Jeffrey Mehlman, Influential French Literature Professor and Translator, Dies at 82

Jeffrey Mehlman, a distinguished professor of French language and literature, translator, and literary critic, passed away on Sunday at a clinic in Newton, Massachusetts, due to respiratory complications. Born in New York in 1944, Mehlman was an emeritus professor at Boston University, where he taught French literature for many years. His academic career also included teaching positions at Cornell, Yale, and Johns Hopkins universities, and visiting professorships at Harvard, UC Berkeley, and MIT.

Mehlman was instrumental in introducing French structuralism from the 1950s and 1960s to the United States, applying this intellectual current to his own scholarly work. He translated prominent French thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Maurice Blanchot, and Roland Barthes into English. His extensive writings include seminal works like "A Structural Study of Autobiography: Proust, Leiris, Sartre" (1974), "Revolution and Repetition: Marx, Hugo, Balzac" (1977), and "Legacies of Antisemitism in France" (1983).

His book "Émigré New York" explored the experiences of European intellectuals and artists who sought refuge in New York during World War II, detailing their struggles and contradictions with a characteristic ironic flair. Mehlman had a deep connection to Argentina through his wife, Alicia Borinsky, a writer and professor of Latin American literature. The couple frequently visited Buenos Aires, where Mehlman, fluent in Spanish and an accomplished tango dancer, would accompany Borinsky in teaching Argentine literature and culture to American students. His final book, "Adventures in the French Trade. Fragments toward a life," served as a farewell to his readers and colleagues, reflecting on his life and intellectual journey.