Jonathan Arac

​Jonathan Arac's main teaching interests were US literature and culture since 1820; British literature and culture 1740-1940; literary criticism and theory.

Jonathan Arac returned to Pitt in 2006 after five years at Columbia University, where he served as department chair. Since 1979, he served on the editorial group of boundary 2. He is the author of four published books on American and British fiction, poetry, and social criticism. Two new books were in their final stages at the time of his retirement: Impure Worlds (Fordham Up) and Against Americanistics (Duke Up). He has also edited six published volumes of original essays by many hands on topics in criticism. His latest work focused especially on the novel in the US and on questions of language in American writing. In 2008 he became the founding director of the humanities center at the University of Pittsburgh, a project of the School of Arts and Sciences to foster advanced research.

Teaching:

Graduate:

• Language in American Literature; US Novel, 1850-1950

Undergraduate:

• Introduction to Critical Reading
• Junior Seminar on British Literature and Criticism 1740-1940
• Senior Seminar on Literature and the Sublime;
• Honors College course on Masterpieces of American Literature and Masterpieces of European Social Theory