Jay Clayton (critic) explained

Jay Clayton
Birth Name:John Bunyan Clayton, IV
Birth Date:11 July 1951
Birth Place:Dallas, Texas, United States
Occupation:Literary critic, professor
Workplaces:University of Wisconsin–Madison
Vanderbilt University
Main Interests:Literature, Science, Technology
Education:Yale University (BA)
University of Virginia (PhD)

Jay Clayton (born July 11, 1951) is an American literary critic who is known for his work on the relationship between nineteenth-century culture and postmodernism.[1] He has published influential works on Romanticism and the novel,[2] Neo-Victorian literature,[3] steampunk,[4] hypertext fiction,[5] online games,[6] contemporary American fiction,[7] technology in literature,[8] and genetics in literature and film.[9] He is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English and director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.

Academic career

Clayton attended Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas and The Hill School, in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, before going on to receive his B.A. from Yale University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1979. He taught English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before moving to Vanderbilt University in 1988. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999. As chair of the English department at Vanderbilt from 2003 to 2010, he helped recruit renowned professors to the university.[10]

His first book Romantic Vision and the Novel, published by Cambridge University Press in 1987, compared Victorian realist fiction with romantic poetry. It proposed a theory of Romantic visionary moments in nineteenth-century English fiction as lyric disruptions of the narrative line.[2]

His book on multiculturalism in American fiction and theory, Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory, published by Oxford University Press in 1993, was selected by Choice as An Outstanding Academic Book for 1995. Surveying American fiction and literary theory from the 1970s-1990s, Clayton argued for the political and social power of narratives.[11]

His best known book, Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture, was published by Oxford University Press in 2003. It won the Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Book Prize for Interdisciplinary Scholarship in 2004.[12] Moving from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Clayton shows how Victorian literature and technology reverberates in contemporary American culture.[13]

Clayton was an early adopter of digital approaches to pedagogy, teaching classes on hypertext and computer games beginning in 1996.[14] In 2013, he launched a highly successful MOOC on the Coursera platform titled “Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative,” which has reached over 85,000 students from more than 120 countries around the world.[15] [6] More recently, his classes have focused on literature, genetics, and science policy.[16]

Publications

Books

Edited collections

Selected articles

Awards

External links

Notes and References

  1. Sadoff. Dianne F.. Spring 2004. Charles Dickens in Cyberspace: The Afterlife of the Nineteenth Century in Postmodern Culture (review). Victorian Studies. 46. 3. 505–507. 10.1353/vic.2004.0137. 144841120. 2018-01-03.
  2. Felluga. Dino Franco. Winter 2003. Novel Poetry: Transgressing the Law of Genre. Victorian Studies. 41. 4. 490–499 . 10.1353/vp.2004.0003. 162256667. 2018-01-03.
  3. Book: Johnston. Judith. Waters. Catherine. Gay. Penny. Johnston. Judith. Waters. Catherine. Victorian Turns, NeoVictorian Returns: Essays on Fiction and Culture. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2008. 2. Introduction. 978-1-847-18662-1.
  4. Book: Siemann , Catherine . Taddeo. Julie Anne. Miller. Cynthia J.. Steaming Into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology. Scarecrow Press. 2013. 16. Some Notes on the Steampunk Social Problem Novel. 978-0-810-88586-8. https://books.google.com/books?id=bYmIZNOHInoC&pg=PA16.
  5. Latimer. Heather. Summer 2011. Reproductive Technologies, Fetal Icons, and Genetic Freaks: Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl and the Limits and Possibilities of Donna Haraway's Cyborg. MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 57. 2. 318–335. 10.1353/mfs.2011.0051. 144875581. 2018-01-03.
  6. News: Poisso. Lisa. 2013-02-07. What can WoW and other MMOs teach us about literature and storytelling?. engadget. 2018-01-03.
  7. Nadel. Alan. Summer 1994. The Pleasures of Babel: Contemporary American Literature and Theory (review). MFS Modern Fiction Studies. 40. 2. 371–373. 10.1353/mfs.0.0808. 161527573. 2018-01-03.
  8. Book: Moore , Grace . The Victorian Novel in Context. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2012. 132. 978-1-441-12413-5.
  9. Book: Oikkonen , Venla . Population Genetics and Belonging: A Cultural Analysis of Genetic Ancestry. Springer. 2017. 135. 978-3-319-62881-3.
  10. News: Jaschik. Scott. 2006-05-22. Vanderbilt Rising. Inside Higher Ed. 2018-01-03.
  11. Kalaidjian. Walter. Autumn 1996. Reading the Multicultural Text. 1208720. Contemporary Literature. 37. 3. 492–500. 10.2307/1208720.
  12. Sixth Annual Book Prize. http://glasscock.tamu.edu/archives/archive-of-events/humanities-book-prize-archives/#04-05. Glasscock Prize Winners. 2004. Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research. Texas A&M University.
  13. Walton. Priscilla. Spring 2005. Postmillennial Victorian Studies. 4489109. Contemporary Literature. 46. 1. 134–138. 10.1353/cli.2005.0018.
  14. Web site: English 295 - Postmodernism and the Culture of Cyberspace. Clayton. Jay. Fall 1996. www.vanderbilt.edu. 2018-01-03.
  15. Web site: Online Games: Literature, New Media, and Narrative. Clayton. Jay. Coursera. Vanderbilt University . 2018-01-03.
  16. Web site: Bioculture Seminars. Wordpress. Vanderbilt University . 2018-01-03.
  17. Web site: Genetics and dystopia in the Huxley circle. Queen Mary University, London. 2013-03-10.
  18. Web site: Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor Award. Vanderbilt University. 2013-03-10.
  19. Web site: Jay Clayton. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 2013-03-10.
  20. Web site: Tense/Times: Literature, Anxiety, Temporality. The English Institute 1999. 2013-03-10.
  21. Web site: Vita. Clayton. Jay. Vanderbilt University. January 2007. 2013-03-10.
  22. 1996. Frontmatter. 20107067. Narrative. 4. 1.
  23. Web site: John B. Clayton F'81. ACLS. 1981. 2013-03-10.