Professor206-765-0547rabrams@uw.eduPDL B-427Office Hours: Tues 1-3 pm (Virtual, via Zoom). Email me in advance: rabrams@uw.eduFields of Interest American Culture Literature Philosophy Space/Place Visual Culture Background and ExperienceSummaryB.A., Dartmouth College, 1965Ph.D., Indiana University, 1973Areas of Specialization American literature and culture Selected Scholarly Publications/Current Research In addition to his book on how landscape remains the precariously inscribed site of shifting belief structures during the American Renaissance--a study which ranges from Hawthorne's fiction to Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, and which also explores mid-nineteenth-century visual culture-- Abrams has published numerous articles on American literature and culture in such journals as ELH, Nineteenth-Century Literature, American Literature, Texas Studies and Literature and Language, Arizona Quarterly, and Philological Quarterly. His research interests include cultural constructions of landscape in the antebellum US, nineteenth-century American visual culture, the American Renaissance, American post-Romanticism, psychoanalysis, Gothicism, cartography and architecture. Research Publications, Book Chapters Robert Abrams. “Borders.” American History through Literature, 1820-1870. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006), pp. 154-162. Publications, Books Robert Abrams. Landscape and Ideology in American Renaissance Literature: Topographies of Skepticism. Cambridge University Press. 2004. Publications, Essays and Articles Robert Abrams. “Critiquing Colonial American Geography: Hawthorne’s Landscape of Bewilderment.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 36 (Winter 1994), 357-379. Robert Abrams. “Image, Object, and Perception in Thoreau’s Landscapes: The Development of Anti-Geography.” Nineteenth-Century Literature 46 (September 1991), 245-262. Research Advised: Graduate Dissertations Chance, Maia Storm. "Objects on the Margins": How Things Make Persons and Worlds in Nineteenth-Century United States Writing. 2020. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Savage, Phillip. 19th Century American Literary Naturalism and the Grotesque. 2020. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Manganaro, Anthony. The Mirrors of Naturalism: Stephen Crane's Pragmatic Determinism. 2017. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Bashaw, Ashley. Mapping the Vagina: Nineteenth-Century Narratives of Scientific Specularity. 2016. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Calavitta, John Paul. California: State of Light. 2015. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Holmberg, David Thomas. Prying, Peeping, Peering: The Voyeuristic Gaze in Late-Nineteenth-Century American Literary Naturalism. 2012. University of Washington, PhD dissertation. Research Advised: Undergraduate Honors Theses Nola Peshkin: Flowing with milk and honey: how the fertile powers of women and nature create patriarchal fear and the desire for control and commodification Ricky Spaulding:Really Really Real: Reality in Performance and the Hyperreal in the Plays of Annie Baker Hannah Bauermeister Degrees of Loneliness in 20th Century America Courses Taught Winter 2023 ENGL 352 A: Literatures of the United States to 1865 Spring 2022 ENGL 242 A: Reading Prose Fiction Winter 2022 ENGL 353 A: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century Autumn 2021 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 452 A: Topics in American Literature Winter 2021 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 353 B: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century Autumn 2020 ENGL 352 A: American Literature: The Early Nation Summer 2020 Full-term ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2020 ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 A: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2020 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2019 ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 496 A: Major Conference for Honors Winter 2019 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 494 A: Honors Seminar Autumn 2018 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 353 B: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Is there an American Focal Center? Community, Dissonance, and Myths of Nationhood in the 19th Century U.S. Summer 2018 Full-term ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2018 ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 A: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2018 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Autumn 2017 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 353 C: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century ENGL 498 C: Senior Seminar ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Transgression in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture: The Importance of the Inappropriate Summer 2017 Full-term ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2017 ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 B: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2017 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing Autumn 2016 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 353 C: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Alternative Spaces, Shifting Landscapes: Perception, Orientation and Literary Form in Nineteenth-Century America Summer 2016 Full-term ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2016 ENGL 281 E: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 B: American Literature: The Early Nation: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2016 ENGL 250 A: American Literature Autumn 2015 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 353 B: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century ENGL 353 C: American Literature: Later Nineteenth Century ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: 19th c. US Lit: Myths of Community, Realities of Dissonance Spring 2015 ENGL 281 F: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 B: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2015 ENGL 250 A: American Literature ENGL 281 F: Intermediate Expository Writing Autumn 2014 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 452 A: Topics In American Literature: Nineteenth-Century American Literature and the Art of Transgression ENGL 452 B: Topics In American Literature ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: The Role of Transgression in 19thc. American Lit Summer 2014 Full-term ENGL 281 D: Intermediate Expository Writing Spring 2014 ENGL 281 D: Intermediate Expository Writing ENGL 352 A: American Literature: The Early Nation Winter 2014 ENGL 532 A: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: 19th c. American Lit Autumn 2013 ENGL 281 C: Intermediate Expository Writing News Related News In Memoriam / Professor Robert Bruce Stanton Oct 19, 2018 Emerging Directions and Continuing Traditions in the English Department May 6, 2015
