Michael Drout
Chair, Prentice Associate Professor of English
Office: Meneely 317
Phone: 508-286-3607
Fax: 508-285-8263
Email: mdrout@wheatoncollege.edu
Personal web page
Degrees
Ph.D., Loyola University
M.A., Stanford University (Communication), University of Missouri-Columbia
B.A., Carnegie Mellon University
Main Interests
Anglo-Saxon, Medieval Literature, Evolutionary Epistemology, Fantasy and Science Fiction, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin
Research Interests
Anglo-Saxon Literature, particularly the tenth-century Benedictine Reform.
Traditions, their creation and reproduction.
Darwinian theories of culture.
"Memetics."
J.R.R. Tolkien, his medieval sources, scholarship and literary influence.
Anglo-Saxon medicine.
Teaching Interests
Anglo-Saxon, Medieval Literature, Chaucer, Beowulf, Early Drama, Science Fiction, Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin.
Other Interests
Birding, fishing, ice hockey.
Student Projects
J.R.R. Tolkien Research Group. Current members include Stefanie Olsen and Laura Kalafarski (research partners), Peggy Shannon-Baker, Matt Wantman, Robin Doss, Rachel Beebe. Projects include the ongoing J.R.R. Tolkien Bibliography Project, the journal Tolkien Studies, the Tolkien Text-Encoding Initiative.
The Anglo-Saxon Medicine Project. (With Prof. Barbara Brennessel and Prof. Betsey Dyer, Biology and many students). We are attempting to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon medical recipes from the "Leechbook" and "Lacnunga" and test whether or not they would be efficatious in treating the various ailments they are supposed to cure. We are beginning with the recipe for a eye-salve to heal styes, which we will test on cultured bacteria to determine whether or not it would be an effective remedy.
Article Co-authored with Laura B. Comoletti, Wheaton class of 1999 recently accepted by Children's Literature: "How They Do Things With Words: Language, Power, Gender and the Priestly Wizards of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Books."
King Alfred. (Co-authored with David Dudek, Wheaton College class of 2001 with help from Rachel Kapelle, Wheaton College class of 2001). Created web-based, teacher controlled translation learning assistant for Old English. Program is accessible at http://acunix.wheatonma.edu/mdrout (password and id are "demo"). King Alfred allows students to receive immediate customized individual feedback on their translation efforts. The program contains a complete hypertextual grammar. Sentences to be translated are teacher-controlled.
Selected Publications, Creative Work or Performances
Books:
J. R. R. Tolkien≠s Beowulf and the Critics, ed. Michael D.C. Drout. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 248 (Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies: Tempe, AZ, 2002). Winner of the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies, 2003.
How Tradition Works: A Descriptive Cultural Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century [forthcoming 2004, Arizona Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.]
The J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment, ed. Michael D.C. Drout [forthcoming 2006, Routledge]. A complete encyclopedia in one volume, approx. 815 pages (500,000 words)
Textbook: King Alfred's Grammar. Introductory textbook for Old English. Companion to King Alfred electronic learning assistant. Text in use at University of Leiden, the Netherlands; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Wheaton College. On-line version available via my home page.
Articles:
"Hoisting the Arm of Defiance: Beowulfian Elements in Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion," Western American Literature 28.2 (1993), 131-41.
"Piers' Good Will: Langland's Politics of Reform and Inheritance in the C-Text." Ed. Thomas Hall. Essays in Medieval Studies. Vol. 13. Chicago: Illinois Medieval Association, 1996.
"Reading the Signs of Light: Anglo-Saxonism, Education and Obedience in Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising," The Lion and the Unicorn 21 (1997), 230-50.
"The Fortunes of Men 4a: Reasons for Adopting a Very Old Emendation," Modern Philology 96.2 (1998), 184-87.
"How They Do Things With Words: Language, Power, Gender and the Priestly Wizards of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Books." Children's Literature 21 (2001), 113-41; with Laura B. Comoletti.
"Anglo-Saxon Wills and the Tradition of Inheritance in the English Benedictine Reform." Revista de la Sociedad Española de Lengua y Literatura Inglesa Medieval (SELIM) 13 (2003), 1-41.
≥Tolkien≠s Prose Style and its Literary Effects,≈ Tolkien Studies 1 (2003), 139-63.
[accepted 6/10/02; forthcoming] "Re-Dating the Old English Translation of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang: The Evidence of Prose Style." Journal of English and Germanic Philology.
[accepted 1/14/03; forthcoming] ≥Misconception: In the Middle Ages, Everyone was an Orthodox, Educated Roman Catholic,≈ in Stephen J. Harris and Bryon L. Grigsby, eds. Misconceptions About the Middle Ages. London: Routledge, 2004. http://orb.rhodes.edu/non_spec/missteps/Miscon.html.
[forthcoming, May 2004] ≥A Mythology for Anglo-Saxon England≈ in Jane Chance, ed. J.R.R. Tolkien and the Invention of Myth. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2004, 335-62.
[forthcoming] ≥How the Monsters Became Important: From ŒThe Monsters and the Critics≠ to Today≈ in Vittoria Corazza and Renato Gendre, eds. Fabelwesen, mostri e portenti nell≠immaginario occidentale. Allessandria: Editrice dell≠Orso, 2004.