Mark McGurl
Albert Guérard Professor of Literature
English
Bio
Mark McGurl's scholarly work centers on the relation of literature to social, educational and other institutions from the late 19th century to the present. He is the author of The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing (Harvard), which was the recipient of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism for 2011. His most recent book, Everything and Less: Fiction in the Age of Amazon (Verso 2021), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.
McGurl’s first book was The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James (Princeton). He has also published articles in journals such as Critical Inquiry, Representations, American Literary History, and New Literary History. He teaches a range of classes on American literature and related topics.
McGurl received his BA from Harvard, then worked at the New York Times and the New York Review of Books before earning his PhD in comparative literature from Johns Hopkins. He has held fellowships from Office of the President of the University of California and the Stanford Humanities Center.
Academic Appointments
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Professor, English
Administrative Appointments
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Professor of English, Stanford University (2011 - Present)
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Professor of English, University of California, Los Angeles (1997 - 2011)
Honors & Awards
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The Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism, University of Iowa (2011)
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Hurst Visiting Professor, Washington University St. Louis (2009)
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Distinguished Teaching Award, Departmental Nominee, University of California, Los Angeles (2006)
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Distinguished Teaching Award, Departmental Nominee, University of California, Los Angeles (2008)
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Fellowship, Stanford Humanities Center (2002 - 2003)
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President’s Research Fellowship in the Humanities, University of California (2002 - 2003)
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Fellowship for Biographical and Literary Historical Studies, Irving Cooper (2000)
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Owen Fellowship in the Humanities, Johns Hopkins (1991 - 1994)
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Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholarship, IBM (1985 - 1989)
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Hoopes Prize for Outstanding B.A. Thesis, Harvard (1989)
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Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Beta Kappa Society (1988)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Graduate Admissions co-chair, Stanford University (2012 - 2013)
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Member, Graduate Committee, Stanford University (2012 - 2013)
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Member, Richard Powers Ad Hoc Hiring Committee (2012 - 2013)
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Unit Leader, Literature Lab 20th Century (2012 - 2013)
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Elected board member, MLA Narrative Section (2012)
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Member, Geballe Workshop Selection Committee, Stanford Humanities Center (2012 - 2012)
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Member, Graduate Admissions Committee, Stanford English Department (2011 - 2012)
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Member, Graduate Committee, Stanford English Department (2011 - 2012)
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Member, Chair’s Advisory Committee, Stanford English Department (2011 - 2012)
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American Literature Section elected board member, Modern Language Association (MLA) (2010 - 2010)
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Awards committee chair, Modern Language Association (MLA) (2010 - 2010)
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Chair, UCLA 19th Century Americanist Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2010 - 2011)
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Member, UCLA Transatlantic pre-1900 Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2008 - 2009)
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Chair, UCLA New Media Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2007 - 2008)
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Member, English Department Graduate Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2003 - 2007)
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Member, English Department Executive Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (1998 - 1999)
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Member, English Department Executive Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2000 - 2001)
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Member, English Department Executive Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2004 - 2005)
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Member, English Department Executive Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2007 - 2008)
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Member, UCLA Americanist Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2000 - 2001)
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Member, UCLA Latino/a Chicano/a Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2001 - 2002)
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Member, UCLA Latino/a Chicano/a Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2003 - 2004)
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Member, UCLA Latino/a Chicano/a Search Committee, University of California, Los Angeles (2005 - 2006)
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Member, Advisory Board, Center for Modern and Contemporary Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (2001 - 2004)
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Juror, Cal State Undergraduate Research Competition, University of California, Los Angeles (2001 - 2002)
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Editorial board member, Modern Fiction Studies (2012 - Present)
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Editorial Assistant, MLN (Modern Language Notes) Comparative Literature (1993 - 1996)
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Editorial Assistant, The New York Review of Books (1990 - 1991)
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Editorial Assistant, The New York Times Magazine (1989 - 1990)
Program Affiliations
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Modern Thought and Literature
Professional Education
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Ph.D., The Johns Hopkins University, Comparative Literature (1998)
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A.B., Harvard University, Literature (1989)
2024-25 Courses
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Independent Studies (6)
- Graduate Independent Study
MTL 398 (Win, Spr) - Independent Study
ENGLISH 394 (Win, Spr) - Individual Work
ENGLISH 198 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Reading for Orals
MTL 399 (Win, Spr) - Research Course
ENGLISH 398 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Revision and Development of a Paper
ENGLISH 398R (Aut, Win, Spr)
- Graduate Independent Study
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Prior Year Courses
2023-24 Courses
- Introduction to English III: Modern Literature
ENGLISH 12C (Spr) - Media Theory for Literary Studies
ENGLISH 366F (Spr) - Wastelands
ENGLISH 15N (Win)
2022-23 Courses
- Introduction to English III: Modern Literature
ENGLISH 12C (Spr) - Thinking Through Genre
ENGLISH 346 (Spr)
2021-22 Courses
- Introduction to English III: Modern Literature
ENGLISH 12C (Win) - Media Theory for Literary Studies
ENGLISH 366F (Win) - US Fiction 1945 to 2000
ENGLISH 145G (Spr) - Wastelands
ENGLISH 151H (Spr)
- Introduction to English III: Modern Literature
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Co-Advisor (AC)
Ben Libman -
Undergraduate Major Advisor
Nathan Phuong -
Doctoral (Program)
Caroline Bailey, Emma Brush, Ido Keren
All Publications
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The CounterText Interview: Mark McGurl
COUNTERTEXT-A JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE POST-LITERARY
2022; 8 (3): 358-367
View details for DOI 10.3366/count.2022.0279
View details for Web of Science ID 000939489400003
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Unspeakable Conventionality: The Perversity of the Kindle
AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY
2021; 33 (2): 394-415
View details for DOI 10.1093/alh/ajab004
View details for Web of Science ID 000743295400008
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Gigantic Realism: The Rise of the Novel and the Comedy of Scale
CRITICAL INQUIRY
2017; 43 (2): 403-430
View details for Web of Science ID 000391075000008
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Making It Big: Picturing the Radio Age in King Kong
SCALE IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
2017: 105–41
View details for DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64242-0_5
View details for Web of Science ID 000433456400005
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Everything and Less: Fiction in the Age of Amazon
MODERN LANGUAGE QUARTERLY
2016; 77 (3): 447-471
View details for DOI 10.1215/00267929-3570689
View details for Web of Science ID 000382835900008
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The Institution of Nothing: David Foster Wallace in the Program
BOUNDARY 2-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE
2014; 41 (3): 27-54
View details for DOI 10.1215/01903659-2812061
View details for Web of Science ID 000344715700002
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"Neither Indeed Could I Forebear Smiling at My Self": A Reply to Wai Chee Dimock
CRITICAL INQUIRY
2013; 39 (3): 632-638
View details for DOI 10.1086/670049
View details for Web of Science ID 000317114500010
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The Posthuman Comedy
CRITICAL INQUIRY
2012; 38 (3): 533-553
View details for DOI 10.1086/664550
View details for Web of Science ID 000302117800004
- Dark Times: On the 21st Century Gothic Los Angeles Review of Books 2012
- The New Cultural Geology Twentieth Century Literature 2012: 380-390
- Timing The Critical Pulse: 36 Credos by Contemporary Critics edited by Williams, J. Columbia UP. 2012: 252–257
- The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing Harvard. 2011
- The Novel, Mass Culture, Mass Media The Cambridge History of the American Novel edited by Cassuto, L., Eby, C. 2011
- The MFA Octopus: Four Question about Creative Writing Los Angeles Review of Books 2011
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Ordinary Doom: Literary Studies in the Waste Land of the Present
NEW LITERARY HISTORY
2010; 41 (2): 329-349
View details for Web of Science ID 000284017500006
- The Zombie Renaissance n+1 2010
- The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing Harvard. 2009
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Understanding Iowa: Flannery O'Connor, B.A., M.F.A.
AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY
2007; 19 (2): 527-545
View details for DOI 10.1093/alh/ajm014
View details for Web of Science ID 000246458600018
- Learning from Little Tree, or, The Political Education of the Counterculture Yale Journal of Criticism 2006
- Scorned Literature: Essays on the History and Criticism of Popular Mass-Produced Fiction in America Paradoxa: Studies in WorlLiterary Genres 2006
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The program era: Pluralisms of postwar American fiction
CRITICAL INQUIRY
2005; 32 (1): 102-129
View details for Web of Science ID 000235514700006
- The Novel Art: Elevations of American Fiction after Henry James Princeton. 2001
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Social geometries: Taking place in Henry James
REPRESENTATIONS
1999: 59-83
View details for Web of Science ID 000083729700003
- Excluded Middle: Janice Radway’s A Feeling for Books 1997
- Framing Truth: Reply to Nick Sharp Critical Inquiry 1997
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Making "literature" of it: Hammett and high culture
AMERICAN LITERARY HISTORY
1997; 9 (4): 702-717
View details for Web of Science ID 000070698100003
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MAKING IT BIG, PICTURING THE RADIO AGE IN 'KING KONG'
CRITICAL INQUIRY
1996; 22 (3): 415-445
View details for Web of Science ID A1996UF35400002