Karnicky, Jeffrey

PERSONAL:

Education: Rutgers University, B.A; Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Drake University, Department of English, 316 Howard Hall, Des Moines, IA 50311. E-mail—jeff.karnicky@drake.edu.

CAREER:

Educator and writer. Millersville University, Millersville, PA, assistant professor in the English department; Drake University, Des Moines, IA, visiting assistant professor of English.

WRITINGS:

Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities," edited by M. Fogiel, illustrations by Michael A. Kupka, Research & Education Association (Piscataway, NJ), 1994.

Contemporary Fiction and the Ethics of Modern Culture, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including articles on Don DeLillo, Irvine Welsh, and on the interactions between humans and birds.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffrey Karnicky is an English professor whose primary interests are literary theory, contemporary American literature, and contemporary Scottish literature. He has written articles about the noted American author Don DeLillo, a central figure in literary postmodernism and recipient of the National Book Award and the Pen/Faulkner Award, and Irvine Welsh, a Scottish novelist best known in the United States for his novel Trainspotting, which was made into a film of the same name. Karnicky has also written about the interaction between humans and birds based on his interest in the relationship between literary theory and ecological awareness. He wrote the accompanying text for the student guide titled Charles Dickens' "A Tale of Two Cities." His text includes explanations of plot and a chapter-by-chapter analysis. He also provides a biography of Dickens and discusses the work's historical context. In Contemporary Fiction and the Ethics of Modern Culture, the author examines the ethical relevance of contemporary fiction at the beginning of the twenty-first century with a focus on writers such as David Foster Wallace, Susan Daitch, David Markson, Richard Powers, and Irvine Welsh. The author also examines influential schools of literary thought over the three decades leading up to the twenty-first century and addresses the act of reading as a mode of transformation.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

ONLINE

Drake University, English Department Web site,http://www.drake.edu/artsci/english/ (January 31, 2008), faculty profile of author.