Nancy Armstrong
Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Professor of English in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Nancy Armstrong has served as editor of the journal Novel: A Forum on Fiction since 1996 and serves as co-organizer of The Novel Project at Duke, a faculty research seminar. Her scholarship explains how novels imagine a world that can be inhabited (or not) in specific ways by historically and culturally variable readerships. Currently focused on the contemporary novel, she continues to address questions of how modern cultures imagine themselves as a political society: Have, do, or can novels imagine alternative social formations? What narrative mechanisms make it possible for them to do so? How do novels presume to change their readers in the process? How do these "arguments" against the status quo engage political theories that attempt the same feat? Can any such alternative leave the formation we call "the family" intact?
Office Hours
By appointment
Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Professor of English in Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009
- Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008
Contact Information
- 304C Allen Bldg, English Dept., Durham, NC 27708
- Box 90015, Durham, NC 27708-0015
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n.b.armstrong@duke.edu
(919) 668-0314
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Nancy Armstrong's CV
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Novel: A Forum on Fiction
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin at Madison 1977
- B.A., State University of New York at Buffalo 1966
- Undergraduate, Biology, Wellesley College 1956 - 1958
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Duke Appointment History
- Associate Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012 - 2015
- Recognition
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Awards & Honors
- Gilbert, Louis, and Edward Lehrman Professor of English at Trinity College. Trinity College. May 2009
- Lansdowne Lecturer. Univeristy of Victoria. April 2009
- Visiting Professor, English. Duke University. 2005
- Visiting Professor, Program in Literature and Cultural History. Liverpool John Moores University. 2002
- Ward-Phillips Lectureship. University of Notre Dame. 2001
- Visiting Professor, English. Yale University. 1998
- Scholar in Residence, Alice F. Holmes Institute. University of Kansas. 1994
- ACLS Senior Fellow, Research Fellow. Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan. 1992
- Travel grants for lectures in Portugal. Fulbright and Gulbenkian . 1990
- Visiting Professor, English. Wesleyan University. 1990
- Rockefeller Fellow, Center for the Humanities. Wesleyan University. 1988
- Career Development Chair. Wayne State University. 1986
- Resident Fellow, Center for the Study of Women in Society. University of Oregon. 1986
- Visiting Associate Professor. SUNY, Buffalo. 1984
- Visiting Associate Professor. UC San Diego. 1984
- ACLS Senior Fellow . American Association of University Women Educational Foundation Fellow. 1982
- Josephine Nevins Keal Faculty Fellow. Wayne State University. 1982
- Summer Research Award. Wayne State University. 1981
- Summer Research Award. Wayne State University. 1979
- Fulbright-Hayes Junior Lecturer. University of Coimbra Portugal. 1978
- Expertise
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Subject Headings
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Global Scholarship
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2017, December 26). Novels in the Time of Democratic Writing (Accepted). Haney Foundation.
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2014, June 17). The Ideology of Conduct (Routledge Revivals) Essays in Literature and the History of Sexuality. Routledge.
- (2013, December 2). The Violence of Representation (Routledge Revivals): Literature and the History of Violence. N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.). (Edited Book)
- (2013, December 2). The Violence of Representation (Routledge Revivals): Literature and the History of Violence. N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.). (Edited Book)
- (2011). Theories of the Novel Now, I, II, III. N Armstrong (Ed.). (Edited Book)
- (2009). The Future of the Human. N Armstrong and W Montag (Eds.). (Edited Book)
- (2006). The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. DS Kastan and N Armstrong (Eds.). Oxford University Press. (Edited Book)
- Armstrong, N. (2005). How Novels Think: The Limits of Individualism 1719-1900. Columbia University Press.
- Armstrong, N. (1999). Fiction in the Age of Photography: The Legacy of British Realism. Harvard University Press.
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1992). The Imaginary Puritan: Literature, Intellectual Labor, and the Origins of Personal Life. University of California Press.
- (1991, January). Deseo y ficción doméstica: Una Historia Política De La Novela. (N Armstrong, Trans.). Universitat de València.
- (1991, January). Deseo y ficción doméstica: Una Historia Política De La Novela. (N Armstrong, Trans.). Universitat de València.
- (1987). The Ideology of Conduct: Essays on Literature and the History of Sexuality. N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.). Methuen Publishing. (Edited Book)
- Armstrong, N. (1987). Desire and Domestic Fiction: A Political History of the Novel. Oxford University Press.
- (1986). Literature as Women’s History, I and II. N Armstrong (Ed.). (Edited Book)
- (1986). Literature as Women’s History, I and II. N Armstrong (Ed.). (Edited Book)
- (1985). The Rhetoric of Violence. N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.). Rutledge. (Edited Book)
- (1985). The Rhetoric of Violence. N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.). Rutledge. (Edited Book)
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Book Reviews
- Armstrong, N. (1993). Other Women: The Writing of Race, Class, and Gender 1832-1898, by Anita Levy. Signs , 18 (2), 433-438.
- Armstrong, N. (1993). Adoption and the Construction of Kinship in Late Imperial China, by Ann Waltner. Signs , 18 (2), 433-438.
- Armstrong, N. (1989). The Modernist Madonna: Semiotics of the Maternal Metaphor by Jane Van Buren. Signs , 18 (2), 433-438.
- Armstrong, N. (1989). Mother Midnight: Birth, Sex, and Fate in Eighteenth Century Fiction (Defoe, Richardson, and Sterne) by Robert A. Erickson. Eighteenth-Century Studies , 22 (2), 264-268.
- Armstrong, N. (1987). Repression in Victorian Fiction: Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens by John Kucich. Nineteenth-Century Literature , 44 (4), 556-560.
- Armstrong, N. (1987). Victorian Women's Freedom: Marriage, Freedom, and the Individual. Victorian Studies , 30 (2), 292-284.
- Armstrong, N. (1986). Charlotte Bronte and Sexuality, by John Maynard. Victorian Studies , 29 (3), 483-485.
- Armstrong, N. (1984). The Proper Lady and the Woman Writer: Ideology as Style in the Works of Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, and Jane Austen by Poovey. MLN , 99 , 1251-1257.
- Armstrong, N. (1984). Sexuality and Victorian Literature. Victorian Studies , 29 (3), 483-485.
- Armstrong, N. The Pivot of the World: Photography and Its Nation by Blake Stimson. Modernism/Modernity , 14 (2), 382-384.
- Armstrong, N. The Inter-national Invention of the Novel, Margaret Cohen and Carolyn Dever. Translation and Literature , 12 , 299-303.
- Armstrong, N. Domestic Individualism: Imagining Self in Nineteenth-Century America by Gillian Brown. Signs , 18 (2), 433-438.
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Book Sections
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2017). Balibar and the Citizen Subject. In W Montag and H Elsayed (Eds.), Just Like a Woman: Balibar on the Politics of Reproduction (pp. 284-308). Edinburgh University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2016). How to Imagine Community Without Property. In de Homenagem a Maria Irene Ramalho Santos: American Literature In a Comparative Context Impressa da Universidade de Comimbra. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2014, February 1). A Gothic History of the British Novel. In P Parrinder (Ed.), New Directions in the History of the Novel (pp. 103-120). Palgrave. (Chapter) Full Text
- Tennenhouse, , & Armstrong, N. (2014). The Network Novel and How It Unsettled the Domestic Fiction. (pp. 103-120). Blackwell’s.
- Armstrong, N. (2013). On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871. In D Felluga (Ed.), BRANCH: Britain, Representation, and Nineteenth-Century History. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2011). The Sensation Novel. In J Kucich and JB Taylor (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English Volume 3: The Nineteenth-Century Novel 1820-1880 (pp. 137-153). Oxford University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2011). The Other Side of Modern Individualism: Locke and Defoe. In Z Meer (Ed.), Individualism: The Cultural Logic of Modernity (pp. 111-120). Lexington Books. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2010). When Sexuality Meets Gender in the Victorian Novel. In D David (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (pp. 97-124). Cambridge University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2010). Afterword. In J Goldman and A Jaffe (Eds.), Modernist Star Maps (pp. 237-244). Ashgate. (Afterword)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2009, January 10). A mind for passion: Locke and Hutcheson on desire. In Politics and the Passions, 1500-1850 (pp. 131-150).
- Armstrong, N, & Montag, W. (2009). The Future of the Human: An Introduction. In differences (pp. 1-8). (Introduction)
- Armstrong, N. (2009). 1798: Mary Rowlandson and the Alien and Sedition Acts. In G Marcus and W Sollers (Eds.), A New Literary History of America Harvard University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2009). The Gothic Austen. In C Johnson and C Tuite (Eds.), A Companion to Jane Austen (pp. 237-247). Blackwell’s. (Chapter) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2009, January 1). When gender meets sexuality in the Victorian novel. In The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (pp. 170-192). Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2007). Realism After Photography: “The fantastical form of a relation among things”. In M Beaumont (Ed.), Adventures in Realism (pp. 87-102). Blackwell’s. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2007). The Fiction of Bourgeois Morality and the Paradox of Individualism. In F Moretti (Ed.), The Novel, Volume 2: Forms and Themes (pp. 349-388). Princeton University Press. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2006). Image and Empire. In JCH Liu (Ed.), Visual Culture and Critical Theory: Empire, Asia, and the Question of the Subject (pp. 39-52). Taiwan. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2006). Realism. In DKE al (Ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature Oxford University Press.
- Armstrong, N. (2005). Why a Good Man is Hard to Find in Victorian Fiction. In AG Macedo and M Pereira (Eds.), Identity and Cultural Translation (pp. 84-102). Ashgate Press. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2004). Introduction: Victorian Children’s Literature as Political Foreplay. In A Study of Victorian Children’s Literature (pp. xi-xvii). Edwin Mellen Press. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2003). What Feminism Did to Novel Studies. In E Rooney (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Feminist Theory (pp. 99-118). Cambridge University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2002). What is Real in Realism?. In Chung Wai Literary Monthly (pp. 54-73). (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2002). Captivity and Cultural Capital in the Atlantic World. In WM Verhoeven (Ed.), Revolutionary Histories: Transatlantic Cultural Nationalism (pp. 104-121). Palgrave. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2002, January 1). Captivity and Cultural Capital in the English Novel. In Revolutionary Histories: Transatlantic Cultural Nationalism,1775–1815 (pp. 104-21). (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2001). Writing Women and the Making of the Modern Middle Class. In A Gilroy and W Verhoeven (Eds.), Cultural Correspondences: Essays on Epistolary Writing (pp. 29-50). University of Virginia Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2001). The Fiction of Bourgeois Morality and the Paradox of Individualism. In Il Romanzo, Vol. i: La Cultura del Romanzo (pp. 271-306). Einaudi. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2000). Postscript: Contemporary Culturalism: How Victorian is It?:. In J Kucich and D Sadoff (Eds.), Victorian Afterlife: Postmodern Culture Rewrites the Nineteenth Century (pp. 311-326). University of Minnesota Press. (Afterword)
- Armstrong, N. (2000). Introduction to ’Desire and Domestic Fiction’. In M McKeon (Ed.), The Theory of the Novel The Jonns Hopkins University Press.
- Armstrong, N. (2000). The Conduct of Literature, the Literature of Conduct, the Politics of Desire. In Literature from 1400-1800 Gale Research. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (2000). The Politics of Domesticating Culture. In M McKeon (Ed.), The Theory of the Novel (pp. 467-475). Johns Hopkins University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1999). Gender and the Victorian Novel. In D David (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel (pp. 97-124). Cambridge University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1999). Reclassifying Clarissa: Fiction and the Making of the Modern Middle Class. In E Copeland and CH Flynn (Eds.), The Clarissa Project, Volume 9, The Critical Commentary–New Commentaries AMS Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1998). The Self Contained: Emma. In LM White (Ed.), Critical Essays on Jane Austen (pp. 149-159). G.K. Hall. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1997). Chinese Women in a Comparative Perspective: A Response. In E Widmer and K-IS Chang (Eds.), Writing Women in Late Imperial China (pp. 397-422). Stanford University Press. (Afterword)
- Armstrong, N. (1997). Daughters. In CN Davidson and L Wagner-Martin (Eds.), Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States Oxford University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1996). City Things: Photography and the Urbanization Process. In D Fuss (Ed.), Human, All Too Human: Essays from the English Institute (pp. 93-130). Routledge. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1994). Fatal Abstraction: The Death and Sinister Afterlife of the American Family. In M Ryan (Ed.), Body Politics (pp. 18-31). Westview Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1991). Imperialist Nostalgia and Wuthering Heights. In L Peterson (Ed.), Wuthering Heights: A Case Study in Comtemporary Criticism (pp. 428-449). St. Martin’s Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1991). The Rise of the Domestic Woman. In R Warhol and DP Herndl (Eds.), Feminisms: An Anthology of Literature Theory and Criticism (pp. 59-95). Rutgers University Press. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1990). Some Call It Fiction: The Politics of Domesticity. In JF MacCannell (Ed.), The "Other" Prospective in Gender and Culture (pp. 59-84). Columbia University Press. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1990). Occidentalismo: una cuestion para el feminismo internacional. In G Colaizzi (Ed.), Feminismo Y Teoria Del Discourso (pp. 29-44). Catedra. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1987). The Rise of the Domestic Woman. In N Armstrong and L Tennenhouse (Eds.), The Ideology of Conduct: Essays on LIterature and the History of Sexuality Routledge. (Chapter)
- Armstrong, N. (1979). Inside Greimas’s Square: The Game of Semiotic Constraints in Jane Austen’s Fiction. In W Steiner (Ed.), The Sign in Music and Literature University of Texas Press. (Chapter)
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Journal Articles
- Armstrong, N. (2018). Looking Backward: the Victorian Origins of the Neoliberal Household. Victorian Literature and Culture .
- Armstrong, N. (2018). Disavowal and Domestic Fiction: The Problem of Social Reproduction. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies .
- Armstrong, N, & Montag, W. (2017, November 1). Are novels literature?. Novel , 50 (3), 338-350. (Review) Full Text
- Armstrong, N, & Montag, W. (2017, May). “The Figure in the Carpet”. PMLA , 132 (3), 613-619. Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2017). One or Several Jane Eyres. Victorian Review: an interdisciplinary journal of victorian studies .
- Armstrong, N. (2016, December). Do Wasps Just Want to Have Fun? Darwin and the Question of Variation. differences , 27 (3), 1-19. Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2016, May). Introduction: Property and Heterotopia. Novel , 49 (1), 1-4. Full Text Open Access Copy
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2016, April). Recalling Cora: Family Resemblances in The Last of the Mohicans. American Literary History , 28 (2), 223-245. Full Text
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2016). Recalling Cora: Family Resemblances in the Last of the Mohicans. American Literary History , 28 , 1-23. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2015). Novels before Nations: How Early US Novels Imagined Community. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature / Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée , 42 (4), 353-367. Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2014). Hawthorne on the Paradox of Popular Sovereignty. N Ruttenberg (Ed.). Novel: A Forum on Fiction , 47 , 24-42. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2014). When Sympathy Fails: The Affective Turn in Contemporary Fiction. SPELL: The Journal of the Swiss Professors of English Literature and Language , 27-49.
- Armstrong, N. (2014). The Affective Turn in Contemporary Fiction. Contemporary Literature , 55 (3), 441-465. Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2012). Gender Must Be Defended. SOUTH ATLANTIC QUARTERLY , 111 (3), 529-547. Full Text Link to Item
- Armstrong, N. (2012). The Victorian Archive and its Secret. NINETEENTH-CENTURY CONTEXTS-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL , 34 (5), 529-547. (Essay) Full Text Link to Item
- Armstrong, N. (2011). The Future in and of the Novel: A Position Paper. NOVEL-A FORUM ON FICTION , 44 (1), 8-10. (Essay) Full Text Link to Item
- Armstrong, N. (2009, June 1). Editor's Introduction: The Way We Read Now. Novel: A Forum on Fiction , 42 (2), 167-174. Full Text
- Armstrong, N, & Montag, W. (2009, January 1). The Future of the Human: An Introduction. differences , 20 (2-3), 1-8. Full Text
- Armstrong, N, & Montag, W. (2009, January 1). The Future of the Human: An Introduction. differences , 20 (2-3), 1-8. Full Text
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2009). Sovereignty and the Form of Formlessness. DIFFERENCES-A JOURNAL OF FEMINIST CULTURAL STUDIES , 20 (2-3), 148-178. Full Text Link to Item
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (2008). The Problem of Population and the Form of the American Novel. American Literary History , 20 (4), 667-685. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2007). Professing Disciplinarity: A Position Paper. Victorian Review , 33 (1), 11-14.
- Armstrong, N. (2006). How Novels Think. St. John’s University Humanities Review , 4 (2), 14 ms-14 ms. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (2005). Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies , 16 (1), 1-23. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2001). Monarchy in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Nineteenth-Century Contexts , 22 (4), 495-536. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (2001). Who's Afraid of the Cultural Turn?. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies , 12 (1), 17-49. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (1998). Captivity and Cultural Capital in the English Novel. NOVEL (special issue in honor of Mark Spilka) , 31 , 373-398. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1998). Modernism's Iconophobia and What it Did to Gender. Modernism/Modernity , 5 (2), 47-75. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (1998). Fiction in the Age of Photography. Narrative , 7 , 37-55. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1994). Why Daughters Die: The Racial Logic of American Sentimentalism. Yale Journal of Criticism , 7 , 1-24. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1993). Poststructuralism and the Question of History. Narrative , 1 , 45-58. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1993). A Novel Nation; or, How to Rethink Modern England as an Emergent Culture. Modern Language Quarterly , 54 (3), 327-344. (Essay) Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (1993). Semiotics and Family History. American Journal of Semiotics , 10 (1-2), 134-154. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1993). A Brief Genealogy of Theme. Harvard English Studies , 18 , 38-45. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1992). The American Origins of the English Novel. American Literary History , 4 (3), 386-410.
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1992). The American Origins of the English Novel. American Literary History , 4 (3), 386-410. Full Text
- Armstrong, N. (1992). Emily’s Ghost: The Cultural Politics of Victorian Fiction, Folklore. Novel: A Forum on Fiction , 25 (3), 245-267. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1990). The Interior Difference: A Brief Genealogy of Dreams. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies , 23 (4), 458-478. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1990). The Nineteenth-Century Austen: A Turn in the History of Fear. Genre , 23 , 227-246. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1990). The Occidental Alice. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies , 2 (2), 3-40. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1990). The Pornographic Effect: A Response. American Journal of Semiotics , 7 (1-2), 27-44.
- Armstrong, N, & Tennenhouse, L. (1989). Gender and the Work of Words. Cultural Critique , 13 , 229-279. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1988). Semiotics and Ideology. TA Sebeok and J Umeker-Sebeok (Eds.)., 309-321. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1988). The Gender Bind: Women and the Disciplines. Genders , 3 , 1-23. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1988). O Critico e a Meretriz da Cultura: A Teoria América Pósmoderna. Revista Critica De Ciencias Socais , 24 , 107-138. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1986). History in the House of Culture: Social Disorder and Domestic Fiction in Early Victorian England. Poetics Today , 7 (4), 647-671. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1983). A Language of One’s Own: Communication Modeling Systems in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Language and Style , 16 , 343-360. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1982). Domesticating the foreign Devil: structuralism in English letters a decade later. Semiotica , 42 , 243-275. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1982). The Rise of Feminine Authority in the Novel. Novel: A Forum on Fiction , 15 (2), 127-455.
- Armstrong, N. (1982). Emily Brontë In and Out of Her Time. Genre , 15 , 243-264. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. (1977). Character, Closure, and Impressionist Fiction. Criticism , 19 (4), 317-337. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. The Sensation Novel. SAQ: The South Atlantic Quarterly , 113 , 379-548. (Essay)
- Armstrong, N. Are Novels Literature? 50th Anniversary Issue. Novel: A Forum on Fiction , 50 (3).
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- ENGLISH 490S-10: Special Topics in Criticism, Theory, or Methodology 2018
- ENGLISH 491: Independent Study 2018
- ENGLISH 498: Distinction Critical Research Independent Study 2018
- ENGLISH 826S: Contemporary Genre Fiction: The Global Novel 2018
- ENGLISH 891: Special Readings 2018
- LIT 826S: Contemporary Genre Fiction: The Global Novel 2018
- ROMST 826S: Contemporary Genre Fiction: The Global Novel 2018
- ENGLISH 825S: Outside the Nation State: The Global Novel 2017
- ROMST 825S: Outside the Nation State: The Global Novel 2017
- ENGLISH 497: Distinction Critical Research Independent Study 2016
- ENGLISH 890S: Special Topics Seminar 2016
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Desire & Domestic Fiction After 30 Years. Special Session of the Modern Language Association. January 2018 2018
- Disavowal & Domestic Fiction. Annual Victorian Studies Conference. CUNY. 2017 2017
- Aspects of the American Network Novel. American University. 2015 2015
- How American Novels Think Biopolically. The Biopolitical Turn in Literature. Duke University. 2015 2015
- Imagining community without property. Plenary talk. Cornell University Humanities Institute. 2015 2015
- Journal of narrative Theory dialogues: After Post-structuralism?. Eastern Michigan University. 2015 2015
- Why Teaching Literature? (Panel sponsored by Division on Teaching Literature). MLA 2014. January 9, 2014 2014
- Do wasps just want to have fun?: Darwin on the problem of variation. High Seminar. Stockholm University. 2014 2014
- Early American Aspects of the Novel (Session Sponsored by Division on 20th-Century Literature). MLA. January 2014 2014
- Faculty Symposium: Early American Aspects of the Novel. Brigham Young University. American Studies seminar. 2014 2014
- How the novel creates (not just reflects) reality". Thinking Aloud. BYU Radio. 2014 2014
- Nancy Armstrong on Gender, Novels, and the Afterlife of a Landmark Book. Humanities Institute Interviews. Brigham Young University. 2014 2014
- Property Cannot Be Defended: The Ground of American Fiction. American Studies seminar. Uppsala University. 2014 2014
- Property Cannot Be Defended: The Ground of American Fiction. Wake Forest University. 2014 2014
- The Biopolitical Jane Eyre. Brigham Young University. 2014 2014
- Response: Evidence and Argument. NAVSA annual meeting. October 2013 2013
- Keynote lecture: The Networked Novel and What it Did to Domestic Fiction. Jane Austen Society Meeting. June 2013 2013
- Keynote Lecture: When Sympathy Fails: The Affective Turn in Contemporary Fiction. Swiss Professors of English Language and Literature--annual conference. April 2013 2013
- The Conversion Effect. Society for Early Americanists annual conference. March 2013 2013
- Darwin's Garden. Comparative Literature Annual Endowed Lecture. Texas Tech University. 2013 2013
- Forum: on how to establish a Center for the Study of the Novel. Faculty seminar. University of Sidney. 2013 2013
- Keynote lecture: Darwin on the Liberty and Limits of Biological Life. Victorian Studies Society of Australia. Macquarie University. 2013 2013
- Master Class on Armstrong's published work. University of Sidney. 2013 2013
- Master class: literature and the emotions. Doctoral Students in Swiss Universities. 2013 2013
- Public lecture: The Affective Turn of Contemporary Fiction. University of Sidney. 2013 2013
- The Affective Turn In Contemporary Fiction. University of Sidney. 2013 2013
- Novel Worlds. The State of Things. NPR. April 2012 2012
- Endowed Lecture: The Victorian Archive and Its Secret. Brown University . 2012 2012
- Keynote lecture: The Victorian Archive and Its Secret. The Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Association. 2012 2012
- Plenary lecture: Darwin's Uncodable Difference. Systems of Life Conference. Huntington Library. 2012 2012
- Tocqueville, Foucault, Hawthorne: The Paradox of American Individualism. Center for the Study of the Novel. Stanford University. 2012 2012
- University Lecture: What is Contemporary Fiction?. Cornell University. February 2011 2011
- Inside the Outside of Liberal Society. Symposium on Governmentality. UC Santa Barbara. 2011 2011
- Plenary Lecture: What Can We Do with Bare Life?. Yale University. 2011 2011
- What is Contemporary Fiction?. English Department. UCLA. 2011 2011
- Darwin's Paradox. English Department. Yale University. 2010 2010
- Endowed Lecture: Why a Good Man is Hard to Find in Victorian Literature. Vanderbilt University. 2010 2010
- Keynote lecture: What is the Contemporary Novel?. Institure for Advanced Research, conference on Novel and Narrative. University of Freiburg. 2010 2010
- Plenary Lecture: Imagining Sovereignty in the Age of Democracy: Toqueville, Foucault, and Hawthorne. Arizona Quarterly. University of Arizona. 2010 2010
- A Gothic History of the British Novel. Center for Social Theory. University of Kentucky. 2009 2009
- A Gothic History of the British Novel. Conference on Narrative Domains. Oxford University Press and the University of Reading. 2009 2009
- A future without theory?. Response to President Roth, Wesleyan University. Center for the Humanities. 2009 2009
- Captivity and the Question of Sovereignty. Annual Meeting of the Society of Early Americanists. 2009 2009
- Endowed lecture: Darwin's Paradox. Carnegie Mellon University. 2009 2009
- How Novels Think. Swedish National Radio. March 2008 2008
- Darwin's Paradox. Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University. 2008 2008
- Endowed lecture: Gender Must be Defended. University of Minnesota. 2008 2008
- Endowed lecture: Why a Good Man is Hard to Find. Notre Dame University. 2008 2008
- Endowed women's studies lecture: Gender Must be Defended. University of Maryland at Baltimore. 2008 2008
- Planetary Lecture: The Barbary Captivity Narrative and the Form of American Fiction. Conference 20 years of "American Literary History". University of Illinois. 2008 2008
- Plenary lecture: Evolution's Other Narrative. Symposium on Making History. Rutgers University. 2008 2008
- Plenary lecture: Gender Must be Defended. conference on "Book Life". University of Malmo. 2008 2008
- The Literary Darwin. Interdisciplinary 19th-century Circle. Northwestern University. 2008 2008
- The Literary Darwin. Northeastern University. 2008 2008
- The Politics of Incorporation at the Dawn of Individualism. Clark Library. UCLA. 2008 2008
- The Wilde Side of Dickens. Johns Hopkins University. 2008 2008
- University Lecture: The Literary Darwin. Victoria University. 2008 2008
- What's the Word. MLA Radio. NPR. February 2007 2007
- Charles Darwin, Novelist. English Department, Duke University. 2007 2007
- Charles Darwin, Novelist. University of Connecticut. 2007 2007
- Gender Must Be Defended. Conference on The Novel: Democracy's Form. Sussex University. 2007 2007
- Gender Must be Defended. UCLA. 2007 2007
- The Gothic Austen. Harvard University. 2007 2007
- Conference on the Africana Novel. Distinguished Interlocutor. University of Pittsburgh. 2006 2006
- Illustration. Center for the Study of the Novel. Stanford University. 2006 2006
- On the Dark Side of Modern Individualism. American Comparative Literature Association. 2006 2006
- Publishing in Anglo-American Journals. Conference on Publishing in English Studies. University of Freiburg. 2006 2006
- The Dark Side of Modern Individualism. University of New Hampshire. 2006 2006
- The Necessary Gothic. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. 2006 2006
- The Problem of Masculinity in Victorian Fiction. Englisches Seminar. Universitat Freiburg. 2006 2006
- Writing for Publication. Annual Graduate Student Symposium. USC. 2006 2006
- Keynote lecture: Civilized Savagery:The Violence of Victorian Fiction. Conference on Violence and Recuperation. McGill University. 2005 2005
- Publishing Literary Scholarship. Annual Graduate Student Symposium, USC. 2005 2005
- The Dark Side of Modern Individualism. English Department, Duke University. 2005 2005
- The Future of a Forum on Fiction. Conference on Humanities Journals: Past and Future. University of Virginia. 2005 2005
- The Gothic Darwin. Series on Evolution. Temple University. 2005 2005
- The Politics of Incorporation at the Dawn of Individualism. Clark Library, UCLA. 2005 2005
- Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. Harvard University. English Department. 2004 2004
- Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. University of South Dakota. 2004 2004
- Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. Futures of Utopia Conference. 2003 2003
- Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. University of North Carolina-Greensboro. 2003 2003
- Image and Empire. Visual Studies Conference. Michigan State University. 2003 2003
- Plenary: Feminism, Fiction, and the Utopian Promise of Dracula. North America Victorian Studies Associatioon. 2003 2003
- What's New In American Feminism. Faculty Seminar with Ellen Rooney. University of Coimbra (Portugal). 2003 2003
- Novels and the Middle Class. Odyssey. NPR . December 17, 2002 2002
- Who are the Victorians and why do they appeal to us?. Odyssey. NPR . October 19, 2002 2002
- Authenticity After Photography. Student-Faculty Seminar. Liverpool John Moore's University. 2002 2002
- Endowed Lecture: Why a Good Man is Hard to Find.... Bryn Mawr College. 2002 2002
- How Novels Think. In Honor of Homer O. Brown. UC Irvine. 2002 2002
- Plenary Lecture: Image and Empire: A Brief Genealogy of Visual Culture. International Institute for Visual Theory and Cultural Studies. National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. 2002 2002
- Plenary Lecture: Structuralism's Unfinished Business. Conference on American Literature. University of Arizona. 2002 2002
- Structuralism's Unfinished Business. Program in Cultural Studies. Liverpool John Moore's. 2002 2002
- The Object Dependency of Enlightenment Letters. MLA . 2002 2002
- The Polygenic Imagination. Graduate Student/Faculty Seminar. Stanford University. 2002 2002
- The Rise of the Novel: A Comparative Assessment. The Center for the Study of the Novel. Stanford University. 2002 2002
- How Novels Think. Harvard University Humanities Center. 2001 2001
- Malthusian Gothic. International Gothic Association Meeting. University of British Columbia. 2001 2001
- Monarchy In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. University of British Columbia. 2001 2001
- Plenary lecture: Structuralism's Unfinished Business. Dartmouth Institute in American Studies. 2001 2001
- Public Lecture: Monarchy in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Liverpool John Moore's University. 2001 2001
- Public Lecture: Why a Good Man is Hard to Find. Liverpool John Moore's University. 2001 2001
- The Bad Subject. Comparative Eighteenth-Century Literature Division Meeting. Modern Language Association. 2001 2001
- Vampire Nation. Strathclyde University. 2001 2001
- When Novels Made Nations. Glasgow University. 2001 2001
- Why a Good Man is Hard to Find in Victorian Fiction. Pembroke Center conference. Brown University. 2001 2001
- Why a Good Man is Hard to Find. Canadian Victorian Studies Association. Simon Fraser University. 2001 2001
- Fiction in the Age of Photography. Night Waves. BBC Radio 3. January 25, 2000 2000
- For Disciplinarity. Roundtable on Interdisciplinarity: The Competing Claims of Literature and History. American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. 2000 2000
- Plenary Lecture: Why a Good Man is Hard to Find in Victorian Fiction. Conference on Nineteenth-Century Literature. UCLA. 2000 2000
- Surviving the Photograph. Roundtable Speaker. Princeton University. 2000 2000
- Keynote Lecture: When Novels Made Nations. Conference on The Romantic-Era Novel. University of Groningen. 1999 1999
- Keynote Lecture: The Victorianism of Queen Victoria's Writing. Annual Conference on Women Writers. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 1998 1998
- Plenary Lecture: The Discourse Thing. Conference on Liberalism and Cultural Studies. Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University. 1998 1998
- History is in the Shot. MLA Conference. 1997 1997
- Keynote lecture: Captivity and Cultural Capital. International Eighteenth-Century Conference. University of Groningen. 1997 1997
- Keynote lecture: Fiction in the Age of Photography. International Narrative Conference. University of Florida. 1997 1997
- Monarchy in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Queen Victoria Symposium. Yale British Art Center. 1997 1997
- Plenary lecture: Fiction in the Age of Photography. Victorian Studies Conference, CUNY. 1997 1997
- The Picturesque Imperative. North American Society for the Study of Romanticism. 1997 1997
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Service to the Profession
- External Examiner. M. Phil. University of Sydney. 2016 2016
- Founder and executive board member.. Society for Novel Studies, and International learned society. 2011 2011
- Member: NEASC accrediation team, Harvard University. 2009 2009
- Chair. External Review Committee English Department. Dartmouth University. 2007 2007
- University Tenure, Promotion and Appointments. Brown University. 2007 - 2009 2007 - 2009
- External Examiner. President's Tenure Committee. Harvard University. 2006 2006
- Member. NEASC team to accredit. Brandeis University. 2006 2006
- External Examiner. English Department. Michigan State University. 2004 2004
- External Examiner. M.A. in English Studies. University of Hong Kong. 2004 - 2006 2004 - 2006
- External Examiner. Provost's Tenure . Committee. Columbia University. 2003 2003
- External Examiner. Tenure Review Committees. Brandeis University, University of Toronto, University of Melbourne. 2003 2003
- NEASC Team to Accredit. Tufts University. 2003 2003
- Editorial Board. Publication of the Modern Language Association. 2001 - 2003 2001 - 2003
- External Review Team. Department of English. University of Oklahoma. 2000 2000
- Mary Ingraham Bunting Fellowship Selection Committee. 2000 - 2015 2000 - 2015
- President. Society for Critical Exchange. 2000 - 2001 2000 - 2001
- External Examiner. Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia . Humanities Departments and Centers in Portugal. 1999 - 2003 1999 - 2003
- Member . NEASC team to accredit. Dartmouth University. 1999 - 1999 1999
- Chair. James Russell Lowell Prize Committee. Modern Language Association. 1997 - 1999 1997 - 1999
- Editor . Novel: A Forum on Fiction. 1996 - 2018 1996 - 2018
- Editorial Board. Differences. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Eighteenth-Century Studies. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Modern Language Quarterly. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. NINES: Network Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Nineteenth-Century contexts. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Victorian Literature and Culture. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Victorian Studies. 1990 1990
- Editorial Board. Victoriographes: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Writing. 1990 1990
- Editorial Collective. Cultural Critique. 1990 1990
- Co-editor. Genders. 1989 - 1991 1989 - 1991
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Service to Duke
- Duke University. Provost's Committee on Tenure and Promotion Standards. 2017 2017
- Search Committee for History and Theory of the Novel. 2015 - 2016 2015 - 2016
- Appointments,Tenure, and Promotion Committee APT. 2014 - 2017 2014 - 2017
- Co-Director. The Novel Project at Duke. 2014 - 2018 2014 - 2018
- Search Committee for Seventeenth-Century British Literature. 2014 2014
- The Novel Project. Co-Director. 2014 2014
- Associate DGS English. 2012 - 2015 2012 - 2015
- Executive Council of the Graduate Faculty. 2012 - 2013 2012 - 2013
- Graduate Admissions Committee. 2010 - 2015 2010 - 2015
- Graduate Committee. 2010 - 2015 2010 - 2015
- Named Chairs Committee. 2010 - 2013 2010 - 2013
- Search Committee for an assistant professor of contemporary literature. 2010 2010
Some information on this profile has been compiled automatically from Duke databases and external sources. (Our About page explains how this works.) If you see a problem with the information, please write to Scholars@Duke and let us know. We will reply promptly.
