Research Interests / Recherches

David Spurr writes on modern English and comparative literature, with a particular interest in the relations between literature and the arts, including architecture. He has held visiting appointments at the universities of Basel, Zurich, Innsbruck, and Iceland, and at the Bodmer Foundation in Switzerland.

Publications

Monographs:

The Consolation of Poetry: Ten Lessons on Life and Death. Bern: Peter Lang, 2022.

Architecture and Modern Literature. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012. Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies, Modern Language Association of America.

Joyce and the Scene of Modernity. Gainesville: University Press of Florida James Joyce Series, 2002. Named Outstanding Academic Title by Choice, a publication of the American Library Association.

The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism , Travel Writing, and Imperial Administration. Series: Post-Contemporary Interventions. Durham and London : Duke University Press,1993. Third printing, 1996. Published in Spanish as La Retórica del Imperio: El discurso colonial en periodismo, escritura de viajes y administración imperial. Trans. Cristina Marquez. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado, 2013.

Conflicts in Consciousness: T.S. Eliot's Poetry and Criticism. Urbana and London: University of Illinois Press, l984.

Edited volumes:

Frankenstein créé des ténèbres. Paris: Gallimard, 2016.

Praharfeast: James Joyce in Prague. With David Vichnar and Michael Groden. Prague: Literaria Pragensia, 2012.

The Space of English. With Cornelia Tschichold. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2005

Essays:

The many essays and articles by David Spurr have appeared in reviews such as PMLA, MLN, Journal of Modern Literature, Modernism/Modernity, Poetry, Poétique, Etudes Littéraires, Raritan Quarterly, Criticism, Centennial Review, Modern Language Review, Novel, James Joyce Quarterly, Comparative Literature, New Comparison, the Rivista di Letterature moderne et comparate, and Chora: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture. 

Others have appeared in collective volumes published by Columbia University Press, Edinburgh University Press, University Press of New England, University Press of Florida, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Rodopi, and Gallimard.