{"id":178,"date":"2009-06-26T12:19:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T16:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/?page_id=178"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:02:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:02:48","slug":"keen-paul","status":"publish","type":"cu_people","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/people\/keen-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Keen"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n                    \n             \n                \n            <\/h1>\n\n    \n    <\/header>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"research-interests\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Research Interests<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Romantic and eighteenth-century print culture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Literature and politics in the Romantic period<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pre-Confederation Canadian Print Culture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Current debates about the role and value of the humanities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Radical humanism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"current-research\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Current Research<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>My current project, <em>The Joke of Literature: A History of the Essay in English<\/em>, tracks the history of that most elusive of genres, \u201cthe essay,\u201d over the three centuries since its meteoric rise in popularity after the appearance of The Spectator in 1711. G. K. Chesterton\u2019s description of the essay as \u201cthe joke\u201d of literature typified the genre\u2019s uncertain history, always on the margins of those more ambitious forms of writing that could be embraced as \u201cliterary.\u201d But this apparent limitation may help to explain both the essay\u2019s enduring popularity across different historical periods and the renewed critical interest in the genre\u2019s unruly status as \u201can experiment\u201d or \u201ca try-on,\u201d as Montaigne called it, whose provisional nature unsettled the possibility of categorical certainties. Flaunting essays\u2019 association with fragmentary and discontinuous writing that traded in the quotidian and the ephemeral, essay writers revelled in its democratic ethos, contrasting the immediacy of their everyday focus with the obscurity of more ponderous works that remained largely irrelevant to most readers. The project is grounded in my focus on the kinds of cultural work that authors\u2019 alignment of their work with these apparently trivial characteristics could be seen to be doing in a succession of very different eras. This long historical context is a crucial part of this story because it highlights the multiple ways that authors adapted this association with miscellaneous forms of knowledge to the changing preoccupations and pressures of their era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"901\" height=\"1360\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2009\/06\/A-Defence-of-the-Humanities-in-a-Utilitarian-Age-Keen.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-27585\" style=\"width:173px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2009\/06\/A-Defence-of-the-Humanities-in-a-Utilitarian-Age-Keen.jpg 901w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2009\/06\/A-Defence-of-the-Humanities-in-a-Utilitarian-Age-Keen-512x773.jpg 512w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2009\/06\/A-Defence-of-the-Humanities-in-a-Utilitarian-Age-Keen-320x483.jpg 320w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2009\/06\/A-Defence-of-the-Humanities-in-a-Utilitarian-Age-Keen-768x1159.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>My most recent book, <em>Imagining What We Know: A Defense of the Humanities in a Utilitarian Age<\/em>, explores the ways that critics writing in the early nineteenth century developed arguments in favour of the humanities in the face of utilitarian pressures that dismissed the arts as self-indulgent pursuits incapable of addressing real-world problems. Its focus reflects the ways that similar pressures today have foregrounded all over again the question of how to make the case for the value of the humanities. Evidence of these problems surrounds us, but the core of my argument is that these pressures also constitute an important opportunity: a chance to re-imagine our answers to questions about the nature and role of the humanities, their potential benefits to contemporary life, and how we might channel these benefits back into the larger society. The good news is that in many ways, this self-reflexive challenge is precisely what the humanities have always done best: highlight the nature and the force of the narratives that have helped to define how we understand our society \u2013 its various pasts and its possible futures \u2013 and to suggest the larger contexts within which these issues must ultimately be situated. History repeats itself, but never in quite the same way: knowing more about past debates will provide a crucial basis for moving forward as universities, and the humanities in particular, position themselves to respond to new challenges during an age of radical change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"awards-and-honours\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Awards and Honours<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SSHRC Insight Grant ($102,684): The Joke of Literature: A History of the Essay in English, 1700-1940 (2023-28)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>FASS Research Achievement Award (2021)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Connections Grant ($7,500): Working Knowledge: Thinking Through Culture, 1780-1830 (2019)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Insight Grant ($109,464), with Cynthia Sugars (PI): Imprinting Authority: Literature, Community, and Settler Legitimation in Pre-Confederation English (2017-22)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Davidson Dunton Research Lectureship (2013)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>University Research Achievement Award (2011)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>University Teaching Achievement Award (2003)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>University Research Achievement Award (2001)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Insight Development Grant, co-applicant with Cynthia Sugars: The Idea of the Author in Pre-Confederation Canada (2014-16)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Insight Grant: Imagining What We Know: A Defence of the Humanities in a Utilitarian Age (2013-18)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Standard Research Grant ($32,425): World of Wonders: An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Print Culture (2010-13)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Standard Research Grant: Fashionable Subjects: Literature, Commerce and the Spectacle of Modernity, 1750-1800 (2006-09)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Standard Research Grant: Reading for Profit: Literature, Commerce and Fashion, 1750-1800 (2002-05)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>SSHRC Conference Grant: \u201cWicked and Seditious Writings\u201d: The Politics of Print Culture, 1750-1850 (2004)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"books\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Books<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Humanities in a Utilitarian Age: Imagining What We Know, 1800-1850<\/em>. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Mary Wollstonecraft in Context<\/em>. Co-edited with Nancy E. Johnson. Cambridge University Press, 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Interacting with Print: Keywords for the Era of Media Saturation<\/em>. One of 24 equal authors. Chicago University Press, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Age of Authors: An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Print Culture<\/em>. Broadview Press, 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Literature, Commerce, and the Spectacle of Modernity, 1750-1800<\/em>. Cambridge University Press, 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bookish Histories: Books, Literature and Commercial Modernity, 1700-1900<\/em>. Co-edited with Ina Ferris. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Revolutions in Romantic Literature: An Anthology of Print Culture, 1780-1832<\/em>. Broadview Press, 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Radical Popular Press in Britain, 1817-1821. Editor. 6 Volumes<\/em>. Pickering &amp; Chatto, 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The Crisis of Literature in the 1790s: Print Culture and the Public Sphere<\/em>. Cambridge University Press, 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"recent-articles\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Articles<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeriodical Writing and Colonial Citizenship in Pre-Confederation English Canada.\u201d Co-written with Cynthia Sugars. <em>Edinburgh Companion to British Colonial Periodicals<\/em>. Edinburgh University Press. Forthcoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConservatism,\u201d <em>Mary Wollstonecraft in Context<\/em>. Ed. Nancy E. Johnson and Paul Keen. Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 102-08.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIntroduction.\u201d Co-written with Nancy E. Johnson. <em>Mary Wollstonecraft in Context<\/em>. Ed. Nancy E. Johnson. Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xxi-xxvii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBook-Making,\u201d <em>The Oxford Handbook of British Romanticism<\/em>. Ed. David Duff. Oxford University Press, 2019. Pp. 437-48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTowards a Radical Humanism,\u201d special issue of the <em>Praxis<\/em> series in <em>Romantic Circles<\/em> on \u201cRaymond Williams and Romanticism,\u201d ed. Jonathan Sachs and Jon Klancher (2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFashionable Subjects: Curious Exhibits and the Limits of Sociability,\u201d <em>The Sites of Romantic Sociability<\/em>. Ed. Kevin Gilmartin. Cambridge UP, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRadical Atlantic: Joseph Howe and the Culture of Reform,\u201d <em>Journal of Canadian Studies<\/em>. Volume 48.3 (2014): 1-18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cImagining What We Know: The Humanities in a Utilitarian Age,\u201d <em>Humanities 3<\/em> (2014): 73-87. Special Issue: \u201cThe Challenges of the Humanities, Past, Present, and Future,\u201d ed. Albrecht Classen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.18thcenturycommon.org\/c18ballooning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018The Good Things Above\u2019: The Commercial Modernity of Vincent Lunardi,<\/a>\u201d <em>The 18-Century Common<\/em> (2013)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cShelley on the Assembly Line: A Defence of the Humanities,\u201d <em>Keats-Shelley Review<\/em> 26.2 (2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018Uncommon Animals\u2019: Making Virtue of Necessity in the Age of Authors,\u201d <em>Bookish Histories: Books, Literature and Commercial Modernity, 1700-1900<\/em>. Ed. Paul Keen and Ina Ferris. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Pp. 41-60.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFoolish Knowledge: The Commercial Modernity of the Periodical Press.\u201d <em>European Romantic Review 19<\/em> (July 2008): 199-218.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe \u2018Balloonomania\u2019: Science and Spectacle in 1780s England.\u201d <em>Eighteenth-Century Studies<\/em> 39.4 (2006): 507-535.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"presentations\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Presentations<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Afterlives of the Near and Far: The Historicity of Trans-Atlantic Community in Pre-Confederation Periodical Writing,&#8221; ACSUS, Washington DC (November 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Ghost of a Chance: Literature Against the Law,\u201d Law, Culture, and the Humanities Conference, Toronto (June 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Dust of Accidents: Self-Irony and Envisioned Communities in the Periodical Essays,\u201d CSECS, Ottawa, ON (October 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaking America Gothic Again: Reading Tocqueville\u2019s Democracy in America after January 6th,\u201d International Gothic Association Conference, Dublin (July 2022)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cImagining What We Know\u201d: The Utility of the Humanities,\u201d New Directions in the Humanities Conference, Granada, Spain (July 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018When an University has been doing useless things for a long time, it appears at first degrading to them to be useful\u2019: Lessons from the London University Debate,\u201d \u201cWorking Knowledge: Thinking Through Culture, 1780-1830,\u201d Ottawa (June 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018The Philosopher in the Workshop\u2019: Rethinking the Literatures of Knowledge and Power,\u201d Symposium in Honour of Jerome McGann, Boston University (Spring 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018Shooting Niagara\u2019: The Humanities on the Edge\u201d: Plenary Speaker, Canadian Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference, Niagara Falls (October 2018)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJohn Stuart Mill\u2019s \u2018Transitional Age,\u2019\u201d NASSR, Ottawa (August 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018Glad Enlightenment\u2019\u201d: Leigh Hunt\u2019s Radical Humanism,\u201d BARS, York, UK (July 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJoseph Howe and the <em>Novascotian<\/em>: Reimagining Literary Authority in Pre-Confederation Canada,\u201d Co-presented with Cynthia Sugars, BARS, York, UK (July 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaking Nova Scotia Great Again: Revisiting Thomas McCulloch\u2019s <em>The Nature and Uses of a Liberal Education Illustrated<\/em>,\u201d Co-presented with Cynthia Sugars, Raddall Symposium:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThoughts from the Eastern Edge,\u201d Wolfville, NS (July 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCulture and Anarchy: Thomas Arnold\u2019s \u2018Great World of Knowledge,\u2019\u201d ACCUTE, Calgary (May 2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cReinventing the Humanities: Thomas Arnold\u2019s \u2018Great World of Knowledge,\u2019\u201d University of North Texas (April 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018All I Ever Learned About Uselessness I learned From the Late Eighteenth Century,\u201d Special panel on Useless Knowledge and the Eighteenth Century, MLA, Austin, Texas (January 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cConjuring Humanism: Southey, Macaulay, and the Invention of Tradition,\u201d BARS, Cardiff, UK (July 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018Who Do You Think Came to See Me?\u2019 Blackwood\u2019s Magazine and Early Canadian Satire,\u201d Co-presented with Cynthia Sugars, BARS, Cardiff, UK (July 2015)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOrganizing Excess: Romantic Evolution and the Bibliographic Sublime,\u201d North American Society for the Study of Romanticism, Washington, DC (July 2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c\u2018The Long Revolution: The Challenge of the Humanities Today,\u201d New Directions in the Humanities Conference, Madrid (June 2014)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keynote Speaker: \u201cRecycled Paper: The Afterlives of Literature,\u201d New Materialities Conference, Toronto (February 2010)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe \u2018Balloonomania\u2019: Science and Spectacle in 1780s England,\u201d the annual Ogden Glass Lecture, Bishop\u2019s University (January 2005)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 id=\"recent-graduate-courses\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Recent Graduate Courses<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Production of Literature: Doctoral core course (ENGL 6000)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Revolutions in Romantic Literature: Debates in Romantic Print Culture (ENGL 5408)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Culture and Anarchy: Victorian Prose Writers (ENGL 5508)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cultural Commerce: The Spectacle of Modernity in 18th-C Britain (ENGL 5402)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10491,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cu_people_first_name":"Paul","cu_people_last_name":"Keen","cu_people_initials":"PK","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_people_type":[22],"cu_people_expertise":[],"class_list":["post-178","cu_people","type-cu_people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_people_type-professors"],"acf":{"cu_people_job_title":"Professor","cu_people_degree":"B.A. Honours (Dalhousie), M.A. (St. Andrews, U.K.), (British Columbia), D.Phil. 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