Denis Saurat was a French literary critic and philosopher. He wrote and broadcast on a wide range of topics, including French society and culture.
At the outbreak of WWI he was a reader in French at Glasgow University. After receiving a doctorate of the University of Bordeaux, and a lauréat des concours d'agrégation in 1919, he became associated with the Department of French at King's College London from 1920, where he was a professor from 1926. He was also director for many years of the French Institute of London.
The term "Scottish Renaissance" was brought into critical prominence by Saurat in his article Le Groupe de la Renaissance Écossaise, which was published in the Revue Anglo-Américaine in April 1924.