Dr. Edward A. Shannon

Professor of Literature

Educational Background: Ph.D. English. Dec. 1995, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro , NC . Major Field: Twentieth Century American Literature

Minor Fields: American Literature before 1900, Twentieth Century British Literature

MA. Literature in English. May 1990, North Carolina State University, Raleigh , NC . Master's Thesis Creative Writing, Fiction

B.A. Communications. May 1985, Ramapo College of NJ, Mahwah , NJ.

Areas of Specialization : American literature, especially nineteenth and twentieth century fiction.

Courses Regularly Taught: College English, Survey of American Literature I and II, Introductio to Literature, 20th Century American Literature, Contemporary American Literature. I have also been involved in the Ireland Study Abroad program and the American Studies program, teaching courses in Graphic Novels and Crime Fiction.

Scholarship: Recently, I have been writing about the life and work of Woody Guthrie. I've also done conference presentations or published articles on detective fiction, comic books and comic strips, and other topics. Right now I am working on an projects invovling the cartoonist and filmmaker Winsor McCay and Woody Guthrie's writing.

Recent Publications:
“’Our clothes are a lie’: Disguise and Christian Typology in Pudd’nhead Wilson.” The 2009 Mark Twain Annual. Wiley Blackwell.  Expected 2009/2010.          

“Daydreams and Marketing: Winsor McCay, Robert Crumb, and the Graphic Novel.”  The Canadian Review of American Studies. Expected 2009/2010.     

Points of interest: I teach American literature and American Studies here at Ramapo.My continuing interests in research tends to be those corners of literary studies that overlap with popular culture, so I enjoy writing about and teaching comic strips, American folk music, and detective fiction.

Read my essay, “'Bad Politics': Old Southwestern Humor and the Southern Gothic in Woody Guthrie's Bound for Glory”at Southernspaces.org

Listen to me talk about Woody Guthrie and Old Southwestern Humor on the MLA radio show.  Click on the link below and then click on the program titled “Regional Literature in the United States: The Southwest.” MLA RADIO