Coming Soon

Professor Plotz's forthcoming book, "Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move," will be published in 2008 by Princeton University Press.

John Plotz

Associate Professor of English
Ph.D., Harvard University

Current research
I am fascinated by the notion of "antisocial behavior." In both Britain and America, the last 200 years have seen radical changes in the relation of individual and society. At times, cohesion and cooperation have been stressed, at other times radical freedom. What changes people’s attitudes toward their society and toward actions that separate people from society? And how is the changing fate of socialism related to evolving social norms and to antisocial activities? I am exploring these questions in relation to articles on novelists (George Eliot and Henry James), philosophers (John Stuart Mill and Hannah Arendt) and social theorists (Erving Goffman and Robert Putnam).   

Favorite classroom experience
I went apple picking with the students in our introductory English class (English 11) after the semester had ended. There were great discussions about Thomas Pynchon on the fake train going between Macintoshes and Jonagolds. 

What makes Brandeis special
It’s a university small enough that graduate students and undergraduates spend time together. They share classroom space and social space, and can learn to collaborate with and educate one another in ways that could never happen either in a college or a large university.

Last book read for pleasure
"Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud.

Favorite world city to visit
Cape Town, South Africa, because I haven’t been there yet, and I’ve convinced my kids it’s going to be great.