Professor (1966)
608-263-2717
tkbender@wisc.edu
PhD, English and Classical Languages, Stanford
University
Diplome d'Etudes Francaises (2e degre), University of Nancy
II
BA, Kenyon College
19th Century British Literature, Computer Applications to Literary Research, Comparative Literature (Ancient Greek, Latin, European Vernacular languages). Focus on Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89), Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), and related writers.
Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Classical Background and Critical Reception of his Work Literary Impressionism in Jean Rhys, Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad, and Charlotte Bronte Multi-volume series of concordances to the COMPLETE WORKS OF CONRAD, John Keats, Ezra Pound, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Hopkins, et al.
Graduate seminars given on Hopkins and his circle, on Conrad and related writers, on Wordsworth, and on Literary Impressionism (Jean Rhys, Ford Madox Ford, Conrad, and the Bronte Family).
Normal range of undergraduate teaching includes Victorian novel, Victorian Poetry, Romantic literature, Late Victorian and Edwardian literature, undergradutae Bascom Seminar in "Alienation" in literature.
The curriculum of "English Literature" was created in the 19th Century. In order the understand any aspect of "English Studies" it is necessary to understand the intellectual background of Victorian and early modernist England. We view "English Literature" through Victorian spectacles. It is important to understand how those lenses work and perhaps distort our understanding. The biggest challenge to our generation of scholars is to make the transition from a print to an electronic medium as the tool preserve and transmit our cultural and literary heritage to future readers.