John Plotz
Degrees
Harvard University, Ph.D.Harvard University, B.A.
Expertise
Victorian literature. The novel. Politics and aesthetics.Profile
Professor of Victorian Literature. WebpageCourses Taught
| ENG | 18a | Irish Literature, from the Peasantry to the Pogues |
| ENG | 38a | Fantasy Worlds: From Lilliput and Middle Earth to LARPs |
| ENG | 40b | The Birth of the Short Story: Gods, Ghosts, Lunatics |
| ENG | 70a | The Birth of the Movies: From Silent Film to Hollywood |
| ENG | 75b | The Victorian Novel: Secrets, Lies, and Monsters |
| ENG | 105b | After Jane Austen: Sex, Death, and Fiction |
| ENG | 150b | Out of This World: Science Fiction's Cyborgs, Time Travellers, and Space Invaders |
| ENG | 176b | Jane Austen and George Eliot: Novel Genius |
| ENG | 240a | Genre, Form, Mode: Problems of Aesthetic Classification |
| ENG | 360c | Article Publication Proseminar |
Awards and Honors
Fellow, Newhouse Center for the Humanities (2018 - 2019)
Brandeis Senior Faculty Research Leave (2015)
John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 2011-12 (2011 - 2012)
Radcliffe Society of Fellows, Residential Fellowship (2011 - 2012)
Portable Property named "Outstanding Title" by Choice magazine (2010)
Brandeis University Dean of Arts and Sciences Mentoring Award, 2006-7 (2007)
Modernist Studies Association Best Book of 2006. Awarded to Crowds (edited by Schnapp and Tiews), which includes my essay "The Return of the Blob" (2007)
Howard Foundation Fellow (2005 - 2006)
Virtually Being There: Edmund Wilsons Suburbs. McGinnis-Ritchie Award for Nonfiction in Southwest Review (2002)
"Notable Essay," Best American Essays (2000)
Scholarship
Plotz, John, ed. B-Side Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites. NY: Columbia University Press, 2021. (forthcoming)
Plotz, John and Aarthi Vadde, Co-Hosts. Novel Dialogue (Season 1 episodes 1-8; March to May 2021). 2021.
Plotz, John and Ferry, Elizabeth. Recall This Book podcast (episodes 25 to 51). 2021.
Plotz, John. "Kim Stanley Robinson (Interview)." Public Books (2021): <https://www.publicbooks.org/the-realism-of-our-times-kim-stanley-robinson-on-how-science-fiction-works/>.
Plotz, John. "Operating at a Loss: Nominal Values and Mechanical Models." Victorian Studies 62. 2 (2021): 268-272.
Plotz, John. "Buster Keaton Falls Up." Public Books (2020): <https://www.publicbooks.org/buster-keaton-falls-up/?utm_source=PUBLIC+BOOKS+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0e3d7274bf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d048c39403-0e3d7274bf-47247485>.
Plotz, John. "Stephen McCauley on the Comic Novel. Interview." Public Books.
Plotz, John. "Windy, Tangible, Resonant Worlds: The Non-Human Fantasy of William Morris." Companion to William Morris. Ed. Florence Boos., 2020
Plotz, John. "“To Reach the Realm of the Pure Imaginary”: A Conversation with Cixin Liu.." Public Books (2020): <https://www.publicbooks.org/to-reach-the-pure-realm-of-the-imaginary-a-conversation-with-cixin-liu/>.
Plotz, John. "B-Side: Randall Jarrell, Pictures from an Institution." Public Books (2019): <https://www.publicbooks.org/b-sides-randall-jarrells-pictures-from-an-institution/>.
Plotz, John. "Having it Both Ways with Erving Goffman." Victorian Literature and Culture 47. 2 (2019): 1-10.
Plotz, John. "In Memoriam: Agnes Heller." Public Books (2019): <https://www.publicbooks.org/in-memoriam-agnes-heller/>.
Plotz, John. "In Memoriam: Philip Roth." Public Books (2019): <http://www.publicbooks.org/in-memoriam-philip-roth/#_=_>.
Plotz, John. "Madeline Miller on Circe. Interview." Public Books (2019): <https://www.publicbooks.org/madeline-miller-on-circe-mythological-realism-and-literary-correctives/>.
Plotz, John. "Samuel Delany on Capitalism Racism and Science Fiction.” Interview." Public books (2019): <https://www.publicbooks.org/samuel-delany-on-capitalism-racism-and-science-fiction/>.
Plotz, John. "Science Fiction." Victorian Literature and Culture 46. 3 (2019): 854-858.
Plotz, John. "Time Travelling with William Morris." Teaching William Morris. Ed. Elizabeth Miller and Jason Martinek. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2019. 41-48.
Plotz, John. "An Underground History of Early Victorian Fiction." Rev. of An Underground History of Early Victorian Fiction, by Greg Vargo. Review 19 2018
Plotz, John. "How to Do Things with Things." Arcade (2018): <http://arcade.stanford.edu/content/how-do-things-things-materiality-theory>.
Plotz, John. "In Memoriam: Philip Roth.." Public Books (2018): <http://www.publicbooks.org/in-memoriam-philip-roth/#_=_>.
Plotz, John. "In Memoriam: Ursula K. Le Guin." Public Books (2018): <http://www.publicbooks.org/in-memoriam-ursula-k-le-guin/#_=_>.
Plotz, John. "Portability Now: Between Thing Theory and Object Oriented Ontology”." Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyda. Ed. Niklas Fischer. NY: Lexington, 2018. 163-174..
Plotz, John. "Good Form: The Ethical Experience of the Victorian Novel.." Rev. of Good Form: The Ethical Experience of the Victorian Novel., by Jesse Rosenthal. Nineteenth Century Literature vol. 72:1 2017: 110-113.
Plotz, John. "Overtones and Empty Rooms: Willa Cather's Semi-Detached Modernism." Novel 50. 1 (2017): 56-76.
Plotz, John. "“Is Realism Failing? The Rise of Secondary Worlds.”." Novel 50. 3 (2017): 426-436.
Plotz, John. "“Overtones and Empty Rooms: Willa Cather’s Semi-Detached Modernism.”." Novel 50. 1 (2017): 56-76..
Plotz, John. "“Partial to Opera: Sounding Willa Cather’s Empty Rooms”." Sounding Modernism: Rhythm and Sonic Mediation in Modern Literature and Film. Ed. Helen Groth. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017
Plotz, John. Semi-Detached: The Aesthetics of Virtual Experience Since Dickens. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Plotz, John. "Materiality in Theory: What to Make of Victorian Things, Objects, and Commodities." The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture. 1 ed. vol. 1 Ed. Juliet John. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 522-538.
Plotz, John. "Victorian Short Stories." Cambridge Companion to the English Short Story. 1 ed. vol. 1 Ed. Ann-Marie Einhaus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 87-100.
Plotz, John. "“Materiality in Theory: What to Make of Victorian Things, Objects, and Commodities.”." The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture. Ed. John, Juliet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. 522-538.
Plotz, John. "Moving Images: Nineteenth-Century Reading and Screen Practices." Rev. of Moving Images: Nineteenth-Century Reading and Screen Practices, by Helen Groth. Victorian Studies 2015
Plotz, John. "Necessary Pleasures: How I Learned to Write, and Why.." Writing for the Curious: Why Study Writing. Ed. Kishor Vaidya., 2015
Plotz, John. "Provincial Novel." Blackwell Companion to the English Novel. Ed. Stephen Arata and Paul Hunter. London, UK: Blackwell, 2015. 360-372.
Plotz, John. "Reform Acts: Chartism, Social Agency and the Victorian Novel, 1832-1867." Rev. of Reform Acts: Chartism, Social Agency and the Victorian Novel, 1832-1867, by Chris R. Vanden Bossche. Journal of British Studies vol. 57:1 2015: 247-9.
Plotz, John. "Speculative Naturalism and the Problem of Scale: Richard Jefferies’s After London, After Darwin." MLQ 76. 1 (2015): 31-56.
Plotz, John. "The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature.." Rev. of The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature., by Franco Moretti. Victorian Studies vol. 56:4 2015: 734-6.
Plotz, John. "The Victorian Anthropocene: George Marsh and the Tangled Bank of Darwinian Environmentalism.." Australasian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology 4. 1 (2015): 52-64 <http://www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/aslec-anz/issue/view/1839-843X/showToc>.
Plotz, John. "William Morris and the Uses of Violence, 1856-1890." Rev. of William Morris and the Uses of Violence, 1856-1890, by Ingrid Hanson. JOURNAL OF PRE-RAPHAELITE STUDIES vol. 33 2015: 88-91.
Plotz, John. "As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality,." by Michael Saler. Victorian Studies vol. 56.1 winter 2014.: 178-80..
Plotz, John. "Lessing is More (Obituary for Doris Lessing)." Slate (2014): <http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/11/doris_lessing_the_golden_notebook_is_more_than_feminist_rage.html>.
Plotz, John. "Serial Pleasures: The Influence of Television on the Victorian Novel." RaVON 63. 1 (2014): <http://www.erudit.org/revue/ravon/2013/v/n63/1025619ar.html?lang=en>.
Plotz, John. "“Jean Stafford, Antisocialite.”." Public Books (2014): <http://www.publicbooks.org/fiction/jean-stafford-antisocialite>.
Plotz, John. "Slow Print: Literary Radicalism and Late Victorian Print Culture. Elizabeth Carolyn Miller. Gandhi’s Printing Press: Experiments in Slow Reading." Nineteenth Century Literature vol. 68.2 Sept. 2013: 270-77..
Plotz, John. "Zounds, Milady!." Rev. of Well Met, by Rubin, Rachel. Slate 2013
Plotz, John. "“Henry James’s Rat-tat-tat-ah: Insidious Loss, Disguised Recovery and Semi-Detached Subjects.”." Henry James Review 34. (2013): 232-244.
Plotz, John. "“’On the Spot’: Willa Cather’s Remarkable Quotation Marks.”." Willa Cather Newsletter and Review 56. 2 (2013): 20-21.
Plotz, John. "Two Flowers: George Eliot's Diagrams and the Modern Novel." Blackwell Companion to George Eliot. n/a ed. vol. n/a Ed. Amanda Anderson and Harry Shaw. London: Blackwell, 2012. n/a.
Plotz, John. "review of The Empire Inside." Rev. of The Empire Inside, by Suzanne Daly. Nineteenth Century Contexts vol. n/a 2012: n/a.
Plotz, John, Ian Duncan. "This Book is 199 Years Overdue." Slate.com n/a. n/a (2011): <slate.com>.
Plotz, John. "No Future? The Novel’s Pasts." Novel 44. 1 (2011): 23-26.
Plotz, John. "Provincial Semi-Detachment." Victorian Studies 53. 3 (2011): 405-16.
Plotz, John. "Short Fiction of James Hogg." Edinburgh Companion to James Hogg. Ed. Ian Duncan. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2011. 113-121.
Plotz, John. "Their Noonday Demons, and Ours." New York Times December 25, 2011: Book Review BR 31.
Plotz, John. "Poetry of Chartism." Rev. of Poetry of Chartism, by Mike Sanders. New Books on LIterature 2010
Plotz, John. "Reading as a Resonant Cavity: John Stuart Mill's Mediated Involvement." Feeling Victorian Reading. Ed. Rachel Ablow. Ann Arbor, MI: U. Michigan, 2010. 69-92.
Plotz, John. "Victorian Fetishism." Rev. of Victorian fetishism, by Peter Logan. Victorian Studies
Plotz, John. "Victorian Glassworlds." Rev. of Victorian Glassworlds, by Isobel Armstrong. Victorian Studies 2010
Plotz, John. "Antisocial Fictions: Mill and the Novel." Novel 43. 1 (2009): 38-46.
Plotz, John. "Europe (in Theory).." Rev. of Europe (in Theory)., by Roberto Dainotto.. Nineteenth Century Gender Studies. vol. 41.
Plotz, John. "Global Hogg." Novel: A Forum on Fiction 43. 2 (2009): 120-5.
Plotz, John. Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move. 1st ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
Plotz, John. "Nowhere and Everywhere: The End of Portability in William Morris¿s Romances." ELH 74. 4 (2008): 931-956.
Plotz, John. "The Devil's Pet Baits: The Eustace Diamonds and Others." The Secret Life of Things. Ed. Blackwell, Mark. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2008. 329-354.
Plotz, John. "The First Strawberries in India: Cultural Portability in Victorian Greater Britain.." Victorian Studies 49. 4 (2008): 659-684.
Plotz, John. "How Sociology Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Crowd." Crowds. Ed. Schnapp, Jeffrey. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007. 203-224.
Plotz, John. "Chartist Literature." Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. 2006.
Plotz, John. "Can the Sofa Speak? A Look at Thing Theory." Criticism 47. 1 (2005): 109-118.
Plotz, John. "Chartist Literature." Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. Ed. Kastan, David. Oxford University Press, 2005
Plotz, John. "Review of "Friendship's Bonds" by Richard Dellamora." Nineteenth Century Literature (2005).
Plotz, John. "Review of "Hatred and Civility" by Christopher Lane." Victorian Studies 47. 2 (2005).
Plotz, John. "Review of "The Aesthetics and Politics of the Crowd in American Literature" by Mary Esteve." Novel: A Forum on Fiction (2004).
Plotz, John. "Mall of America: Why We Can't Stop Marching on Washington." Boston Globe Ideas March, 2003.
Plotz, John. "One-Way Traffic: George Lamming and the Portable Empire." After the Imperial Turn. Ed. Burton, Antoinette. Duke University Press, 2003
Plotz, John. "Review Essay: Christopher Herbert's 'Victorian Relativity." Novel: A Forum on Fiction (2003).
Plotz, John. "Review: Victorian Speech by Jospeh Meisel." Clio (2003).
Plotz, John. "Virtually Being There: Edmund Wilson's Suburbs." Southwest Review 87. (2002): 10-28.
Plotz, John. "Discursive Competition in the Victorian Public Sphere: Thomas Carlyle's Chartism." Representations 70. 87-114 (2000).
Plotz, John. The Crowd: British Literature and Public Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Plotz, John. "Out of Circulation: For and Against Book Collecting." Southwest Review 84. 4 (1999): 462-478.
Plotz,John. "Objects of Abjection: The Systematic and the Anti-Systematic in the Novels of Jean Genet." Twentieth Century Literature 44. 1 (1998): 100-118.
Plotz, John. "Coriolanus and the Failure of Performatives." ELH 63. 4 (1996): 709-732.
Plotz, John. "Motion Slickness: Spectacle and Circulation in Thomas Hardy's 'On the Western Circuit.'." Studies in Short Fiction (1996): 369-386.