew Milner facts for kids

Andrew John Milner was born on September 9, 1950. He is a very respected professor of English and Comparative Literature. He taught at Monash University in Australia for many years.

From 2014 to 2019, he was also an Honorary Professor at the University of Warwick in the UK. In 2013, he was a special visiting professor in Berlin, Germany.

Milner was born in Leeds, UK. He studied sociology at the London School of Economics. He earned his first degree in 1972 and his PhD in 1977. His PhD focused on how society influences literature.

In 1977, he married Verity Burgmann, an Australian expert in politics and history. They have three sons. He enjoys sports and is a member of the Melbourne Cricket Club. He also helped start the Melbourne Victory Football Club.

Andrew Milner has been involved in different groups that worked for social change. He supported campaigns for peace and against nuclear weapons. He was also part of various political groups in both the UK and Australia.

Milner is very interested in how literature and culture work. He studies the sociology of literature, which looks at how society shapes books and stories. He also loves to explore utopia (perfect societies), dystopia (terrible societies), and science fiction.

His writings have been published around the world. They have been translated into many languages, including French, German, Chinese, and Korean. He is well-known for his ideas about cultural materialism, which is a way of understanding culture. He also studies utopian and dystopian science fiction.

Andrew Milner's Career in Education

Andrew Milner started teaching sociology at the London School of Economics in 1972. He later taught at other universities in London and Leeds. In 2000, he became a professor at Monash University in Australia.

At Monash, he led the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. He retired in 2013 and became a Professor Emeritus. This title means he is a retired professor who is still highly respected. After retiring from Monash, he taught in Berlin, Germany. He also held visiting positions at other universities, including the University of Warwick.

Understanding Literature and Society

Milner's first book, John Milton and the English Revolution, looked at the writings of John Milton. Milton was a famous poet during the English Revolution in the 1600s. Milner used a special way of studying literature called 'genetic structuralism'. This method helps understand how a writer's society influences their work.

His book explained that the revolution created new ideas about reason and society. But these ideas were later challenged. Milner analyzed Milton's poems like Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes. He showed how these poems reflected the struggles and defeats of that time.

Milner also wrote Literature, Culture and Society. This book explored how books are made and sold in a capitalist society. He looked at how printing and other technologies changed literature. The book also showed his growing interest in comparative literature and science fiction.

Cultural Materialism and Its Influence

Milner's work on cultural materialism is very important. He wrote Cultural Materialism in 1993 and Re-Imagining Cultural Studies in 2002. These books explored the ideas of Raymond Williams, a key thinker in cultural studies.

Milner showed how Williams's ideas continued to influence the study of literature and culture. He argued that Williams's approach was different from other cultural studies ideas. Milner believed Williams's work was "post-culturalist," meaning it went beyond earlier ways of thinking about culture.

In 2010, Milner edited a collection of Williams's writings called Tenses of Imagination. This book focused on Williams's thoughts about utopia, dystopia, and science fiction.

Exploring Science Fiction

Locating Science Fiction is one of Milner's most important books. It changed how people thought about science fiction. Before, critics often linked science fiction to older stories about utopias. Fans often linked it to fantasy or movies.

Milner's book showed that science fiction is connected to many things. These include other types of stories, different media like film, and its history. He looked at how science fiction developed in different places and times.

The book helped move science fiction studies away from abstract ideas. Instead, it focused on understanding science fiction as a mix of texts, practices, and objects. Milner used ideas from different fields, like comparative literature and sociology. This helped him create a powerful way to analyze science fiction. The book also discussed environmental themes, showing Milner's interest in Green politics.

In 2023, Milner co-wrote Science Fiction and Narrative Form. This book argues that science fiction can do things that regular novels cannot. It can imagine societies in a bigger, more complete way. It can also show how human characters are tied to larger historical stories. Science fiction is good at creating big, detailed world pictures.

Working with J.R. Burgmann

Starting in 2015, Milner began working with his son, James, who writes as J.R. Burgmann. They wrote articles together about climate fiction and science fiction. Climate fiction is a type of story that deals with climate change.

Their teamwork led to the book Science Fiction and Climate Change, published in 2020. This book explores how science fiction addresses the topic of climate change.

Awards and Recognition

Andrew Milner has received several honors for his work:

• In 2011, he was nominated for the Australian National Science Fiction Ditmar Award. This award recognizes great achievements in science fiction.
• In 2016, he was a special guest at the International Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association.
• In 2021, Milner and J.R. Burgmann were nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Non Fiction.
• Also in 2021, they were nominated for the Locus Award for Best Non Fiction.