19th Century

American Literatures and Cultures

The faculty and graduate students in the program in American literatures and cultures address a variety of literary traditions and cultural practices (such as the visual arts, religion, politics, and law) from national and transnational perspectives. We have strength in all historical periods. Our methodological approaches range from formal analysis of poetic, narrative, and generic structures, through comparatist approaches, to the historical analysis of gendered and racial subject formations in local and global contexts. Theoretical orientations include Marxism and Frankfurt School critical theory, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, materialist phenomenology, and aesthetic theory. Such orientations and approaches do not necessarily exclude one another; indeed, their principled convergence often enables especially productive analysis.

Faculty Members

Bill Brown

Bill Brown

Research Interests: Research Interests: Marxism | Cinema Studies | History of Literary Criticism | Literature and the Arts | The Novel | Urban Studies | Visual Culture and Iconography
Alexis Chema

Alexis Chema

Research Interests: Gender and Sexuality | Eighteenth-Century British Literature | Romantic Literature | Victorian Literature | History of Ideas | History of the Book| Literary History | Literature and Philosophy | Literature and the Arts | Visual Culture and Iconography
Emily Coit

Emily Coit

Research Interests: Nineteenth-century American Literature | Nineteenth-century British Literature | Literary History | Intellectual History | Prose Fiction | Nonfiction Prose
Josephine McDonagh

Josephine McDonagh

Research Interests: 19th century British literature| Politics of literary expression
Lawrence Rothfield

Lawrence Rothfield

Research Interests: Cultural Policy Studies |Victorian Literature |History of Science |History of the Disciplines | The Novel
Joshua Scodel

Joshua Scodel

Research Interests: Renaissance and Early Modern Literature| History of Ideas |History of Literary Criticism | Literature and Philosophy |Political Theory
Stier

Richard Strier

Research Interests: History of Ideas | History of Literary Criticism | Literature and Philosophy | Nonfiction Prose | Poetry and Poetics | Political Theory
Veeder

William Veeder

Research Interests: 19th/20th Century American and British Literature | Victorian Literature | The Novel