William Cain
Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English
Expert in nineteenth and early twentieth century American literature; Â Shakespeare; and modernism in the arts.
Scholarly interests include nineteenth and early twentieth century American literature; modernism in the arts; African American literature; slavery and abolition; literary theory and criticism; Shakespeare.
Publications include a monograph on American literary and cultural criticism, 1900-1945, in The Cambridge History of American Literature, vol. 5 (2003). Professor Cain is a co-editor of the Norton Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism (1st ed., 2001; 2nd ed., 2010), and, with Sylvan Barnet, he has co-authored a number of books on literature and composition. He also has co-edited a 2-volume anthology of American Literature (1st ed., 2004; 2nd edition, 2013/14).
Other recent publications include essays on Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, Shakespeare, Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and the painter Mark Rothko.
Education
- B.A., Tufts University
- M.A., Johns Hopkins University
- Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University