1. University of Virginia
  2. Arts & Sciences

Mark Edmundson

University Professor

208 Bryan Hall

 434-924-6632
Office Hours:

M 3:00-6:00

 Class Schedule:

TR 12:30-1:45, 3:30-4:45

Degrees

Ph.D. Yale, 1985
B.A. Bennington, 1974

Specialties

19th C American, 19th C British, Poetry, Romanticism

Books

Be a Football Player! / An Inquiry into Values, Penguin Press, 2014
Why Teach?, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013
The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll, HarperCollins, 2010
The Death of Sigmund Freud, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007

Translations: French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Hebrew, Korean, Turkish, Portuguese (Brazil), Greek.

Why Read?, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004
Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference, Random House, 2002
Nightmare on Main Street, Harvard University Press, 1997
Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida , Cambridge University Press, 1995
Wild Orchids and Trotsky, Penguin, 1993
Towards Reading Freud, Princeton University Press, 1990

Forthcoming Works

Books

Be a Football Player! / An Inquiry into Values, Penguin Press, 2014 (Author)

Selected Essays

  • "The Fall of American Poetry": Harper's Magazine (forthcoming).
  • "Imagination: Powers and Perils": Raritan, Fall 2012.
  • "Do Sports Build Character or Destroy It?": The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 2012.
  • "Under the Sign of Satan: Blake in the Corporate University": The Hedgehog Review, Spring 2012.
  • "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? / A Message in a Bottle for the Incoming Class": Oxford American, Fall 2011. Chosen for Best American Essays 2012.
  • “Dwelling in Possibility”: The Chronicle of Higher Education (cover story), March 21, 2008.
  • “Alone at the Movies”: The American Scholar, Winter, 2008.
  • “The Zen Ten,” in University of Virginia Teaching Resource Center Bulletin, Fall, 2005.
  • “Humanities Past, Present and Future”: New Literary History, Winter 2005.
  • “Freud (and Shakespeare) in Love”: Raritan, Summer 2004.
  • "My First Intellectual": Lingua Franca, March, 1999.
  • "The Uses of a Liberal Arts Education": Harper's Magazine, September, 1997.
  • "Novel Characters: Don DeLillo Rewrites the Self": Yale Review, April, 1995.
  • "Coleridge" in The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (Johns Hopkins University Press,1993).
  • "Vital Intimations: Wordsworth and the Promise of Criticism": SAQ, Summer, 1992.
  • "Criticism Now: the Example of Wordsworth": Raritan, Fall, 1990.
  • "Salman Rushdie: Prophet of a New Post-Modernism": Harper's Magazine, September, 1989.
  • "A Will to Cultural Power: Deconstructing the De Man Scandal": Harper's Magazine, July 1988.
  • "Keats's Mortal Stance": Studies in Romanticism, Spring 1987.
  • "Edmund Wilson: The Last American Scholar?": The Bennington Review, No. 12, Winter 1982.

Selected Recent Lectures

  • “Terrible Beauty: Football in America”: Princeton University, McCandless Lecture, December 11, 2012.

  •  “Self and Soul: The Mortal Dilemma”: Houston Lecture, University of Houston, April 19, 2012.

  • “What Is a Romantic?” Department of English, University of Houston, April 18, 2012.

  • “Self and Soul: The Mortal Dilemma”: Knoll Lecture, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; March 27, 2012.

  • Scholar in Residence / Monterey Bay Community College / presenting three lectures:

  • “Are Football Stars Heroes?”  March 8, 2012.

  • “Can Music Save Your Life?” March 7, 2012.

  • “Why Does Love Have to Be So Sad?” March 5, 2012.

  • “Why Read?” Suffolk University: October 6, 2011 (Teacher chosen as first year reading for entering class).

  • “Why Read?”  Wartburg College (Convocation Address) – March 22, 2011.

  • “Self and Soul: The Modern Dilemma,” Portland State University (Keynote Address, NUCLA Conference), March 4, 2011.

  • Kings of Rock and Roll! Princeton University (Association of Literary Scholars, Critics and Writers Conference), November 6, 2010.

  • “The Common Reader Now,” Princeton University  (ALSCW Conference), November 5, 2010.

  • “Why Read?” Simpson College (Convocation Address), September 5, 2010.

Editor

  • Contributing Editor, Raritan, 1991-

Honors and Awards

  • "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? / A Message in a Bottle for the Incoming Class." Oxford American, Fall 2011. Chosen for Best American Essays 2012.
  • Kings of Rock and Roll named one of the best memoirs of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews.
  • "On Bores" named a Notable Essay of 2009 by Best American Essays.
  • Guggenheim Fellow for 2005-2006.
  • NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor, 2004-2007.
  • The New York Times Notable Book of the Year Citation for Teacher, 2002.
  • Virginia Foundation for the Humanities Fellowship, Fall 2001.
  • "Game Time" named a Notable Story of 2002 by Best American Short Stories.
  • NEH / Harry Jack Gray Distinguished Teaching Professor, University of Hartford, Spring, 2001.
  • Sesquicentennial Fellowship, University of Virginia, Spring 2000.
  • NEH Summer Grant, 1999.
  • Sesquicentennial Fellow, University of Virginia, 1994 - 1995.
  • Senior Fellowship: Commonwealth Center for Literary and Cultural Change Fellow, 1992-1993.
  • Virginia Arts Council Grant for Fiction Writing, 1992.
  • Junior Faculty Fellowship, sponsored by the University of Virginia, Spring 1988.
  • Keats / Shelley Association Award, 1987, for the essay "Keats's Mortal Stance."