[ Faculty in this Area ] Devoney Looser George Justice Richard Schwartz Samuel Johnson

Program Description

Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Studies at MU are anchored by tradition as the field thrives and grows. Current strengths of the program include (but are not limited to) literary and cultural studies on the history of the novel, British women's writings, the history of the book, eighteenth-century literature and film adaptations, and historiography. Faculty members in the department have undertaken significant work on authors such as Jane Austen, Frances Burney, Samuel Johnson, and Samuel Richardson.

Faculty Overview

Devoney Looser offers undergraduate and graduate courses in the field. George Justice now serves as Associate Dean in the Graduate School, though he continues to direct theses and dissertations. The recently retired Catherine Parke and Haskell Hinnant also continue to teach, advise, and write. Furthermore, Richard Schwartz, a former dean who has returned to the English faculty, is an eminent Johnsonian and author of a number of books on eighteenth-century British literature and culture. For further information, see each faculty member's page.

Fellowship Opportunity

The Mary-Joe Purcell Fellowship in Seventeenth- or Eighteenth-Century English Literary Studies is awarded annually to a first-year graduate student pursuing the PhD. The fellowship, named after an alumna of our program and long-time professor of English at California State University-Long Beach, provides a one-time $5000 supplement to the regular PhD or MA/PhD package offered to an incoming student intending to work in the seventeenth or eighteenth century at Missouri. Please contact George Justice (JusticeG@missouri.edu) or Devoney Looser (LooserD@missouri.edu) for further information.

Journals

Two scholarly journals related to eighteenth-century studies are edited in the department. The annual, The Eighteenth-Century Novel, is co-edited by George Justice. Devoney Looser co-edits the Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, published twice a year by Indiana University Press.

Library Holdings

Ellis Library's Special Collections has much to offer those conducting research in Restoration and eighteenth-century British literature and culture. The Rare Book Collection houses a large collection of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century English tracts, referred to as the Howey Collection. Since the original purchase of Howey materials, the library has added other material to complement this specialty. Many of the items in this category are unique in the United States, and in some cases, MU has the only known copy. This collection is especially strong in works about English religious life and controversies. More than 200 texts deal with the Popish Plot of 1678. Anonymous pamphlets on a variety of political topics now attributed to Daniel Defoe are also available. Of special interest locally are the sermons and related works associated with St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a church designed by Christopher Wren that was moved from London to Fulton, Missouri, in the 1960s. Additional materials in the collection consider the Dissenting tradition, seventeenth-century trials, Restoration satire, and eighteenth-century art and architecture.

The library has recently acquired Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, a fully searchable database that provides facsimile pages and transcriptions for every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas.

Course Offerings

Looser has recently taught courses the courses listed below. In Winter 2007, she is teaching a graduate seminar, Jane Austen Among Women. In Winter 2008, she and Justice plan to team-teach a graduate-level seminar on Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, and Sarah Fielding.

Course Offerings