CHRISTOPHER VILMAR

"and gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche"

Holloway Hall 339 • Department of English • Fulton School of Liberal Arts

Salisbury University • 1101 Camden Avenue • Salisbury MD 21801

I am the department's specialist in British literature written between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.  My research at present focuses mainly on Samuel Johnson and John Arbuthnot, especially on the intersection between satire, scholarship, and political writing.  I maintain a strong interest in other eighteenth-century satirists and in satire more broadly.  I am also interested in literary history, theories of genre, and non-fiction.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Courses Taught

I teach most of the department's courses in British literature between 1500-1800, which means that the "long" eighteenth century here on the  shores of Delmarva is long, indeed.  If pressed to define exactly how long it is, I would say that, chronologically and geographically, it stretches from Beowulf to Soyinka by way of Minnesota.  (Or, from China to Peru, take your pick.)

Among the courses I teach regularly at Salisbury are:

ENGL 252 Aspects of the Novel

ENGL 254 Satire

ENGL 356 British Literature I

ENGL 472/572 Literature of the British Renaissance

ENGL 473/573 Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature

ENGL 476/576 British Novel I

ENGL 503 English Satire, 1500-1800

ENGL 503 The Age of Johnson: Problems and Approaches

Course Materials

Under construction.

Information for Students

What You Always Wanted to Know About Applying to Graduate School, But Were Afraid to Ask: A Student's Guide

Professional Blog

Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Links

Under construction.

Education

2005--Ph.D., English Literature, Emory University.  Dissertation: “Samuel Johnson and the Chronotope of Satire.”  Directed by John Sitter; read by Martine Watson Brownley and Walter L. Reed.

1996--B.A. Language and Literature, University of North Florida, summa cum laude.

Research

"I am grown at length to see into the vanity of the world more than ever I did, and now I condemn myself for nothing so much as playing the dolt in print."--Thomas Nashe (1592)

I presented a paper on Samuel Johnson's parliamentary reporting to the Johnson at 300 conference at Pembroke College, Oxford, held to celebrate the tercentenary of Johnson's birth (1709-2009).  I recently presented a paper at ASECS, on Johnson's scholarship and philology.

I have a chapter on John Arbuthnot in press, for British Writers (Scribner's).  I am also working on a large review of five recent books on Samuel Johnson and the current state of Johnson studies for Eighteenth-Century Life.  My book on Johnson and several other essays are in preparation and will be submitted over the next six months.  Gifts of coffee or (if you are my dean or an external funding agency) release time are greatly appreciated.

Recent appearances in print include "Johnson's Criticism of Satire and the Problem of the Scriblerians" in the Cambridge Quarterly and a 6,000 word review essay titled "The Authoritative Samuel Johnson," also in CQ.

Other publications include short pieces on American novelist Herman Melville and Russian novelist Ivan Bunin.  I also review scholarly books, appearing frequently in Choice and The Routledge Annotated Bibliography for English Studies as well as other venues.