Introduction
Dominic Care (born 3 March 1945 – died 12 July 2012) was a prominent American scholar in the field of comparative literature. His interdisciplinary approach combined close textual analysis with sociopolitical theory, and he is credited with advancing the study of postcolonial narratives in the late twentieth century. Care held professorial appointments at several leading universities, authored over a dozen monographs, and served as editor of several influential journals. His work remains a staple in graduate courses on literary theory, world literature, and cultural studies.
Early Life and Education
Birth and Family
Dominic Care was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Eleanor Care, a schoolteacher, and Robert Care, a civil engineer. The family was part of the city's modest middle class; the Care household valued literature and civic engagement. Care grew up with a close-knit group of siblings - two brothers and one sister - who shared a household library that fostered his early love of reading. His father’s engineering background and his mother’s emphasis on education contributed to Care’s later interest in the intersection of technical and humanistic knowledge.
Schooling
Care attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls and Boys, an academically selective institution that nurtured his linguistic talents. He excelled in English, Latin, and history, consistently earning honors distinctions. In his senior year, he completed a comparative essay on the works of James Joyce and Rabindranath Tagore, an effort that would presage his later comparative studies. After graduation, Care entered the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship, majoring in English literature with a minor in comparative languages.
Academic Career
University Appointments
Care earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1967 and his Ph.D. in English Literature in 1973 from the University of Pennsylvania. His doctoral dissertation, titled “Narrative Form and Colonial Discourse: A Study of 19th‑Century Caribbean Fiction,” earned him the university’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. Following postdoctoral work at Oxford University, Care accepted a tenure-track position at Columbia University in 1975. He remained there until 1988, after which he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as a full professor and chaired the Comparative Literature Department from 1995 to 2001.
Research Focus
Care’s research interests evolved around the dynamic relationship between narrative form and socio‑political contexts. He was particularly concerned with how colonial histories and postcolonial realities shape literary expression. His early work examined the representation of colonial subjects in 19th‑century English novels; subsequent research expanded to include Latin American, African, and Asian literatures, often employing critical theory frameworks such as Marxism, feminism, and psychoanalysis. In the 1990s, he began to incorporate digital humanities techniques into his analyses, experimenting with textual analysis software to map thematic patterns across large corpora.
Professional Contributions
Innovations in Postcolonial Theory
Care was instrumental in developing a nuanced model of “subaltern narrative” that addressed the limitations of earlier postcolonial theories. He argued that subaltern voices could simultaneously resist domination and reproduce colonial structures, creating a complex hybrid of agency and subjugation. His 1989 article, “Negotiating the Other: Narrative Resistance in Postcolonial Texts,” has been cited over 1,200 times and remains foundational in contemporary postcolonial scholarship. Care’s approach encouraged a more granular examination of character agency, thereby influencing a generation of scholars.
Publications and Editorial Work
Over his career, Care authored 14 monographs and more than 70 peer‑reviewed articles. His most widely read book, “Reimagining Empire: Literary Negotiations of Colonial Authority” (1992), introduced a framework for analyzing how colonial narratives are constructed and contested. Care also served as editor for the journal Comparative Literature Review from 1990 to 1995, and later as associate editor for Modern Language Quarterly. Under his editorial leadership, both journals broadened their scope to include interdisciplinary studies and non‑English literatures.
Honors and Recognitions
Awards
Care received numerous accolades, including the American Comparative Literature Association’s Distinguished Scholar Award (2003) and the PEN America Award for Literary Criticism (2008). In 2010, the University of California, Berkeley, honored him with the Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. He was also a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (1987) for research on postcolonial narrative techniques.
Memberships
Care was an active member of several professional societies. He served on the Board of Governors for the American Literary History Society from 1994 to 2000 and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1998). He also held a visiting fellowship at the University of Cambridge, where he contributed to the British Academy’s interdisciplinary research initiatives.
Legacy and Impact
Influence on the Field
Dominic Care’s scholarship reshaped the contours of comparative literature and postcolonial studies. His insistence on rigorous textual analysis combined with critical theory inspired a more holistic approach to literary criticism. Several doctoral dissertations and monographs directly reference his work, and his conceptual models continue to be taught in university courses worldwide.
Mentorship and Teaching
Throughout his career, Care mentored more than 30 graduate students, many of whom have become leading scholars in their own right. He was known for his rigorous yet supportive teaching style, encouraging students to interrogate texts through multiple lenses. In 2005, he received the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of California, Berkeley, recognizing his contributions to undergraduate education and curriculum development.
Personal Life
Family and Relationships
Care married his longtime partner, Maria Santos, a Mexican historian, in 1978. The couple had two children: Gabriel Care, born 1982, who pursued a career in environmental science, and Elena Care, born 1985, who became a literary translator. Dominic and Maria were active in community service, organizing literacy programs in under‑served neighborhoods and advocating for educational equity.
Interests and Hobbies
Outside academia, Care was an avid cyclist and enjoyed hiking in the Appalachian Mountains. He also cultivated a deep appreciation for jazz music, often attending performances at the Philadelphia Jazz Center. His leisure reading spanned from classical poetry to contemporary science fiction, reflecting his broad intellectual curiosity.
Later Years and Death
In 2009, Care was diagnosed with early‑stage Parkinson’s disease. Despite the progression of the illness, he continued to lecture and publish, adapting his teaching methods to accommodate his symptoms. He retired from full‑time teaching in 2011 but remained a visiting scholar at several institutions. Care passed away on 12 July 2012, at the age of 67, leaving behind a rich legacy of scholarship and mentorship.
Selected Publications
- Care, D. (1985). “Narrative Form and Colonial Discourse: A Study of 19th‑Century Caribbean Fiction.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.
- Care, D. (1989). “Negotiating the Other: Narrative Resistance in Postcolonial Texts.” Comparative Literature Review, 12(3), 45‑67.
- Care, D. (1992). Reimagining Empire: Literary Negotiations of Colonial Authority. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Care, D. (1996). “Subaltern Voices and Hybrid Agency.” Modern Language Quarterly, 58(2), 112‑135.
- Care, D. & Santos, M. (2001). “Translating Identity: A Postcolonial Perspective.” Journal of World Literature, 7(1), 23‑48.
- Care, D. (2008). “Digital Humanities and Postcolonial Narratives.” Comparative Literature Review, 20(4), 89‑110.
- Care, D. (2010). “The Legacy of Colonial Narratives in Contemporary Fiction.” In H. Thompson (Ed.), Colonialism and Its Aftermath (pp. 78‑102). London: Routledge.
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