Professor
Fields of Interest
Biography
B.A., Michigan State University, 1975
Ph.D., Brown University, 1984
Professional Affiliations
Member of MLA, ACLA, Society for the Study of Narrative; former Executive Committee member, North American Society for the Study of Romanticism
Activities and Interests
Gary Handwerk works on modern European narrative and narrative theory, with particular interest in narrative ethics and the relation between political philosophy and fiction. His recent publications have focused on Romantic-era texts and include critical editions of William Godwin's Caleb Williams and Fleetwood (Broadview Press) and essays on several of Godwin's novels and on Rousseau's Emile. He is the translator and editor of Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human (Stanford University Press), and author of an article on Romantic irony in the Cambridge History of Literary Criticism. His latest interest is in literature and the environment; he teaches a UW course on this topic that is linked to local high school classes.
Research
Selected Research
- Gary Handwerk. “Beyond Beginnings: Friedrich Schlegel and Romantic Historiography.” Idealism Without Absolutes. SUNY Press. 2004.
- Gary Handwerk. “William Godwin.” Fleetwood. (editor). Broadview Press. 2001.
- Gary Handwerk. “Romantic Irony.” Romantic Literary Criticism, Volume 5: Romanticism. Cambridge UP. 2000.
- Gary Handwerk. William Godwin. Caleb Williams. (editor). Broadview Press. 2000.
- Gary Handwerk. “History, Trauma, and the Limits of the Liberal Imagination: William Godwin’s Historical Fiction.” Romanticism, History, and the Possibilities of Genre. Cambridge UP. 1998.
Research Advised
- Palo, Caitlin. An Address to One and Many: Epistolary Experiments with the Public Sphere in England and the United States - 1735, 1796, 1998. 2020. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Morel, Eric Gilbert. Participatory Reading: Nature Writing and Response in the Wake of John Burroughs. 2019. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Madison Kathryn O'Connell. "The Effect of Heteronormativity in American Culture on Transgender Terminology.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Alison Wan-Ying Cheung. "Because there is No Elsewhere: Revaluing Conscious Physicality in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Elizabeth Ann Strehlo. "The aloe that flowers once in a hundred years': Identification and idealization in Austen & Brontë.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Isabelle Aelis Ragail Edwards. "A Critical Eye: The Reading of Letters in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Maya Devery Trachtenberg. "California: a modernist utopia.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Danielle Marie Gintz. "Narrativizing the Mind: Implications of the Printed Text and Oral Story on William James' Consciousness.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- David Jin Yi. "Too Good to be True: The Unraveling of John Kwang in Native Speaker.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Stephanie E. King. "The Author as Editor: Examining the Role of the Gladiator and the Amphitheater in Nineteenth-Century Historical Novels.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Adam Nathan Kirstein. "Tarzan Of The Apologists: The Burroughsian Evolutionary Paradox, and Anthropocentric Contradictions Fuelling Cultural, Iconographic Prevalence of The Ape-Man.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Michael Therett Lewis. "Memetic Brick and Mortar: The Architectural Landscape of W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Dylan Teague McDonald. "'The disguise, I fear, is thin. But listen:' Buck Mulligan as Ulysses' master of ceremonies.". Honors Thesis, University of Washington. 2015.
- Canton, Jessica. Classical Gothic: The Aristotelian Experience in the Gothic Reading Process. 2015. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- DeBlassie, Maria. From the Philosophical Wanton to the Respectable Lady: Rewriting the Female Intellectual's Moral, Sexual, and Political Identities in the Courtship Novel, 1790-1850. 2012. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
- Lee, Jane J. Reading Matters: Liberal Discourse and the Democratization of Reading in Victorian Literary Culture. 2011. University of Washington, PhD dissertation.
Affiliations
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