Richard Swope, Ph.D.

Academic Degree:

Ph.D., West Virginia University (2001)

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Areas of Expertise:

20th Century U.S. Literature, Postmodernist Fiction, Theory & Criticism, Waste Studies, Detective Fiction, Film Noir, Literary Paris

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About: 

Rick Swope holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees specializing in Postmodernist U.S. literature from West Virginia University. Since the Fall of 2001, he has been a member of the Department of English at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras where he offers courses in 20^th Century Literature, Theory and Criticism, Crime Fiction and Film, and Postmodernism. He has also offered a travel course on American Writers in Paris. His research projects have combined his interests in urban space, experimental literature, waste theory, detective fiction, film noir, punk rock, and expatriate writers in Paris. He has published and presented articles on the works of Paul Auster, Kathy Acker, Ishmael Reed, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, and Allen Ginsberg. His scholarship has appeared in Contemporary Literary Criticism as well as such journals as African American Review, Science Fiction Studies, and Critique. He is currently the Director of the Department of English.

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Undergraduate Courses:

• ENGL 3251 American Literature to 1865
• ENGL 3252 American Literature from 1865-Present
• ENGL 4056 Special Topics in American Literature
• ENGL 4215 Twentieth Century Fiction from 1940
• ENGL 4225 American Myths and Values in Literary Genres and Films
• ENGL 4230 Twentieth Century Fiction to 1940
• ENGL 5035 American Writers in Paris (Travel Course)

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Graduate Courses:

• ENGL 6029 Special Topics in Literature: Detecting Texts: Crime Fiction from Poe to Neo-Noir
• ENGL 6127 Twentieth-Century U.S. Literature
• ENGL 6415 Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism