Faculty Profile
Jacob Sider Jost
Associate Professor of English (2011)
Contact Information
on sabbatical Spring 2025
East College Room 306
717-254-8950
Bio
I am a teacher and scholar of literature, focused on the British eighteenth century. At Dickinson I teach courses about the epic, Shakespeare, the early British novel, eighteenth-century poetry and drama, and fairy stories from Spenser to the Grimms. I am the author of two monographs, Prose Immortality, 1711-1819 (2015), and Interest and Connection in the Eighteenth Century: Hervey, Johnson, Smith, Equiano (2020), both from the University of Virginia Press. I have also published essays on Shakespeare, Shaftesbury, Defoe, Hume, Johnson, Proust, and other figures. I am in the early stages of a history of life-writing in eighteenth-century Britain.
Education
- B.A., Goshen College, 2002
- B.A., University of Oxford, 2005
- M.A., 2009
- Ph.D., Harvard University, 2011
2024-2025 Academic Year
Fall 2024
ENGL 101 The Epic: God/Dev/Monster/Men
Cross-listed with MEMS 200-01. An introduction to the epic as a genre and to the mythic stories that have shaped Western culture. We will read works by Homer, Virgil, the Beowulf poet, Milton, and Christa Wolf.
MEMS 200 The Epic: God/Dev/Monster/Men
Cross-listed with ENGL 101-02. An introduction to the epic as a genre and to the mythic stories that have shaped Western culture. We will read works by Homer, Virgil, the Beowulf poet, Milton, and Christa Wolf.
ENGL 220 Intro to Literary Studies
In literary studies, we explore the work texts do in the world. This course examines several texts of different kinds (e.g., novel, poetry, film, comic book, play, etc.) to investigate how literary forms create meanings. It also puts texts in conversation with several of the critical theories and methodologies that shape the discipline of literary study today (e.g., Marxist theory, new historicism, formalism, gender theory, postcolonial theory, ecocriticism, etc.). This course helps students frame interpretive questions and develop their own critical practice. Prerequisite: 101. This course is the prerequisite for 300-level work in English.
ENGL 331 Where Do Novels Come From
The word "novel" means something new. In this course we will focus on what is new about the novel as a literary genre by reading founding works of the British novel tradition. Authors will likely include Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Sterne, Edgeworth, and Austen. We will also read critical and theoretical texts, including formalist, historicist, feminist, and digital humanities approaches.