Kao, who was a specialist of poetry and poetics, taught at UCLA from 1978 until she took early retirement in 1999. She received special recognition for her work on the French poet, essayist and philosopher Paul Valéry. Her book, "Lire Valéry," received international critical acclaim, with the Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire calling it a "masterful work of theoretical reflection and textual analysis" and "a must for all those interested in poetics as well as for specialists of Valéry."
A generous and innovative teacher, Kao was successful both as a graduate and undergraduate instructor. She served as director of many doctoral dissertations within and outside the French department and her impact on graduate students was crucial for their professional and intellectual awareness.
Kao’s scholarship focused on French writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Victor Segalen, Saint-John Perse, Blaise Cendrars, Philippe Sollers, René Char, but also on Ezra Pound, as well as German writers including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan and Heiner Müller.
Her work spanned the fields of comparative studies, gender and women’s studies, and translation studies; her interdisciplinary research involved philosophy, history, and humanities, exploring concepts such as modernity, poetic obscurity or even China in the European imagination.
Kao was active in the profession, serving as editor of Feuille De Routes, the bulletin of the Blaise Cendrars International Society; maintaining membership of the advisory board of Discourses from 1980 to 1985; and receiving a number of awards and research fellowships, including three Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowships.
Having received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Yale under the direction of Paul de Man, Kao first taught at the University of Texas, San Antonio. While at UCLA she served as chair and acting chair of the department of French and Francophone studies for several years.
Kao is survived by her husband, Marc Silberman.
Donations in Kao’s honor can be made to the UCLA Faculty Women's Club Scholarship Fund, in memory of Professor Shuhsi Kao.
