Suzanne Taylor

Suzanne Taylor's research focuses on literature and philosophy of the long eighteenth-century. Her current book project, In and Out of Character: Free Will, Fiction, and Form, studies writers who used literary and philosophical fictions to explain the idea of acting out of character. Taylor argues that exploring imaginary cases of good people performing bad actions (and vice versa) led these authors to develop new theories of identity, agency, and moral accountability as well as new forms of characterization. Taylor’s teaching interests include Enlightenment and Romantic literature and philosophy, the history and theory of genre (especially the novel), critical theory, and women’s writing. Before joining Hamilton, Taylor taught a wide range of courses at the University of King’s College and the University of Chicago. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago and she has received awards from the Whiting Foundation and Chawton House Library.

Recent Courses Taught

Literature: What is it Good For?
Evil in the Age of Enlightenment
Women and the War of Ideas
The Study of the Novel

Select Publications

• "So Close a Connection: Painful Associations in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa" English Literary History 84.1 (2017): 91-115.  

Appointed to the Faculty

2017

Educational Background

Ph.D., University of Chicago
M.A., University of Alberta
B.A., McGill University
 

Dissertation

In and Out of Character: Moral Action in the Eighteenth Century