Dr. Leah Flack

Dr. Leah FlackMarquette University

Marquette Hall, 115A/219

MilwaukeeWI53201United States of America(414) 288-3316leah.flack@marquette.edu

Chair and Professor

English

My primary fields of research are comparative modernism, classical reception studies, and Irish literature. Studying the English, Irish, American, and Russian literary traditions, I explore the complex interrelation between literary innovation and history in the turbulent opening decades of the twentieth century. I enjoy teaching a broad range of courses in British and Irish literature, the Western literary tradition, and twentieth-century literature.

My first book, Modernism and Homer: The Odysseys of H.D., James Joyce, Osip Mandelstam, and Ezra Pound (Cambridge University Press, 2015) tracks the presence of the Homeric epic in the sociopolitical and literary projects of international modernist writing. I argue that modernist writers did not adapt the ancient Greek epic to flee from their eras into an idealized classical past; rather, these writers appropriated the Homeric epics to address some of their era’s most pressing concerns, from global warfare and empire to racial hatred, tyranny, and censorship. In responding to these urgent issues, they produced some of the century’s most astonishing art. I have also published my research in Modernism/Modernity, James Joyce Quarterly, and edited collections in classical reception studies and Irish literature.

I am currently working on four projects: James Joyce and Classical Modernism, currently under contract with Bloomsbury Press; a study of the reception of modernism in contemporary Irish literature; a study of the digital archive of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam; and a co-edited collection on classical receptions in American and Anglo-Irish literature in the interwar period.

My research interests reflect the passion I bring to the classroom for helping students to draw connections between literary texts and sociocultural contexts. In my classroom, I approach the literary tradition as a living, evolving, contested, and fascinating conversation in which students are invited to participate.

Courses Taught

• Modernist Literature
• Twentieth-Century Literature
• British and Irish Literature
• The Western Literary Tradition

Research Interests

• Comparative Modernism (British, Irish, American, Russian)
• Classical reception studies
• Reception and Genre Studies
• Irish literature
• Literature and national identity
• Censorship

Publications

• James Joyce and Classical Modernism, Bloomsbury Academic Press, February 2020
• "Classical Literature," in The New Pound Studies, Ed. Mark Byron, Cambridge University Press,  2019
• "The Flights of Oona Frawley and Colum McCann," in Migrant Adaptations in Irish Literature, Eds. Matthew Spangler, Charlotte McIvor, Jason King, Cork University Press, 2019
• "Joyce's Classical Passwords," in The Dublin James Joyce Journal, 2019
• "Lost and Found in Translation: The Genesis of Modernism's Siren Songs," in Classics in Modernist Translation, Eds. Miranda Hickman and Lynn Kozak, Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2019, pp. 143-155.
• "whatever is given/ can always be reimagined": Seamus Heaney's Indefinite Modernism." In Modernist Afterlives in Irish Literature and Culture, Ed. Paige Reynolds (London: Anthem Press, 2016).
• Modernism and Homer: The Odysseys of H.D., James Joyce, Osip Mandelstam, and Ezra Pound (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• "'The news in the Odyssey is still news': Ezra Pound, W. H. D. Rouse, and a Modern Odyssey." Modernism/modernity (January 2015).
• "1922's "UnUlyssean" Ulysses: Modernist Visions and Revisions of the Homeric Nostos. "Odyssean Identities in Modern Cultures: The Journey Home. Eds. Hunter Gardner and Sheila Murnaghan. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2014. 133-153.
• “‘Cyclops,’ Censorship, and Joyce’s Monster Audiences, ”James Joyce Quarterly 48, no. 3 (Spring 2012): 115-134.
• “Coming Home to Joyce. ”James Joyce Quarterly 46, no. 2 (Winter 2009): 201-204.​

Additional Information

Office Hours

Spring 2021

To maintain social distancing and protect the health of students and faculty, office hours will, in most cases, be virtual.  Please email your instructor to set up an appointment.

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Teaching Schedule 

Spring 2021

• 4503/101 MWF 12:00-12:50
  
  • British Literature Since 1900:  Women Writers