William Miller

William Miller

Assistant Professor

PhD, Johns Hopkins

Office Location
410 Morey Hall
Web Address

Research Overview

William Miller specializes in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature and its links to history, philosophy, and religion. His current book project, Counter-Enthusiasms: The Rationalization of False Prophecy in the Early English Enlightenment, argues that unlicensed popular prophesying in the mid-seventeenth century necessitated a thorough revision of the link between revelation and political legitimacy resulting in new notions of language and rationality. His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including New Literary History, Renaissance Drama, and Studies in Philology.

Research Interests

  • 17th century literature
  • 18th century literature
  • literature and religion
  • literature and philosophy

Selected Publication Covers


Selected Publications

Books

  • The Enthusiast: Anatomy of the Fanatic in Seventeenth-Century British Culture (Cornell University Press, July 15, 2023)

Other Publications

  • "Innocence after Experience: Herrick's "Oberon's Palace" as Counter-Epithalamion," Studies in Philology 117, no. 1 (2020): 129-150.
  • "Theodora Wilkin’s Wandering Soul," Church History and Religious Culture 101 (2-3), 357-375.
  • "Enlivened Generalities: Truism in Mill and Dewey," New Literary History 47.4 (Winter 2016)
  • "Macabre Vitality: Texture and Resonance in The Duchess of Malfi," Renaissance Drama 43.2 (Summer 2015)
  • "Robert Herrick's Counter-Epithalamia," Studies in Philology (forthcoming)

Teaching

  • Great Books: Welcome to a Strange New Place; Milton; The Bible in English; What Is Tragedy?