Richard Ohmann

Richard Malin Ohmann (July 11, 1931 – October 8, 2021) was an American literary critic.

Richard Malin Ohmann was born on July 11, 1931, in Shaker Heights, Ohio.[1][2] He received a bachelor's degree in literature from Oberlin College in 1952 and a master's and doctorate from Harvard University in 1954 and 1960, respectively.[1][2]

He began teaching at Wesleyan University in 1961, where he was the associate provost from 1966 to 1969.[1] He was a full professor of English from 1966 and was named the Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language at some point.[3][2] Ohmann held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1964–65.[2][4]

Ohmann was a Marxist.[5] At Wesleyan, he taught a course called "Economics of Fiction".[6] In the late 1970s he designed and oversaw a Wesleyan course called "Towards a Socialist America."[7]

Ohmann died on October 8, 2021, in Hawley, Massachusetts.[1]