Douglas Dowland
@profdgd.bsky.social
Curious about affect in the contemporary US? Visit: https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5889/
Status: imprisoned on the recliner.
November 17, 2025 at 12:32 AM
Status: imprisoned on the recliner.
Recently I told students about this. First, they thought I was kidding. Second, they immediately understood the power differentials and innate creepiness of it all.
If you are not in academia, you might not know this, but job interviews used to be held at conferences IN HOTEL ROOMS. Women candidates in a hotel room alone with often all-male committees. People sitting on beds! The horror stories I've heard.
I thing I sometimes thing about is that university departments were still doing job interviews in hotel rooms in the mid aughts
November 16, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Recently I told students about this. First, they thought I was kidding. Second, they immediately understood the power differentials and innate creepiness of it all.
This week I learned how to derail the medical humanities class by asking students to name their least favorite organ.
November 15, 2025 at 11:01 PM
This week I learned how to derail the medical humanities class by asking students to name their least favorite organ.
The books for Literature and Medicine next semester.
November 2, 2025 at 8:18 PM
The books for Literature and Medicine next semester.
Next semester's reading in the Medical Humanities course.
November 2, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Next semester's reading in the Medical Humanities course.
The majors have informed me that their Halloween reading list includes Angela Carter, Oscar Wilde, Poe, Mary Shelley, and my second book(?).
October 31, 2025 at 6:28 PM
The majors have informed me that their Halloween reading list includes Angela Carter, Oscar Wilde, Poe, Mary Shelley, and my second book(?).
Reposted by Douglas Dowland
It's pub day (birthday 0?) for Writing Through Writer's Block: Lessons from Modern American Fiction! This is a study of how authors have used the archetype of the blocked writer to identify, analyze, and ultimately work through both internal and external constraints on their creative abilities.
Writing Through Writer’s Block
uipress.uiowa.edu
October 29, 2025 at 12:17 AM
It's pub day (birthday 0?) for Writing Through Writer's Block: Lessons from Modern American Fiction! This is a study of how authors have used the archetype of the blocked writer to identify, analyze, and ultimately work through both internal and external constraints on their creative abilities.
That my review is #3 @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social suggests that the strategies (and politics) of reading continue to fascinate.
October 27, 2025 at 3:57 PM
That my review is #3 @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social suggests that the strategies (and politics) of reading continue to fascinate.
Part of the author's contract with LARB reads that they may pursue "dramatic film and television, stage plays, non-dramatic productions, and web series" derived from the author's work. So now I'm trying to imagine what "Close Reading: The Netflix Series" might look like.
October 25, 2025 at 10:40 PM
Part of the author's contract with LARB reads that they may pursue "dramatic film and television, stage plays, non-dramatic productions, and web series" derived from the author's work. So now I'm trying to imagine what "Close Reading: The Netflix Series" might look like.
Reposted by Douglas Dowland
It’s the official publication day for Painful Forms! I’m so pleased to see the book out in the world and grateful forever to @uncpress.bsky.social for making that happen. uncpress.org/978146968894...
Painful Forms
In the wake of World War II, Americans struggled to grasp the shifting scale of violence brought on by the nuclear era. To grapple with the overwhelming suff...
uncpress.org
October 21, 2025 at 11:09 PM
It’s the official publication day for Painful Forms! I’m so pleased to see the book out in the world and grateful forever to @uncpress.bsky.social for making that happen. uncpress.org/978146968894...
Reposted by Douglas Dowland
And here's the first review of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, from @profdgd.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
The Problem of the Parlor | Los Angeles Review of Books
Douglas Dowland close-reads Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant’s new edited volume, “Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century.”
lareviewofbooks.org
October 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
And here's the first review of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, from @profdgd.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...
Reposted by Douglas Dowland
"Instead of mystery, Sinykin and Winant see possibility: to them, close reading is a practice that anyone can learn."
I'm really grateful for @profdgd.bsky.social 's extremely thoughtful review in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social today
as he writes -- "It’s enough to make the heart skip a beat."
I'm really grateful for @profdgd.bsky.social 's extremely thoughtful review in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social today
as he writes -- "It’s enough to make the heart skip a beat."
The Problem of the Parlor | Los Angeles Review of Books
Douglas Dowland close-reads Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant’s new edited volume, “Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century.”
lareviewofbooks.org
October 21, 2025 at 3:33 PM
"Instead of mystery, Sinykin and Winant see possibility: to them, close reading is a practice that anyone can learn."
I'm really grateful for @profdgd.bsky.social 's extremely thoughtful review in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social today
as he writes -- "It’s enough to make the heart skip a beat."
I'm really grateful for @profdgd.bsky.social 's extremely thoughtful review in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social today
as he writes -- "It’s enough to make the heart skip a beat."
Reposted by Douglas Dowland
"The finished product of a close reading exudes confidence, obscuring how much of close reading is uncertainty." @profdgd.bsky.social on "Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-problem-of-the-parlor/
October 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
"The finished product of a close reading exudes confidence, obscuring how much of close reading is uncertainty." @profdgd.bsky.social on "Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-problem-of-the-parlor/
In Monday's Los Angeles Review of Books.
October 19, 2025 at 2:36 AM
In Monday's Los Angeles Review of Books.
In my mailbox today, a book well worth reading.
October 6, 2025 at 5:39 PM
In my mailbox today, a book well worth reading.
The subject of the theory class tomorrow.
October 1, 2025 at 10:35 PM
The subject of the theory class tomorrow.
Arrived yesterday and already through the first chapter of what I think will be a very important book.
September 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Arrived yesterday and already through the first chapter of what I think will be a very important book.
We're beginning the formalism/close reading section this week. There's an article to be written about how Brooks and Warren, and an entirely army of formalists in critical journals throughout the fifties, agreed that "this is a bad poem."
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Trees
I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pra...
www.poetryfoundation.org
September 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM
We're beginning the formalism/close reading section this week. There's an article to be written about how Brooks and Warren, and an entirely army of formalists in critical journals throughout the fifties, agreed that "this is a bad poem."
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
A colleague down the hall taught Bartleby this week and I felt major FOMO.
September 7, 2025 at 6:31 PM
A colleague down the hall taught Bartleby this week and I felt major FOMO.
The conference schedule gods looked kindly upon me this year.
August 31, 2025 at 12:10 AM
The conference schedule gods looked kindly upon me this year.
Got my first e-mail about Spring 2026 courses.
August 21, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Got my first e-mail about Spring 2026 courses.
Glad to have been a part of it!
12 months, 24 episodes, 53 voices, 2387 minutes of produced content, 150,000+ downloads.
It’s been my pleasure & my pain. Ends tomorrow.
It’s been my pleasure & my pain. Ends tomorrow.
August 17, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Glad to have been a part of it!
Got a page of writing done and
August 14, 2025 at 1:43 AM
Got a page of writing done and
Science dude who wants to separate science from the humanities (for uncompelling if not stock reasons) also teaches professional ethics, which is more than a tinge humanities.
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Science dude who wants to separate science from the humanities (for uncompelling if not stock reasons) also teaches professional ethics, which is more than a tinge humanities.