Michael A. Seidel
Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature

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Michael A. Seidel

Biography

B.A., UCLA (1966); M.A., UCLA (1967); Ph.D., UCLA (1970). Professor Seidel came to Columbia in 1977, after having taught at Yale for seven years. He serves as Chair of Literature Humanites. He has served as Department Chair, as Vice Chair, and as M.A. Director. He is an advisory editor of?James Joyce Studies?and a member of the National Humanities Board of the?World Book Encyclopedia. He has received a NEH and served as director of NEH summer seminars for college teachers (1987, 1992). He specializes in 18th-century literature, in narrative theory, in satire, and in James Joyce. His first book was?Epic Geography: James Joyce's Ulysses?(1976). He has edited?Homer to Brecht: The European Epic and Dramatic Traditions, with Edward Mendelson. He has published a book on narrative satire,?Satiric Inheritance: Rabelais to Sterne?(1979); on the novel,?Exile and the Narrative Imagination?(1986); on?Robinson Crusoe: Island Myths and the Novel?(1991); two baseball books,?Streak: Joe DiMaggio and the Summer of '41?and?Ted Williams: A Baseball Life; and?James Joyce: A Short Introduction?(2002). He is associate editor of?Columbia History of the British Novel, associate editor of?Columbia World of Quotations, and associate editor of?The Works of Daniel Defoe. He is currently Chair of Literature Humanities.