Brian W. Shaffer teaches classes in twentieth century British literature and the modern novel. Dr. Shaffer has written several books and articles on Anglo-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the 2017 Nobel Laureate in literature. A member of the Rhodes English department since 1990, he has received awards for his teaching and scholarship. He is the author of a book on the ways in which Modern British novels enter the early twentieth-century "civilization" debate.
Dr. Shaffer’s 1998 book Understanding Kasuo Ishiguro reveals Ishiguro’s novels to be intricately crafted, psychologically absorbing, hauntingly evocative works that betray the author’s grounding not only in the literature of Japan but also in the great twentieth-century British and Irish masters—Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, E. M. Forster, and James Joyce—as well as in Freudian psychoanalysis.
Books
The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Vols. edited, Wiley Blackwell (2011).
Conversations with Kazuo Ishiguro, co-edited with Cynthia Wong, University Press of Mississippi (2008).
Reading the Novel in English 1950-2000, Blackwell Publishing (2006).
A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000, edited, Blackwell Publishing (2005).
Approaches to Teaching Conrad′s "Heart of Darkness" and "The Secret Sharer," Modern Language Association (2002).
Understanding Kazuo Ishiguro, University of South Carolina Press (1998).
The Blinding Torch: Modern British Fiction and the Discourse of Civilization, University of Massachusetts Press (1993).
Articles
′Somewhere Just Beneath the Surface of Things′: Kazuo Ishiguro′s Short Fiction, Kazuo Ishiguro: Contemporary Critical Perspectives, Sean Matthews and Sebastian Groes, eds. Continuum International Publishing Group (2010), 9-19.
"Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness," A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture, David Bradshaw and Kevin J.H. Dettmar, eds. Blackwell Publishers (2006), 314-23.
"The Role of Marlow’s Nellie Audience in Heart of Darkness."Approaches to Teaching Conrad’s "Heart of Darkness" and "The Secret Sharer," Hunt Hawkins and Brian W. Shaffer, eds., Modern Language Association (2002).
"Swept from the Sea: Trauma and Otherness in Conrad′s ′Amy Foster′," Conradiana 32 (2000): 163-76.
"Joseph Conrad′s The Nigger of the ′Narcissus′, A Joseph Conrad Companion, Leonard Orr and Ted Billy, eds., Greenwood Press, (1999), 49-64.
"Nationalism at the Bar: Anti-Semitism in Ulysses and Under the Volcano," Joyce/Lowry: Critical Perspectives, Paul Tiessen and Patrick McCarthy, eds. University Press of Kentucky (1997), 84-95.
"′The Commerce of Shady Wares′: Politics and Pornography in Conrad′s The Secret Agent," ELH 62 (1995): 443-66.
"Civilization in Bloomsbury: Woolf′s Mrs. Dalloway and Bell′s ′Theory of Civilization′," Journal of Modern Literature 19 (1995): 73-87.
"Negotiating Self and Culture: Narcissism, Competing Discourses, and Ideological Becoming in ′Penelope′," Molly Boolms: A Polylogue on "Penelope and Cultural Studies," Richard Pearce, ed., University of Wisconsin Press (1994), 139-151.
"Domestic Ironies: Housekeeping as Mankeeping in Conrad′s The Secret Agent," Keeping the Victorian House, Vanessa Dickerson, ed., Garland Press (1994), 139-51.
"′Rebarbarizing Civilization′: Conrad′s African Fiction and Spencerian Sociology," PMLA 108 (1993), 45-58. Commissioned for reprinting in A Practical Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, Ed. M. Keith Booker, Longman (1996), 366-385.
"Joyce and Freud: Discontent and Its Civilizations," Joyce in Context, Timothy P. Martin and Vincent J. Cheng, eds., Cambridge University Press (1992), 73-88.
Commissioned for revision and reprinting as "Teaching Freud through ′Nausicaa′," Pedagogy, Praxis, Ulysses: Using Joyce′s Text to Transform the Classroom, Robert Newman, ed., University of Michigan Press (1995), 121-31.
"Progress and Civilization and all the Virtues′: Teaching Heart of Darkness via "An Outpost of Progress′," Conradiana 24 (1992), 219-31.
"′Civilization′ Under Western Eyes: Lowry′s Under the Volcano as a Reading of Conrad′s Heart of Darkness," Conradiana 22 (1990), 143-156.
"Kindred by Choice: Joyce′s Exiles and Goethe′s Elective Affinities," James Joyce Quarterly 26 (1989), 199-212.
"′To Manage Private and Domestic Quarrels′: Shakespeare′s Othello and the Genre of Elizabethan Domestic Tragedy," Iowa State Journal of Research 62 (1988), 443-457.
Reviews
Review of “Ulysses” in Critical Perspective, eds. Michael Patrick Gillespie and A. Nicholas Fargnoli, forthcoming in ELT.
Review of Suspicious Readings of Joyce′s “Dubliners,” by Margot Norris, English Literature in Transition, 47 (2004), 357-60.
Review of Rereading Conrad, by Daniel R. Schwarz, Studies in the Novel, 34 (2002), 239-40.
Review of Essays on Conrad, by Ian Watt, English Literature in Transition, 45 (2002), 104-106.
Review of Joyce′s Comic Portrait, by Roy Gottfried, English Literature in Transition, 44 (2001): 391-94.
Review of The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904- 1920, by John McCourt, English Literature in Transition, 44 (2001): 523-25.
Review of Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad′s “Heart of Darkness,” by Peter Edgerly Firchow, Criticism, 42 (2000): 276-78.
Review of When We Were Orphans, by Kazuo Ishiguro, World Literature Today, 74 (2000): 595-96.
Review of The Cast of Characters: A Reading of “Ulysses”, by Paul Schwaber, English Literature in Transition, 44 (2000): 110-13.
Review of James Joyce′s Judaic Other, by Marilyn Reizbaum, English Literature in Transition, 43 (2000): 239-42.
Review of Joyce′s Book of Memory: The Mnemotechnic of “Ulysses”, by John S. Rickard, English Literature in Transition, 42 (1999): 475-77.
Review of Conrad in Perspective: Essays on Art and Fidelity, by Zdzislaw Najder, and James Joyce and Trieste, by Peter Hartshorn, English Literature in Transition, 41 (1998): 484-88.
Review of The Cambridge Companion to Joseph Conrad, ed. by J. H. Stape, English Literature in Transition, 41 (1998): 220-23.
Review of James Joyce and the Question of History, by James Fairhall, English Literature in Transition, 39 (1996), 95-98.
Review of Joyce in America: Cultural Politics and the Trials of "Ulysses," by Jeffrey Segall, Arachne 3 (1996): 123-26.
Review of Transgressions of Reading: Narrative Engagements as Exile and Return, by Robert Newman,South Central Review 13,4 (1996): 86-7.
Review of "The Dead": James Joyce: Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, ed. by Daniel Schwarz,Studies in Short Fiction, 32 (1995): 502-504.
Review of Forests of Symbols: World, Text, and Self in Malcolm Lowry′s Fictions, by Patrick A. McCarthy, Modern Fiction Studies, 41 (1995), 361-63.
Review of Constructions of `The Jew′ in English Literature and Society: Racial Representations, 1875-1945, by Bryan Cheyette, English Literature in Transition, 38 (1995), 397-400.
Review of Conrad′s Fiction as Critical Discourse, by Richard Ambrosini, Conradiana 27 (1995), 152-54.
Review of Joseph Conrad: Betrayal and Identity, by Robert Hampson, Studies in the Novel, 26 (1994), 442-44.
Review of The Modernist Short Story: A Study of Theory and Practice, by Dominic Head, Studies in Short Fiction, 31 (1994), 134-36.
Review of Joseph Conrad: Text and Context, by Brian Spittles, Joseph Conrad Today, 18/3-4 (1994), 4.
Review of Joseph Conrad and the Modern Temper, by Daphna Erdinast-Vulcan, Modern Fiction Studies, 38 (1993), 957-8.
Review of Joyce and Wagner: A Study of Influence, by Timothy Martin, English Literature in Transition, 36 (1993), 391-3.
Review of Waking Giants: The Presence of the Past in Modernism, by Herbert N. Schneidau, James Joyce Literary Supplement, 7.2 (1993), 27.
Review of Modernist Fiction: An Introduction, by Randall Stevenson, D.H. Lawrence Review, 24 (1992), 190-91.
Review of The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce, edited by Derek Attridge, English Literature in Transition, 34 (1991), 492-95.
Review of Erotic Faith: Being in Love from Jane Austen to D. H. Lawrence, by Robert Polhemus, D. H. Lawrence Review, 23 (1991), 258-60.
Review of Joseph Conrad: Interviews and Recollections, edited by Martin Ray, English Literature in Transition, 34 (1991), 323-26.
Review of Joseph Conrad′s Reading: An Annotated Bibliography, by David W. Tutein, Joseph Conrad Today, 16/3-4 (1991), 6.
Review of Crossing the Shadow-Line: The Literature of Estrangement, by Martin Bock, English Literature in Transition, 34 (1991), 237-40.
Review of A Rhetorical Analysis of "Under the Volcano," by Dana Grove, Modern Fiction Studies, 36 (1990), 244-45.
Review of Joyce, Bakhtin, and Popular Literature: Chronicles of Disorder, by R. B. Kershner, James Joyce Literary Supplement, 4.1 (1990), 25-26.
Review of The Letters of Malcolm Lowry and Gerald Noxon, edited by Paul Tiessen, Modern Fiction Studies, 35 (1989), 811-12.
Review of The Culture of Criticism and the Criticism of Culture, by Giles Gunn, Iowa Review 19 (1989), 171-74.
Review of Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, by M. M. Bakhtin, Substance 57 (1988), 58-60.
Review of James Joyce′s "Ulysses": The Wider Perspective, edited by Robert D. Newman and Weldon Thornton, Philological Quarterly 67 (1988), 396-399.
Review of Literary Meaning from Phenomenology to Deconstruction, by William Ray, and Reception Theory: A Critical Introduction, by Robert C. Holub, Substance 54 (1987), 90-94.
Review of Malcolm Lowry, by Ronald Binns, Philological Quarterly 66 (1987), 547-550.
Review of Criticism in the University, edited by Gerald Graff and Reginald Gibbons, and The Post-Modern Aura: The Act of Fiction in an Age of Inflation, by Charles Newman, Iowa Review 17 (1987), 155-162.
Review of The Fiction of William Gass: The Consolation of Language, by Arthur M. Saltzman, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 19 (1986), 49-52.
Review of Habitations of the Word, by William H. Gass, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 18 (1985), 29-34.
CONFERENCE PAPERS
“Swept from the Sea: Trauma and Otherness in Conrad′s ‘Amy Foster′,” Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, December 27, 1999.
Chair of “Homeless International: Kazuo Ishiguro and Tropes of Travel,” Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, December 29, 1999.
“Memory and Trauma in Kazuo Ishiguro′s An Artist of the Floating World,” Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, St. Louis, November 7, 1998.
Chair of “Teaching Conrad′s ‘The Secret Sharer′,” Modern Language Association Convention, Toronto, December 29, 1997.
Chair of “Engaging Ishiguro,” Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, November 7, 1997.
"Clothing and Unclothing Repression in Ishiguro′s The Remains of the Day," Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, December 29, 1995.
Chair of "At Home in His Fictions: Joseph Conrad and the Domestic Sphere," Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, December 28, 1995.
Chair of "Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, and the Idea of England," South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Atlanta, November 3, 1995.
"Domestic Ironies: Housekeeping as Mankeeping in Conrad′s The Secret Agent," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, November 12, 1994.
"Revolution and Pornography in The Secret Agent," Modern Language Association Convention, New York, December 29, 1992.
Chair of "Representing the Feminine: Lawrence and Joyce," Twentieth-Century Literature Association Conference, Louisville, February 29, 1992.
"Molly and Popular Language: Competing Discourses and Ideological Becoming in `Penelope′," Joyce and Popular Culture Conference, Miami, February 1, 1992.
"`Rebarbarizing Civilization′: Conrad′s Heart of Darkness and Spencerian Sociology," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, November 15, 1991.
"A Painful Case: Narcissism in Joyce and Lowry," National James Joyce Conference, Vancouver, June 12, 1991.
"Censorship and Civilization in Bloomsbury: Woolf′s Mrs. Dalloway and Bell ′s On British Freedom," Twentieth-Century Literature Association Conference, Louisville, February 22, 1991.
Organizer and Moderator, "Teaching Conrad′s Heart of Darkness: Authorial Text, Cultural Context, Pedagogical Subtext," Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, December 28, 1990.
"Civilization as Rhetoric in Conrad′s Heart of Darkness," Twentieth-Century Literature Association Conference, Louisville, February 22, 1990.
"Civilization as Game in Conrad′s The Secret Agent," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Minneapolis, November 4, 1989.
"Discontent and Its Civilization: Rereading Joyce′s `Paralyzed′ Dubliner," National James Joyce Conference, Philadelphia, June 14, 1989.
"Civilization Under Western Eyes: Lowry′s Under the Volcano and Conrad′s Heart of Darkness," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, St. Louis, November 3, 1988.
Organizer and Moderator, "James Joyce and Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogic Imagination," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Columbus, November 12, 1987.
"Problems of Art and Self-Fashioning in Ulysses: Stephen′s Anxiety in `Telemachus′," National James Joyce Conference, Milwaukee, June 12, 1987.
"`To Manage Private and Domestic Quarrels′: Shakespeare′s Othello and the Genre of Elizabethan Domestic Tragedy," Iowa State Shakespeare Symposium, Ames, April 25, 1987.
"Kindred by Choice: Joyce′s Exiles and Goethe′s Elective Affinities," Midwest Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago, November 6, 1986.
