The Matter of Araby in Medieval England

Dorothee Metlitzki, 1915 - 2001 Dorothee Metlitzki was born in 1915 in Germany. She spent part of her childhood in Russia, but grew up in Lithuania. At the age of seventeen she attended the University of London and became a protege of Moshe Sharett, who later became the second prime minister of Israel. She received a bachelor's degree and two master's degrees, and then returned to Jerusalem to take part in Israel's founding. Metlitzki was co-founder of the English Department at Hebrew University and helped to found a self-help organization for Arab women as well as attempting to gain support for the Jewish state. She served as a press officer for the Foreign Ministry and secretary of the affairs of Arab women in the Israeli Federation of Labor during Golda Meir's tenure as prime minister. In 1954, Metlitzki enrolled in Ph. D. classes at Yale in the the American Studies program. She went on to teach English at the University of California at Berkeley and became only the second woman ever to receive tenure in the English department at Berkeley. She went back to Yale and earned the same distinction there as she had at Berkeley, becoming again the second woman in the English department to receive tenure. Metlitzki taught at Yale until 1984, making a name for herself. She retired at the age of 70 but continued to lecture until her death. Metlitzki is best known for her work in medieval literature and Arabic and English culture in the Middle Ages. She has written "The Matter of Araby in Medieval England," in 1977, and "Melville's Orienda," published in 1960. Dorothee Metlitzki died on April 14, 2001 in Hamden, Connecticut at the age of 86.