Marianna Torgovnick
Professor of English
Marianna Torgovnick writes on the novel and novel theory, film, postcolonialism, modernism, and the twentieth century more generally, and especially on contemporary American culture. Her work is broadly interdisciplinary and has been taught in Art History, Anthropology, and Religion courses as well as English, Literature, and Theory. She has published Closure in the Novel
(Princeton, 1981), and The Visual Arts, Pictorialism, and the Novel: James, Lawrence, and Woolf
(Princeton, 1985), Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives
(Chicago, 1990), and Crossing Ocean Parkway
(Chicago, 1994), for which she won an American Book Award, and Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy
(Knopf, 1997; paperback Chicago, 1998) and The War Complex: World War II in Our Time
, about memories and perceptions of the Second War World in the Twenty First Century. She has also written series of articles for general interest publications. Professor Torgovnick currently directs The Duke in New York Arts and Media Program, taught in New York. She returns to teach America Dreams American Movies to a large enrollment each year. For more information, visit her website www.mariannatorgovnick.com
Office Hours
Fall 2022 Semester:
By appointment on Tuesdays and Thursday 3:00-4:00 pm (304E Allen or by Zoom)Current Appointments & Affiliations
- Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1987
Contact Information
- 302E Allen Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
- Duke Box 90015, Durham, NC 27708-0015
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tor@duke.edu
(919) 684-2741
- Background
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Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Columbia University 1975
- M.A., Columbia University 1971
- B.A., New York University 1970
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Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Chair, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1996 - 1999
- Acting Chairman, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1989
- Associate Professor with Tenure, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1985 - 1987
- Assistant Professor, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1981 - 1985
- Recognition
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In the News
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NOV 8, 2021 -
SEP 6, 2015 Duke Today -
SEP 4, 2015
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Awards & Honors
- Expertise
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Global Scholarship
- Publications & Artistic Works
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Selected Publications
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Books
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Torgovnick, M. Closure in the novel, 2017.
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Torgovnick, M. The Novelist's Wife, 2015.
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Torgovnick, M. The War Complex: World War II in Our Time. The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
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Torgovnick, M. Primitive Passions: Men, Women, and the Quest for Ecstasy. Knopf; second printing, Mar. 1997; paperback, U of Chicago P, Sept. 1998, 1997.
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Torgovnick, M. Crossing Ocean Parkway: Readings by an Italian American Daughter. U of Chicago P; paperback with new afterword, Dec. 1996, 1994.
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Torgovnick, M. Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. U of Chicago P; second printing 1991, 1990.
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Torgovnick, M. The Visual Arts, Pictorialism, and the Novel: James, Lawrence, and Woolf. Princeton UP, 1985.
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Academic Articles
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Torgovnick, M. “Representing Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Contemporary America.” Nanzan Review of American Studies XXXII (2011).
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Torgovnick, M. “Rereading The Iliad in a time of war.” Pmla 124, no. 5 (October 1, 2009): 1838–41. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2009.124.5.1838.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “The Buoyancy of Depression Entertainment.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, April 2009.
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Torgovnick, M. “It’s Not Mickey Mouse: Animation Today.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, 2009.
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Torgovnick, M. “Letting Loose in the Great Depression: Film, Radio, and Leisure Time in the 1930s.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, 2009.
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Torgovnick, M. “Archive Fever.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, September 2008.
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Torgovnick, M. “The Lure of Urban Destruction: Targeting New York.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, May 2008.
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Torgovnick, M. “Sexy Things: Recent Novels that Embroider Artistic History.” The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, February 2008.
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Torgovnick, M. “Writing Together.” Modernist Group Dynamics, 2008.
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Torgovnick, M. “On Victor Li’s "The Neo-Primitivist Turn".” Criticism 49 (2007): 545–50.
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Torgovnick, Marianna. “The Neo-Primitivist Turn: Critical Reflections on Alterity, Culture, and Modernity.” Criticism a Quarterly for Literature and the Arts 49, no. 4 (2007): 545–50.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, Marianna. “Camera Works: Photography and the Twentieth-Century Word.” American Literature 78, no. 3 (September 1, 2006): 629–31. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-2006-034.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “Review, Michel North, Camera Works: Photography and the Twentieth-Century Word.” American Literature, 2006.
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Torgovnick, M. “Animals and Aura,” 2005.
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Torgovnick, M. “My Secret Life with Earrings,” 2004.
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Torgovnick, M. “Interview with Duke Writing Group,” 2003.
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Torgovnick, M. “A response to Shoshana Felman.” Critical Inquiry 28, no. 3 (January 1, 2002): 780–84. https://doi.org/10.1086/343238.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “A Response to Shosana Felman’s ’Theatres of Justice’.” Critical Inquiry 27 (2002).
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Torgovnick, M. “Memoir, Autobiography, and Diaries.” Encyclopedia of American Studies, 2001.
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Torgovnick, M. “On Michael North’s "Reading 1922".” American Literature, 2001.
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Torgovnick, M. “Mixed Ethnicity: Crossing Ocean Parkway Revisited.” Edited by V. Y. Mudimbe. Diaspora and Immigration Saq 98 (1999): 239–46.
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Torgovnick, M. “On Being White, Female, and Born in Bensonhurst.” Partisan Review 57 (1997): 456–66.
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Torgovnick, M. “A Writer and Others.” Essays in Criticism 27 (1997): 174–79.
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Torgovnick, M. “A Passion for the Primitive: Dian Fossey Among the Animals.” Yale Review 84 (1996): 1–25.
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Torgovnick, M. “Interdisciplinarity.” Pmla, 1996.
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Torgovnick, M. “Tracking the men's movement.” American Literary History 6, no. 1 (March 1, 1994): 155–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/6.1.155.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “Reviews or review-essays in ADE Bulletin, American Literary History, and Comparative Literature,” 1994.
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Torgovnick, M. “Sticks and Bones.” Art Forum, 1993.
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Torgovnick, M. “Slasher Stories.” New Formations, 1993.
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TORGOVNICK, M. “INTRODUCTION + CULTURAL CRITICISM.” South Atlantic Quarterly 91, no. 1 (1992): 1–3.Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “THE POLITICS OF THE WE.” South Atlantic Quarterly 91, no. 1 (1992): 43–63.Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “SKIN AND BOLTS + PIERCING GENITALS.” Artforum 31, no. 4 (1992): 64–65.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Stuffed Animals.” Transition 54 (1991): 58–67.
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“Edging Women out: Victorian Novelists, Publishers, and Social Change. Gaye Tuchman, Nina E. Fortin.” Modern Philology 88, no. 2 (November 1990): 213–15. https://doi.org/10.1086/391857.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “Experimental Critical Writing.” Ade Bulletin 96 (1990): 8–11.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of Mexican Monuments.” Art Forum, October 1989.
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Torgovnick, Marianna. “Making Primitive Art High Art.” Poetics Today 10, no. 2 (1989): 299–299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1773026.Full Text
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HENKLE, R. B., B. DUYFHUIZEN, M. SPILKA, C. ALTIERI, R. LANGBAUM, M. TORGOVNICK, E. WEED, et al. “DISCUSSION + REGARDING WHY THE NOVEL MATTERS.” Novel a Forum on Fiction 21, no. 2–3 (1988): 345–59.Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “DID WE MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS + REGARDING WHY THE NOVEL MATTERS.” Novel a Forum on Fiction 21, no. 2–3 (1988): 341–44.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Did We Meet Your Expectations.” Novel 21 (1988): 341-45+.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of W.J.T. Mitchell’s Iconology.” Criticism, 1988.
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TORGOVNICK, M. “CLOSURE AND THE VICTORIAN NOVEL, 1986.” Victorian Newsletter, no. 71 (1987): 4–6.Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “ICONOLOGY - IMAGE, TEXT, IDEOLOGY - MITCHELL,WJT.” Criticism a Quarterly for Literature and the Arts 29, no. 4 (1987): 556–57.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “The Godfather as the World’s Most Typical Novel.” South Atlantic Quarterly 87 (1987): 329–53.
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Torgovnick, M. “Closure 1986.” Victorian Newsletter, 1987.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of David Lubin’s Acts of Portrayal.” American Literature, 1987.
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Torgovnick, Marianna, and David M. Lubin. “Act of Portrayal: Eakins, Sargent, James.” American Literature 58, no. 4 (December 1986): 643–643. https://doi.org/10.2307/2926459.Full Text
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TORGOVNICK, M. “NABOKOV AND HIS SUCCESSORS - 'PALE FIRE' AS A FABLE FOR CRITICS IN THE 70S AND 80S.” Style 20, no. 1 (1986): 22–41.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Nabokov and his Successors: Pale Fire as a Critical Fable for the Seventies and Eighties.” Style 20 (1986): 22–40.
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Torgovnick, M. “The Present and Future States of Novel Criticism, A Hopeful Overview.” Novel a Forum on Fiction 18, no. 3 (1985): 199–202. https://doi.org/10.2307/1345784.Full Text Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Ut Pictura.” Novel 18 (1985).
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Torgovnick, Marianna, Wendy Steiner, and Geoffrey Galt Harpham. “Ut pictura...” Novel: A Forum on Fiction 18, no. 1 (1984): 81–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/1346019.Full Text
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Torgovnick, M. “How to Treat an Adjunct.” College Composition and Communication XXXIII (December 1982): 454–56.
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Torgovnick, Marianna. “How to Handle an Adjunct.” College Composition and Communication 33, no. 4 (December 1982): 454–454. https://doi.org/10.2307/357963.Full Text
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TORGOVNICK, M. “SPATIAL FORM IN NARRATIVE - SMITTEN,JR, DAGHISTANY,A.” South Atlantic Quarterly 81, no. 4 (1982): 475–76.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of Spatial Form in Literature.” Edited by Jeffrey R. Smitten and Ann Daghistany. South Atlantic Quarterly 81 (1982): 475–76.
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TORGOVNICK, M. “NARRATIVE AND ITS DISCONTENTS - PROBLEMS OF CLOSURE IN THE TRADITIONAL NOVEL - MILLER,DA.” Genre 14, no. 3 (1981): 415–18.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Review-Essay on D.A. Miller’s Narrative and its Discontents: Problems of Closure and the Traditional Novel.” Genre, 1981, 415–18.
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Torgovnick, M. “Pictorial Elements in 'Women in Love': The Uses of Insinuation and Visual Rhyme.” Contemporary Literature 21, no. 3 (1980): 420–34. https://doi.org/10.2307/1208250.Full Text Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “GESTURAL PATTERN AND MEANING IN THE 'GOLDEN BOWL'.” Twentieth Century Literature 26, no. 4 (1980): 445–57.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Gesture and Meaning in The Golden Bowl.” Twentieth Century Literature, 1980, 445–57.
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Torgovnick, M. “Teaching Freshman English: Observations of a Former Urban Adjunct Instructor.” Improving College and University Teaching 27 (1979): 147–52.
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TORGOVNICK, M. “James' Sense of an Ending: The Role Played in Its Development by the Popular Conventional Epilogue.” Studies in the Novel 10, no. 2 (1978): 183–98.Link to Item
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TORGOVNICK, M. “JAMES,HENRY - LESSONS OF MASTER - POPULAR FICTION AND PERSONAL STYLE IN 19TH-CENTURY - VEEDER,W.” Essays in Criticism 27, no. 2 (1977): 174–79.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and the Suppressed Debate about the Oceanic.” Solicited by Modernism/Modernity, n.d.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of Robert Viscusi’s Astoria.” Italian Americana, n.d.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of Barbara Tuchman’s Edging Women Out.” Modern Philology, n.d.
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Torgovnick, M. “Review of Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth’s Realism and Consensus in the English Novel.” Eighteenth Century: A Current Bibliography, n.d.
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Book Sections
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Torgovnick, M. “Cultual Criticism.” In Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, 2013.
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Torgovnick, M. “"The Artist is Present".” In Fictions of Art History. Clark Art Institute, 2013.
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Torgovnick, M. “Adventures in Digital Publishing.” In Globalization: Appropriation or Hybridization? English Language and Literature in a Postcolonial Lobal World. Cambridge U Press, 2012.
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Torgovnick, M. “The Text is Present.” In Fictions of Art History. The Clark Art Instutute, 2011.
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Torgovnick, M. “Crossing Back: A Classic Journey.” In Crossing Back: A Classic Journey, 2010.
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Torgovnick, M. “Dante, Mourning, Meditation and Me.” In How We Write: The Power of Scholarly Form, edited by Angelika Bammer and Ruth-Ellen Joeres, 2010.
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Torgovnick, M. “Selling the House.” In Our Roots Are Deep with Passion, edited by Joanna Herman and Lee Gutkind, 234–44. New York: Other Press, 2006.
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Torgovnick, M. “Primitivism Today.” In II Primitivismo, edited by Vita Fortunati, 2006.
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Torgovnick, M. “Cultural Criticism.” In The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, 2003.
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Torgovnick, M. “Narrating Sexuality; D.H. Lawrence’s The Rainbow and Women in Love.” In The Cambridge Companion to D.H. Lawrence, 2001.
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Torgovnick, M. “Marianna Torgovnick (section).” In The Writer’s Journal, edited by Shiela Bender. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
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Torgovnick, M. “Discovering Jane Ellen Harrison.” In Seeing Double: Revisioning Edwardian and Modernist Literature, edited by Carola Kaplan and Anne B. Simpson, 131–48. Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
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Torgovnick, M. “So, What Did Your Mother Think?” In Voices in Italian Americana, 1996.
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Torgovnick, M. “Closure and Shape of Fictions: The Example of Women in Love.” In The Study in Time IV, edited by David Park and Nathaniel Lawrence, 147–58. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1981.
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Moi, Toril. “Feminism (In preparation).” In Ibsen in Contexts, edited by Narve Fulsås and Tore Rem. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, n.d.
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Other Articles
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Torgovnick, M. “Fifty Shades Cliched.” Public Books, June 5, 2013.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “9 Documentaries That You Need to See This Year.” Tedblog, April 10, 2013.Link to Item
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Torgovnick, M. “The top 10 classic fears in literature.” Tedtalks, 2012.
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Torgovnick, M. “Let’s re-examine pre-emptive war policy.” The Herald Sun, October 2006.
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“Eloquent Obsessions: Writing Cultural Criticism.” Durham: Duke UP; paperback edition, 1993, 1993.
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“Writing Cultural Criticism.” Saq Special Issue, 1992.
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Conference Papers
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TORGOVNICK, M. “LEARNING FROM LITERATURE.” In Discipline Based Art Education and Cultural Diversity, Seminar Proceedings, 68–71. GETTY CENTER EDUCATION ARTS, 1993.Link to Item
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WILSON, F., L. CORRIN, and M. TORGOVNICK. “QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.” In Discipline Based Art Education and Cultural Diversity, Seminar Proceedings, 78–79. GETTY CENTER EDUCATION ARTS, 1993.Link to Item
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- Teaching & Mentoring
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Recent Courses
- CINE 276: America Dreams American Movies II: Independents Through Streaming 2023
- ENGLISH 289: America Dreams American Movies II: Independents Through Streaming 2023
- ENGLISH 590S-3: Special Topics Seminar III 2023
- VMS 276: America Dreams American Movies II: Independents Through Streaming 2023
- ARTHIST 312A-1: Internship in New York 2022
- ARTHIST 312A: Internship in New York 2022
- CINE 212: American Dreams, American Movies 2022
- ENGLISH 101S: The Art of Reading 2022
- ENGLISH 288: American Dreams, American Movies 2022
- ENGLISH 312A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2022
- ENGLISH 313A-1: Internship in New York 2022
- ENGLISH 313A: Internship in New York 2022
- PUBPOL 312A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2022
- THEATRST 213A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2022
- THEATRST 214A-1: Internship in New York 2022
- THEATRST 214A: Internship in New York 2022
- VMS 259A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2022
- VMS 296A-1: Internship in New York 2022
- VMS 296A: Internship in New York 2022
- VMS 355: American Dreams, American Movies 2022
- ARTHIST 312: Internship in New York 2021
- ARTHIST 312A: Internship in New York 2021
- ARTHIST 313A: The Business of Art and Media 2021
- ENGLISH 310A: The Business of Art and Media 2021
- ENGLISH 312A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2021
- ENGLISH 313: Internship in New York 2021
- ENGLISH 313A: Internship in New York 2021
- PUBPOL 312A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2021
- THEATRST 213A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2021
- THEATRST 214: Internship in New York 2021
- THEATRST 214A: Internship in New York 2021
- VMS 259A: The Arts in New York: A Thematic Approach 2021
- VMS 296: Internship in New York 2021
- VMS 296A: Internship in New York 2021
- VMS 301A: The Business of Art and Media 2021
- Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
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Presentations & Appearances
- Adventures in Digital-Land. January 8, 2012 2012
- Representing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. December 7, 2010 2010
- Representing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. December 7, 2010 2010
- The Empty City. December 7, 2010 2010
- The Text is Present. December 7, 2010 2010
- The Empty City. December 1, 2010 2010
- Gone Nuclear. October 1, 2009 2009
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Service to the Profession
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