Dr. Louis Schwartz
Associate Professor of English
302-B Ryland Hall
Office: (804) 289-8315
Fax: (804) 289-8313
Teaching:
John Milton (Graduate Seminar)
English Poetics (Senior Seminar)
John Milton (Undergrad.)
Introduction to English Renaissance Literature
Shakespeare
Survey of British Literature
Survey of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature
Shakespeare for Non-majors
Introduction to Poetry
The Bible and Literature
American Hard-boiled Detective Fiction
"Shapes of Desire:" An Introduction to the Analysis of Genre and Mode (The Love Lyric)
Introduction to Textual Analysis
Freshman Humanities Core Course
Freshman Composition
Research:
Milton
16th- and Early 17th-Century English Literature and Culture
16th- and Early 17th-Century English Medical and Obstetric History
History and Theory of English Poetics
Education:
Ph.D., Brandeis University, 1990
M.A., Brandeis University, 1985
B.A., State University of New York at Albany, 1984
Selected Publications:
Milton and Maternal Mortality (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Michael Bryson's The Tyranny of Heaven." Review essay, Milton Quarterly, October (2006).
"The Nightmare of History: Samson Agonistes." In A Concise Companion to Milton, ed. by Angelica Duran (Blackwell, 2006).
"Scarce-well-lighted Flame": Milton's "Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester" and the Representation of Maternal Mortality in the Seventeenth-Century Epitaph. In "All in All": Unity, Diversity, and the Miltonic Perspective, ed. Charles Durham and Kristin Pruitt (Susquehanna University Press, 1999).
"Conscious Terrors": Seventeenth-Century Obstetrics and Milton's Allegory of General Sin in Paradise Lost, Book 2. In Arenas of Conflict: Milton and the Unfettered Mind, ed. Charles Durham and Kristin McCoglan (Susquehanna University Press, 1996).
"Conscious Terrors" and "The Promised Seed:" Seventeenth-Century Obstetrics and the Allegory of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost. In Milton Studies 32, ed. Albert C. Labriola (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995).
"But as for me, helas, I may no more:" Petrarchan Imitation and Courtly Sociability in Wyatt's "Who so list to hounte." The Comparatist, May (1994).
"Spot of child-bed taint:" Seventeenth Century Obstetrics in Milton's Sonnet XXIII and Paradise Lost VIII:462-78. Milton Quarterly, October (1993).
Projects in Progress:
Force of Reason: New Essays from the Conference on John Milton. Edited with Mary Fenton, Western Carolina University (forthcoming from Susquehanna University Press).As Contributing Editor for the Milton Variorum Project: Variorum notes to Paradise Lost, Book III. The completed Variorum Commentary on the Poems of John Milton. ed. by Albert Labriola and Paul Klemp is to be published by Duquesne University Press and Columbia University Press.
Academic and Professional Activities:
Member of the Milton Society of America (Executive Board, 2001-3).
Presentations:
Too Much Conceiving: On the Reproductive Imagery of Milton's "On Shakespeare." The Conference on John Milton, Murfreesboro, TN, October 2005.
"Lycidas' Tears:" Milton and Inconsolation. Eighth International Milton Symposium, Grenoble, France, June 7-12, 2005.
"Lycidas' Tears." Plenary panel presentation, The Conference on John Milton, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 2003.
"Hutching the Ore:" The Hidden Logic of the Reproductive Imagery in the Ludlow Masque. Seventh International Milton Symposium, Beaufort S.C., June 4-8, 2002.
"What was that Gorgon Shield?:" Obstetric Anxiety and Sexual Coercion in Milton's Ludlow Masque. Renaissance Society of America, Tempe Arizona, May 2002.
The "Womb of waters" and the "Firm Opacous Globe:" Some Speculations on the Function of Reproductive Imagery in Milton's Descriptions of the Outer Spheres of the Created Universe. The Conference on John Milton. Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October, 1999.
"Abortive Gulf:" Speculations on the Relationship Between Obstetric Anxiety and the Representation of Chaos in Paradise Lost. Sixth International Milton Symposium, University of York, England, 19-23 July 1999.
"Scarce-well-lighted Flame": Milton's "Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester" and the Representation of Maternal Mortality in the Seventeenth-Century Epitaph. The Conference on John Milton. Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 27-9, 1995.
"Abortive Gulf": Pregnancy, Will, and The Ontology of Allegory in Paradise Lost. Patristic Medieval and Renaissance Conference. Villanova University, October 7-9, 1994.
"Conscious Terrors": Seventeenth-Century Obstetrics and the Allegory of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost. Second Southeastern Conference on John Milton. Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 21-3, 1993.
"She Whom I Loved": Childbed Death and Masculine Guilt in Donne's and Milton's Elegaic Sonnets. Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies. Norman, Oklahoma, October 8-10, 1993. With Elizabeth Hodgson, Furman University.
"A Growing Burden": Childbirth and the Ontology of Allegory in Paradise Lost. Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference, Atlanta, October 22-24, 1992. Chair and Organizer of Session: "The Discourse of Childbirth in Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century Poetry."
"Spot of child-bed taint": Seventeenth-Century Obstetrics in Milton's Sonnet XXIII and Paradise Lost VIII:462-78. Central Renaissance Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska, April 23-5, 1992.
Awards:
University of Richmond Research Travel Grant (Summer 2005)
University of Richmond Faculty Summer Research Fellowship (Summer 2003)
University of Richmond Faculty Summer Research Fellowship (Summer 1997)
University of Richmond Research Travel Grant (Summer 1993)
University of Richmond Faculty Summer Research Fellowship (Summer 1990)