Thom Dancer

Thom Dancer (he/him) specializes in 21st century fiction, critical methodology, pragmatism & literature, and science fiction & fantasy (broadly construed) as well as novel theory, aesthetic philosophy/theory, and Anthropocene theory. He has side interests in the Russian novel (in translation), the 19th century novel, and ethical philosophy. 

His monograph, Critical Modesty in Contemporary Fiction, was published by Oxford UP in 2022.  He has written essays on fiction, the novel, and criticism for NOVEL, Critique: studies in contemporary fiction, Modern Fiction Studies, Textual Practice, and others. He is current working on a project about fictionality, relatability, and aesthetics.

Publications

Critical Modesty in Contemporary Fiction (Oxford, 2022)

Forthcoming: “Learning to Face the Anthropocene with William James” (William James and Literary Studies 2024/5).

“Whimsical Criticism” (Textual Practice 2024)

“Criticism” (Routledge Guide to Politics and Literature, 2023)

“Being Kathy H: Relatability in Never Let Me Go” (MFS, 2021)

“The Novel at the Limit” w/ Chris Holmes (Critique, 2021)

“Limited Modernism” (Cambridge Companion to Ian McEwan, 2019)

“Towards a Modest Criticism: Ian McEwan’s Saturday” (NOVEL 2012)

“Between Belief and Knowledge: J.M. Coetzee and the Present of Reading” (minnesota review, 2012).