Bio


Blakey Vermeule's research interests are neuroaesthetics, cognitive and evolutionary approaches to art, philosophy and literature, British literature from 1660-1820, post-Colonial fiction, satire, and the history of the novel. She is the author of The Party of Humanity: Writing Moral Psychology in Eighteenth-Century Britain (2000) and Why Do We Care About Literary Characters? (2009), both from The Johns Hopkins University Press. She is writing a book about what mind science has discovered about the unconscious.

Academic Appointments


  • Professor, English

Administrative Appointments


  • Vice Chair of English Department, Stanford University (2012 - 2012)
  • Co-Chair of Ph.D. Job Placement, English Department, Stanford University (2012 - 2012)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations


  • CO-editor on a series on Cognitive Studies in Literature and Performance, Palgrave-Macmillan Publishing
  • Member, Faculty College English Department Team, Stanford University
  • Member, Renaissance Search Committee in the English department, Stanford University
  • Co-Chair, Job placement for the English department, Stanford University
  • Member, Assistant Professor reappointment committee, English department, Stanford University
  • Pre-Major Advisor, Stanford University
  • Member, Reappointment Committee of Claire Jarvis, Stanford University

Program Affiliations


  • Modern Thought and Literature
  • Philosophy and Literature

2024-25 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • David Foster Wallace and Suffering Gesturing Towards Reality: David Foster Wallace and Philosophy Vermeule, B. edited by Bolger, R. K., Korb, S. Continuum Press. 2014
  • The Unreasonable: A Response to Michael Clune’s Writing Against Time Nonsite.org Vermeule, B. 2013
  • Wit and Poetry and Pope, or The Handicap Principle CRITICAL INQUIRY Vermeule, B. 2012; 38 (2): 426-430

    View details for DOI 10.1086/662754

    View details for Web of Science ID 000299053000015

  • A Comeuppance Theory of Narrative and Emotions POETICS TODAY Vermeule, B. 2011; 32 (2): 235-253