Academic Bio
My contribution to the medieval and Tudor-Stuart periods is comparative. Since English really did not develop a free-standing tradition before the late sixteenth century, authors normally had to consider other language traditions when they composed their works. The action of Beowulf takes place in Denmark and modern Sweden; Chaucer drew his models from France and Italy; Malory translated mostly French romances; and Spenser and Milton for the long poem looked to Italy. The comparatist then has a real contribution to make in the study of these periods. All my published work has been comparative and much of my course work as well, whether I taught courses in allegory and the history of criticism, in epic (medieval or Renaissance), or romance (again medieval or Renaissance). Most recently I have taught a course called Travellers on the Silk Road, which relates to my current research interests. This course included English efforts in the sixteenth century to open up a silk trade with Iran by a long, dangerous route which took traders across the Arctic to Russia, down its rivers to the Caspian, and then to Iran. The English reappear at the end of the course with Kipling, Aurel Stein, and Peter Fleming. These all share time with Xuanzang, Marco Polo, and other travel writers.