Brian Geoffrey McHale

Brian Geoffrey McHale died in Seattle, Washington on July 27, 2025 (his birthday). With grace and determination, Brian lived for the past two and a half years with metastasized melanoma. He is survived by his wife, Esther Gottlieb, his daughters Alma Gottlieb-McHale and Lily Gottlieb-McHale, sons-in-law Elliot Wilson and Zak Wall, and grandchildren Tali Gottlieb-Wilson, Ruby Gottlieb-Wall, and Arlo Gottlieb-Wall. He was pre-deceased by his brother Christopher, and he is survived by siblings Claire and Kevin and their spouses (Sharon Krinsky and George Milner) and their children Alexandra McHale and Hugh Milner. He also leaves behind Esther’s sister Yudith Hirsch and her family as well as cousins James, Susan, Keith; he was predeceased by his cousin Kimberly.

Brian McHale was one of the world’s most influential scholars of postmodern literature and culture as well as one of its leading narrative theorists. When he spoke or wrote, students and scholars around the world listened. His work was taught in classrooms on six continents, and it was cited by scholars working on authors across the span of literary history.

Born to Robert and Dorothy McHale and raised in Pittsburgh, Brian graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1970. He received his B.A. from Brown University (1974), where he also captained the men’s track and field team. Brian was a Rhodes Scholar (Rhode Island and Merton College, 1974) earning an Oxford University D.Phil in English Language and Literature (1977). From 1977 to 1993, he taught in the Department of Poetics and Comparative Literature at Tel Aviv University, achieving the rank of Professor in 1983. In 1993, he became the Eberly Family Professor in the Department of English at West Virginia University. In 2002, he moved to the Ohio State University, where he served as Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English until his retirement in 2022. Brian served as President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative (ISSN) and of the Association for the Study of the Arts of the Present (ASAP). In 2025, ISSN awarded him the Wayne C. Booth Lifetime Achievement Award. (See https://www.thenarrativesociety.org/wayne-c-booth-award ).

McHale was the author of four books and more than one hundred articles as well as the co-editor of five additional volumes. He did extensive editorial work at the journal Poetics Today, serving as Associate Editor and then co-editor during the period1979-2003 and then as Editor-in-Chief from 2015-2019. He lectured across the United States and around the globe, and he did visiting stints at the University of Pittsburgh, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tampere University in Finland, and the University of Canterbury and the University of Otago in New Zealand.

With his first book, Postmodernist Fiction (1987), Brian offered a new, clear, and compelling account of the two main artistic movements of the twentieth-century, modernism and post-modernism, and of how they relate to each other. Modernism, he argued, is dominated by questions of epistemology, while postmodernism is dominated by questions of ontology. Modernism’s techniques and devices are geared toward investigating human perception and cognition, differences in perspective, the subjective experience of time, the circulation and (un)reliability of knowledge, and related matters. Postmodernism’s characteristic techniques and devices, by contrast, are designed to explore issues of fictionality, modes of being and the differences among them, the nature and plurality of worlds, how such worlds are made and unmade, and related matters. In his subsequent publications, Brian not only expanded and refined this account, applying it beyond fiction to poetry and other forms, but also offered reflections on the hows and whys of literary history itself.

Within the field of narrative theory, Brian’s contributions were broad and deep. He wrote trenchantly about topics as diverse as science fiction, techniques of narration, and narrative in poetry. Indeed, his 2009 essay, “Beginning to Think about Narrative in Poetry” has been an inspiration for a new generation of scholars committed to going beyond his brilliant beginning.

Brian was a beloved teacher and mentor because he was smart, witty, curious, generous, and rigorous. He was accessible and helpful, especially to his PhD students, many of whom kept in touch throughout their careers. Everyone who conversed with Brian felt that their time was well-spent, and descriptions of his style and personality invariably call him cool. Among his many enthusiasms were running, walking, traveling, fine dining, contemporary art, poetry, and jazz.

In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful for donations to the Brian McHale Memorial Fund in the Department of English at the Ohio State University (fund #3186199). A celebration of Brian’s life and work will take place at the Faculty Club on the campus of the Ohio State University (181 Oval Drive South, Columbus OH 43210) on September 21 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Please share memories and sign the guestbook, located below. 

Arrangements Entrusted to Emmick Family Funeral Home ~ Lake View of Seattle, Washington