Mark McGurl is an American literary critic specializing in 20th-century

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

. He is the Albert L. Guérard Professor of Literature at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

Background

McGurl received his B.A. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

. He has also worked as a journalist for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' and ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

.'' In 2011, McGurl received the

Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism The Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism is awarded for literary criticism by the University of Iowa on behalf of the Truman Capote Literary Trust. The value of the award is $30,000 (USD), and is said to be the largest annual cash prize for l ...

for ''The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing''.

Publications

Books

*''The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

, 2001) *''The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

'' (

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, 2009) *''Everything & Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon'' (

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...

, 2021)''Everything & Less: The Novel in the Age of Amazon''
from

Articles and essays

Ordinary Doom: Literary Studies in the Waste Land of the Present
"

New Literary History ''New Literary History: A Journal of Theory & Interpretation'' is a quarterly academic journal published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It focuses on the history and theory of literature, and key questions of interpretation. The journal has rec ...

," Fall 2010
A Response to Elif Batuman's Review of ''The Program Era'' in the ''London Review of Books''
''Official Website: The Program Era Reviews,'' October 1/October 10, 2010
The Zombie Renaissance
" n+1 no.9 spring 2010
Understanding Iowa: Flannery O'Connor B.A., M.F.A.
''

American Literary History For the history of American literature see American literature. ''American Literary History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the ...

,'' Summer 2007
Learning from Little Tree: The Political Education of the Counterculture
''

Yale Journal of Criticism The ''Yale Journal of Criticism'' was an academic journal published by the Johns Hopkins University Press which covered all humanities disciplines. It was named best new journal by the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals in 1989 and ceased ...

,'' Fall 2005
The Program Era: Pluralisms of Postwar American Fiction
''

Critical Inquiry ''Critical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Chicago). While the topics and historica ...

,'' Fall 2005
Social Geometries: Taking Place in Henry James
''

Representations ''Representations'' is an interdisciplinary journal in the humanities published quarterly by the University of California Press. The journal was established in 1983 and is the founding publication of the New Historicism movement of the 1980s. It ...

'' 68, Autumn 1999, 59-83
Making 'Literature' of It:Hammett and High Culture
''

,'' 9.4, Winter 1997, 702-717
Making It Big: Picturing the Radio Age in King Kong
''

,'' Spring 1996

Notes

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGurl, Mark American literary critics Literary critics of English University of California, Los Angeles faculty Harvard University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Stanford University Department of English faculty