Michael D. C. Drout

Fall 2007 Classes

English 101: Science Fiction and Mathematics;Joint with First Year Seminar: The Edge of Reason, taught by Prof. Bill Goldbloom Bloch. The course is an exploration of the intersections of Math, Science Fiction and Writing. Syllabus here

English 208: Anglo-Saxon Literature. We will learn to read Old English and will study poems such as The Dream of the Rood, the Wanderer, The Seafarer and the Battle of Maldon. English 208 is a pre-requisite for English 320: Beowulf, which will be taught Spring 2008. Syllabus here.

Spring 2008 Classes

English 320: Beowulf (all of it) in Old English

English 101: Continuation of the pilot program from Fall 07, linked with Prof. Goldbloom Bloch's First Year Seminar.

NEWS

8/21/07: Due to surprisingly high demand and equally surprisingly higher costs, I have had to raise the price of Beowulf Aloud to $20 for the 3-CD set plus $5 packing and shipping. You can go directly to http://beowulfaloud.com or use this Paypal Button.

7/1/2007: I am now the Chair of the English Department

2/21/07: Podcasts of the entire Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, posted as 50-100 line pieces each day, are now available at Anglo-Saxon Aloud.

11/05/06 The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia has now been published by Routledge.

My college courses on CD A Way With Words: Rhetoric, Writing and the Art of Persuasion and The History of the English Language are now available from Recorded Books.

Another version of my college course about Tolkien and Fantasy, Of Sorcerers and Men: Tolkien and the Roots of Modern Fantasy is available from Barnes and Noble.

8/3/06 My college course on CD, From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction is now available from Recorded Books.

Also, I forgot to mention here that I had the amazing good fortune to be awarded a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation.

5/4/06: How Tradition Works has (finally!) been published. It is should be available through Cornell UP at 1.800.666.2211 or orderbook@cupserv.org . Of course if you want a signed copy, please contact me directly. I'll post when it arrives at Amazon and B&N.

4/11/06: My college course on CD, "Rings, Swords and Monsters: Understanding Fantasy Literature," is available from Recorded Books, and should be on sale soon [ok, apparently by July] in Barnes and Noble stores. My previous course for Recorded Books is Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. My course on Science Fiction should be out in the early summer.

5/10/05: I was awarded Wheaton's William and Elsie Prentice Professorship (for outstanding teaching). The Professorship lasts for the next five years.

Recent and Current Research

J.R.R. Tolkien's Beowulf and the Critics

Winner: 2003 Mythopoeic Scholarship Award for Inklings Studies

My edition of Tolkien's previously unpublished 1930's book of Beowulf criticism, from which he drew his famous lecture"Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics." Published by Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.

How Tradition Works

Published by Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.

Click on the title for a complete prospectus. Subtitled "A Meme-Based Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century," this is my book on the workings of tradition. In it, I try to explain how traditions are created, how they evolve, and how and why they persist. The theoretical underpinnings include material from evolutionary biology, evolutionary epistemology and "memetics." The test cases and cultural analysis comes from my research speciality, the Anglo-Saxon tenth century. Texts examined include the Benedictine Rule and Regularis Concordia, the Anglo-Saxon wills, the Old English translation of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang and the 'wisdom poems' of the Exeter Book.

J.R.R. Tolkien Bibliography

Co-authored with Hilary Wynne and Melissa Higgins, this complete bibliography of Tolkien scholarship in English from 1984 to the present is currently available in .pdf form at Envoi. It will eventually be published in hard copy form. A fully searchable electronic database of Tolkien criticism will soon be available through this link.

Seafarer

Buy My Books

Please contact me directly if you want a signed copy of either book. Copies are also available through Cornell UP: 1-800-666-2211 or email orderbook@cupserv.org