Curtis Jirsa

Assistant Professor of English

Fall term office hours: by appt.

Education

Ph.D., Medieval Studies, Cornell University, 2008
M.A., Medieval Studies, Cornell University, 2004
B.A., English, summa cum laude, Bowdoin College, 2001

Research

Lyric poetry, hybrid (i.e. lyric-narrative) texts, and lyric/sonnet sequences; medieval English literature (especially Langland, Chaucer, and Gower); Anglo-Norman poetry; medieval romance and Arthuriana; Latin and vernacular sermons; Germanic linguistics; and intersections between the sacred and the secular.

Teaching

English 314—History of the Book
English 313—Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
English 311—History of the English Language
English 250—British Literature: Medieval and Early Modern
English 240—Arthurian Legend
English 230—Introduction to Poetry
WRIT 100—First Year Writing Seminar: Otherworld Voyages

Seminar and Capstone Topics

English 413—Lyric Poetry

Selected Publications

Articles

"Piers Plowman's Lyric Poetics." Forthcoming in The Yearbook of Langland Studies 26 (2012).
“In the Shadow of the Ympe-tre: Arboreal Folklore in Sir Orfeo.” English Studies 89.2 (2008): 141-52.

Reviews

Review of Matthew Paris, The History of Saint Edward the King, trans. Thelma S. Fenster and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (2008) and of Judith Weiss, trans., "Boeuve de Haumtone" and "Gui de Warwic": Two Anglo-Norman Romances (2008). Speculum (2010).

Work In Progress

Piers Plowman and Medieval Lyric Invention (book manuscript)