Shaun Hughes

Ph.D., University of Washington, 1972

Specialization

British & Postcolonial Literature

Research Areas:
Old Norse/Icelandic and Early Modern Icelandic Literature and Culture, Old and Middle English Language and Literature, History of the English Language, Postcolonial Literature and World Literatures

Shaun F. D. Hughes received a M.A (Hons.) from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 1967 and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1972. He first taught at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, and joined the faculty of the English Department at Purdue in 1972. He has been Visiting Lecturer in Scandinavian, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University (1978) and Guest-Professor in the Englisches Seminar, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg im Breisgau, FRG (1998-99). Among the places his articles have appeared are Archivum Linguisticum, English Renaissance Prose, Forum (Ball State), JEGP, Library Resources and Technical Services, Lutheran Education, Mediæval Scandinavia, Modern Fiction Studies, Parergon, Scandinavian Studies and World Englishes. He has guest edited four special issues of Modern Fiction Studies, "Modern New Zealand / Australian Fiction" (1981), "V. S. Naipaul" (1984), "Postcolonial African Fiction" (1991) and “J. R. R. Tolkien” (2004). His most recent publications include: “Klári saga as an Indigenous Romance,” Romance and Love in Medieval Iceland: A Festschrift in Honor of Marianne Kalinke, ed. Johanna Denzin and Kirsten Wolf, Islandica 54 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2009); “Postcolonial Plagiarisms: Yambo Ouologuem，Calixthe Beyala，and Witi Ihimaera,” Forum for World Literature Studies 3.3 (2011); “Where are all the Eddic Champions Gone?’: The Disappearance and Recovery of the Eddic Heroes in Late Medieval Icelandic Literature, 1400-1800,” Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. 9 (2013); “Steinunn Finnsdóttir and Snækóngs rímur.” Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond: Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway, ed. Martin Chase (New York: Fordham University Press, 2014); “The Old Norse Exempla as Arbiters of Gender Roles in Medieval Iceland,” New Norse Studies: Essays on the Literature and Culture of Medieval Scandinavia, ed. Jeffrey Turco. Islandica 58 (Ithaca: Cornell University Library, 2015); “The Evolution of Monster Fights: From Beowulf versus Grendel to Jón Guðmundsson lærði versus the Snæfjalladraugur and beyond,” Telling Tales and Crafting Books, Essays in Honor of Thomas H. Ohlgren, ed. Alexander Kaufman, Shaun F. D. Hughes, and Dorsey Armstrong, Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures 24 (Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Press, 2016); “Halldór Jakobsson on Truth and Fiction in the Sagas (1789),” Gripla 27 (2016). In addition review articles on Kalinke, The Arthur of the North and Harty, Vikings on Film (Arthuriana, 2012); Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur (Arthuriana, 2013) and Wolf, Kirkjubæjarbók (JEGP 2014). He is affiliated with the Program in Comparative Literature, and the Graduate Program in Linguistics.