What I do

Professor of English and Literary Arts

Specialization(s)

American literature, literary biography, Philosophy, ethical theory.

Degree(s)

  • BA, English, Rice University
  • Ph.D., English and American Literature, SUNY-Buffalo

Professional Affiliations

  • Hawthorne Society
  • Modern Language Association

Research

My current project is a critical memoir focusing on grief and life of the object as related to the work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Areas of Research

American literature
literary biography
Herman Melville
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Transcendentalism
pre-Civil War American literary history.

Featured Publications

Davis, Clark. God's Scrivener: The Madness And Meaning Of Jones Very. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2023.
Davis, Clark. It Starts With Trouble: William Goyen And The Life Of Writing. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. 2015.
Davis, Clark. Hawthorne's Shyness: Ethics, Politics, And The Question Of Engagement. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2005.
Davis, Clark. After The Whale: Melville In The Wake Of Moby-Dick. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. 1995.

Presentations

Davis, Clark. “"Jones Very's Sonnet Manuscripts: Prayer And The Embodiment Of Form"” Sonnets From The American Symposium, online, Johns Hopkins University, 2020.

Awards

  • Elizabeth Agee Prize in American Literature, University of Alabama Press