At FDU: Dr. Lois Gordon

Office:
Robison Hall #25

Phone:
(201) 692-2275

Fax:
(201) 692-2081

B.A., with honors, National Merit Scholar, University of Michigan, double major, English/ Art History

M.A., Ph.D., Univ. of Wisconsin

Dr. Lois Gordon

University Distinguished Professor of English

Lois Gordon is a well-known scholar of 20th-Century American culture and the Nobel Prize laureates Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Her first book, Stratagems to Uncover Nakedness, was the first work published on Pinter in the U.S. This was followed by books on Donald Barthelme and Robert Coover, two leading postmodern novelists, and two additional books on Pinter. The World of Samuel Beckett, an offering of the Reader’s Subscription, was also translated into Chinese. Its view of Beckett, which John Simon called “revelatory,” radically transformed Beckett scholarship both here and abroad. Reading Godot has been praised similarly in transforming an understanding of Beckett’s great play. American Chronicle, in four expanded editions, won several awards and was an offering of the Book of the Month, Quality Paperback, and History book clubs. It has become a standard reference text and has been used in a variety of scholarly and media venues—for example, by Steven Spielberg in his 2000 millennium film celebration telecast worldwide from the White House. After publishing three books with Yale University Press, she most recently published Nancy Cunard: Heiress, Muse, Political Idealist with Columbia University Press. The book, which received a front page review in the New York Times Book Review, will be translated into three languages and has been optioned for a film. Prof. Gordon was a guest on the Queen Mary 2 last summer, where she lectured on Nancy Cunard's life and times. Since then, she has been interviewed for several Chinese magazines in anticipation of the forthcoming Chinese translation. Because of her extensive work on Harold Pinter she was asked to write his obituary for the Chinese press.

Above all, Prof. Gordon’s greatest satisfaction is in her interaction with students--in stimulating their curiosity and expanding their understanding of literature in its various lyrical, narrative, and dramatic forms. Her greatest hope is that they take from her classes something that will last a lifetime.

Next term she will offer the following course:
Modern Novel II Tu/Th 11:25-12:40.
A study of major post-World War II novels, most by Nobel Prize laureates. Although noticeably short in length, the novels raise rich and important issues about physical, moral, and emotional survival. They range in subject matter from portraits of brutality and racism to tales of love and friendship. All of them question the human capacity to believe in goodness and human kindness: Camus’s The Stranger, Barth’s The End of the Road, Bellow’s Seize the Day, Lägerkvist’s Barabbas, Kosinski’s The Painted Bird, and Coetzee's, Disgrace.

Email address: lois_gordon@fdu.edu