Martin Griffin

Martin Griffin's work is focused upon the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  His recent book deals with American literature and culture of the post-Civil War era, and examines the ways in which the memory of war became a field for the emotional and ideological explorations of authors such as Herman Melville, Henry James, and Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Dr. Griffin is also particularly interested in the longer-term interactions of the literary and dramatic arts with political beliefs and events, both historically, in respect of the American experience, and in terms of contemporary ideas of international cultural diplomacy.

Selected Publications:

Books

• Ashes of the Mind:  War and Memory in Northern Literature, 1865-1900.  Amherst:  The University of Massachusetts Press, 2009.

Representative articles

• “Narrative, Culture, and Diplomacy.”  The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 38:4 (Winter 2009), 258-69.
• “Underneath a Sky of Blue” (Review essay).  Soundings 91:1-2 (Spring/Summer 2008), 189-99.
• "Emerson's Crossing:  English Traits and the Politics of 'Politics'," Modern Intellectual History 5:2 (August 2008), 251-78).
• "The Moonlit Road."  A Literary Brief.  The Ambrose Bierce Journal 2.1 (Fall 2006).
• "The Road from Memorial Hall:  Future Imperfect in The Bostonians."  Prospects:  An Annual of American Cultural Studies 29 (2004), 251-88.
• "The New South"; "World War I."  In American History through Literature, 1870-1920.  Edited by Tom Quirk and Gary Scharnhorst.  Charles Scribner's Sons, 2005:  770-3; 1218-24.
  

Contact Information

Martin Griffin
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-0430

Office: (865) 974-7166
E-mail: wmg@utk.edu

Research

American literature