RITA COPELAND (BA, MA, PhD (1982) in Comparative LIterature, University of California, Berkeley),
Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classical Studies and English,
Professor and Chair, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
I work across a number of fields and periods, including:
medieval
literature (English, Latin, French); intellectuals, learning, and
literacy in medieval Europe; literary theory from ancient to early
modern; the history of rhetoric
from ancient to early modern. Usually my teaching combines my interests
in antiquity and the Middle Ages--or how the Middle Ages understood
antiquity. Currently I am working on representations of the
intellectual in pre-modern Europe, from late antique rhetorical culture
to late medieval university cultures and heretical communities. My
other current projects include Medieval Literary Theory: Grammatical and Rhetorical Traditions, which is an anthology of primary texts, co-edited with Ineke Sluiter, and The Cambridge Companion to Allegory: Ancient to Modern, co-edited with Peter Struck. I am also a co-editor
and co-founder of the Medieval Cultures Series (University of Minnesota
Press), and co-editor and co-founder of the annual New Medieval
Literatures (see information at Brepols).
Recent graduate courses that I have taught include: Chaucer's
Classicisms; Piers Plowman; Introduction to Literary Theory (Comparative
Literature); Medieval Education; Premodern Rhetorics. Undergraduate
courses that I teach include: History of Literary Theory (Ancient to
Modern); Ancient and Medieval Epic and Romance; Prison Narratives from
Ancient to Modern.
Books:
Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic
Traditions and Vernacular Texts. Cambridge, 1991/1995.
Criticism and Dissent in the Middle Ages. Cambridge, 1996.
Pedagogy, Intellectuals, and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages: Lollardy
and Ideas of Learning. Cambridge, 2001.
See the information at: New Medieval Literatures
Contact Information:
Comparative Literature and Literary Theory
720 Williams Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6304
PHONE: 215-898-6836
FAX: 215-573-9451
EMAIL: rcopelan@sas.upenn.edu.