Biography:
Bill Knight works on the problems of aesthetics, ethics, and politics made visible by theories of the event, from historicist engagements with genre in the 18th century to projects on contemporary science fiction crisis narratives and queer-critical engagements with theories of democracy. He teaches courses on critical theory, enlightenment orientalism, contact narratives in science fiction, dystopian literature, the long British 18th century, the sublime, the gothic, and the Bible as literature.
On the PSU faculty since 2011.
Selected Publications:
- “Fielding’s Wild: Sovereign Spectacle and the Beastly Sublime.” The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, vol. 59, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 45-63.
- “David Simple and the Ethics of Genre.” Genre, vol. 50, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 267–95.
- “Boileau’s Longinus, Imitative Translation, and the Scriblerians: Neoclassicism as Event.” Colloquy: Text, Theory, Critique, vol. 32, Sept. 2016, pp. 65–91.
- “Of Transport and Transportation.” The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, vol. 57, no. 4, 2016 Winter 2016, pp. 433–49.
Presentations:
- “Ecological Futurity and the Ruins of the ‘Zone’.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Thirteenth Biennial Conference. Davis, CA, June 26th-30th, 2019.
- "Periodizing the Dystopian Turn: 1968, Science Fiction, and the 'Event' in the History of
Structure Genre.” 1968 in Global Perspectives: 20th Annual Comparative Literature Conference, University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC). February 15th-17th, 2018.
- “The Scriblerian Theory of the Event.” Western Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference. Riverside, CA. February 12-13, 2016.
- “Crusoe, Debt, and Education.” The Southeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference. Galveston, TX. February 27-March 1, 2014.
- “Of Transport and Transportation: Resistance to the Sublime Aesthetics of Atlantic Exile in the Early 18th Century.” Paper presentation at the American Comparative Literature Association conference, New Orleans, LA. April 2-4, 2010.
- Panel Chair. “The Ineffable and English Aesthetics Before Romanticism.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, Richmond, VA. March 26, 2009.
- “From Comic to Quotidian Sublimity: The Exceptional ‘Everyday’ in Fielding's Novels.” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, Richmond, VA. March 26, 2009.
- “Sublime Translation and Scriblerian Satire: Preserving the Moment of Encounter.” Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, Auburn University. Auburn, AL. February 15, 2008.
- “The Suspect Almost Confesses: the Role of Writer and Critic in Adorno and Lukàcs.” Born of Desertion: Singularity, Collectivity, Revolution, Marxist Reading Group Conference, Gainesville, FL. March 21, 2003.
- “Death and the Maids: the Form of Reform’s Limits in Millennium Hall.” Interdisciplinary Graduate Symposium, Davis, CA. April 13, 2002.
- “The Propagation Fetish: Robert Wallace's Peculiar Utopian Vision.” The Society for Utopian Studies annual conference, Buffalo, NY. October 6, 2001.
- “The Folly of 18th-century British Identity.” Terrains: Landscapes/Bodyscapes conference, Stony Brook, NY. March 7, 1998.