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AROUND THE QUADSIn MemoriamBy Sana Saleh ’08 
PHOTO: COURTESY FRENCH PHILOLOGY DEPARTMENT 
University Professor Emeritus Michael Riffaterre ’55 GSAS, scholar of French and romance philology, died on May 27 in his Manhattan home. He was 81. The literary theorist, critic and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences spent his entire academic professional career, more than 50 years, at Columbia before retiring in 2004. According to The New York Times, Riffaterre was a renowned authority on semiotics — the study and classification of signs and linguistic symbols, systems of signs, how those signs relate to that which they refer and the subsequent perceptions from which communication and literary discourse occur. He focused on the processes by which literature becomes a work of art and its permanence in the face of evolving tastes, irrespective of tertiary issues to the text like historical context or authorial intent, politics and ideology. One of the foremost advocates of French structuralist literary theory in the United States, Riffaterre’s most prominent works include Semiotics of Poetry, Essais de Stylistique Structurale, Fictional Truth and Text Production. Riffaterre twice received the Guggenheim fellowship, was a senior fellow of Oxford University and general editor of the Romanic Review for nearly three decades until 2000. Provost Alan Brinkley said, “Riffaterre was one of Columbia’s greatest and most devoted scholars and teachers … he was an inspiring mentor to countless undergraduates and graduate students. He was also a major international figure in literary studies, a leader in the growth of structural criticism and a powerful advocate for understanding literature through its impact on its readers.” Born and predominantly educated in France, a member of the French Resistance and veteran of the French army in WWII, Riffaterre was appointed to the Columbia faculty in 1955, the same year he earned a Ph.D. in French literature from GSAS. He is survived by his wife, Hermine; son, Jason; daughter, Lee ’86L; and two grandchildren.
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