Sean McDowell CV

Teaching and Research Interests

My teaching and research interests are connected though my abiding fascination with the creative imagination, both as it was understood during the Renaissance and as we understand it now. I am intrigued by how literary and other artistic works mean as much as, and sometimes more than what they mean. As a result, I both write creatively (fiction, poetry, and screenplays) and I write about early modern reader reception; the impact of past views of psychology, cosmology, and phenomenology on the creative process; and modern writers (and artists) in dialogue with past writers. As for hobbies, well, my kids (both under age four) are my hobbies and cooking and curling up with a really good book, our cat Pika (no relation to the rabbit-like critter) snug in a ball on my lap.
 
Interests: Renaissance Literature and Culture (especially Shakespeare, Donne, and Milton), Creative Writing, Comparative Arts Studies, Intertextuality, Science Fiction, Renaissance Psychology, and the History of Critical Thought
 
Current and Recent Courses: Readings in Brit. Lit. 1, Shakespeare, Donne and His Critics, The Renaissance Lyric, Milton Seminar, Writing Fiction, Advanced Fiction, Writers Workshop in Ireland, The Hero in Modern Film, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Films
 
Film Courses: Scifi Film Genre, Screenwriting, Script Analysis
 
Dream or Future Courses: I would love to teach a seminar on the “Sister Arts”—the ways in which people in the Renaissance viewed poetry, drama, painting, music, sculpture, architecture, even dancing as interrelated. I also would like to teach a course on the history of literary style for both writers and readers

Biography

BA (English), BJ (Journalism)
MA (English Literature)
Ph.D. (English Literature)