RICHARD MIDDLETON-KAPLAN
Courses Taught:
English 101: Composition
English 101 Special Section: Pathways to Peace: Nonviolence and Social Activism
English 102: Composition/Introduction to Literature/Writing the Research Paper
English 102 Special Sections: Literature of
the Holocaust; War: What is it Good For?
English 102 & History 142: Literature and History of the Holocaust (Learning Community)
Lit 115: Fiction
Lit 206: World Literature to 1800
Lit 207: World Literature Since 1800
Lit 221: American Literature, Colonial Days to Civil War
Lit 222: American Literature, Civil War to the Present
Hum 102: Western Civilization, Renaissance to the Present
Hum 105: Great Ideas of World Civilizations
Hum 115: International and Regional Studies in Humanities: Americans Abroad Encounter the City of Light (summer course for Harper students in Paris, France)
Background:
PhD, English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1993
Major field of concentration: Nineteenth-Century Literature; the novel.
Dissertation topic: "Dostoevsky, Melville and the Conventions of the Novel: Fictional Alliances." Explores the ways in which both Dostoevsky and Melville undermined conventions common to the novel throughout the nineteenth century; demonstrates the ways they transformed the novel and prefigured Modernism.
MA, English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1988
BA, English, University of California, Los Angeles, 1983
(Junior Year Abroad, English, University of York, England, 1981-82)
Interests:
Herman Melville
American Literature
19th and 20th century Russian prose fiction
Literature of the Holocaust
Literature of peace and non-violence
Recent Publications/Presentations:
Articles:
"Play It Again, Herm: Melville at the Movies."
Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Studies 11.3 (Oct. 2009): 55-71.
"Facing the Face of the Enemy: Levinasian Moments in
All Quiet on the Western Front and the Literature
of War."
Modern Fiction Studies 54.1 (Spring 2008).
"The New American Poetry."
The Encyclopedia of Beat Culture. Literary Movements Series. Ed. Kurt Hemmer.
New York: Facts on File, 2006.
"Dialogism and the Bakhtinian Adventure Plot in Melville's
The Confidence-Man." (Conference paper abstract.)
Melville Society Extracts 128 (February 2005): 8.
"Romantic and Realist Rubble: The Foundation
for a New National Literature in Dostoevsky's
Poor Folk and Melville's
Pierre."
Comparative Romanticisms: Power, Gender,
Subjectivity. Ed. Larry H. Peer and Diane
Long Hoeveler. Columbia, South Carolina: Camden
House, 1998. 47-58.
Reviews:
Approaches to Teaching Wiesel’s Night, ed. Alan Rosen, in
Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish
Studies 26.1 (Fall 2007).
Martin Bickman's
Walden: Volatile Truths,
and Elizabeth Cheresh Allen's
Beyond Realism:
Turgenev's Poetics of Secular Salvation,
in
Philosophy and Literature 17 (2)
(October 1993): 359-361.
Conference Presentations:
"Violent and Non-Violent Jewish Resistance throughout Europe: An Overview." Special Panel: Ending the Last Myth of the Holocaust: The Passivity of the Jews: The Evidence from France. Panel chaired by Patrick Henry. Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. April, 2010. Lexington, KY.
"What We Can Learn from Lysistrata: The Present-Day Relevance of Aristophanes's Play."
Guest lecture to Purdue University Interdisciplinary Program in Classics. Spring 2009. West Lafayette, IN.
"The Sacredness of the Other: Infinite Obligation in Dostoevsky's Poor Folk and Melville's Bartleby." North American Levinas Society 3rd Annual Conference. September, 2008. Seattle, WA.
"Existence as Resistance: Jorge Semprun's
The Long Voyage and Sarah Kofman's
Rue Ordener, Rue Labat." Lessons
& Legacies IX: Conference on the Holocaust. December, 2007. Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.
"Divided Races, Divided Psyches: Herman Melville's Subversion of Racial Essentialism in
Typee." Special
panel: "The Story on the Body: Textual Tattoos and the Corporeal Canvas." Popular Culture Association/American
Culture Association Conference. April, 2007. Boston, MA.
"The Savage Mime: How Tattoos Silently Rewrite Race and Identity in Melville's
Typee." Race and
Ethnicity in the Nineteenth Century: The Nineteenth Century Studies Association 28th Annual Conference.
March, 2007. Selinsgrove, PA.
"Memoir and Memory: Re-inventing Narrative Modes to Truthfully Convey Holocaust Memories." Nation and
Narration: Ninth Annual Red River Conference on World Literature. April, 2006. Fargo, North Dakota.
"Tattoos and Other Taboos in Melville's
Typee."
Taboo and Transgression: Conference of the
College English Association--Carribean Chapter.
February, 2005. Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
"Dialogism and the Bakhtinian Plot in Melville's
The Confidence-Man." Melville Society
Panel: "Melville's Dialogic Muse." Modern
Language Association 120th Annual Convention.
December, 2004. Philadelphia, PA.
"Deceptive Appearances: Anti-Romance
Beneath the Surface in Melville's
Typee."
Melville in the Marquesas: An Interdisciplinary
Conference and Expedition. Sponsored by the
Purdue Circle for America-Pacific Studies.
June-July, 2003. Marquesas Islands and Tahiti.
"Romantic and Realist Rubble: The Foundation
for a New National Literature in Melville's
Pierre and Dostoevsky's
Poor Folk."
Second Annual American Conference on Romanticism.
September, 1995. Milwaukee, WI.
"The Drama of Consciousness in Dostoevsky and Melville." Annual meeting of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast. November, 1993. Seattle, WA.
"The Function of Women and Genre in Melville's
Pierre: Country Utopia and City Dystopia."
Utopian Studies Conference. November, 1992.
Baltimore, MD.
"Whitening the Self, Blackening the Other:
Facing the Dark in Melville's
Typee
and Morrison's
The Bluest Eye."
Special session chaired by Eric Sundquist.
American Literature Association Conference.
May, 1992. San Diego, CA.
Books:
Editor of Charles S. Lauer's
Reach for
the Stars (Walla Walla, WA: CCI Books,
1998)
