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William J. Palmer

Professor, Department of English
Director of Graduate Studies Office: Heavilon 313
Office Phone: (765) 494-3729
Office Fax: (765) 494-3780
Email: wjpalmer@purdue.edu

Specialization: British Literature, The Victorian Novel, Film Studies, 20th-Century British Fiction, New Historicism, Sports and Literature, Vietnam War Literature, Modern Irish Literature, and Postmodernism


Dr. Palmer, who has been teaching in the department since 1969, is the author of numerous books, both academic and creative. His scholarly books include The Fiction of John Fowles (1975), The Films of the Seventies: A Social History (1987), The Films of the Eighties: A Social History (1994), and Dickens and New Historicism (1998). He is also the author of four popular literary works: The Detective and Mr. Dickens (1990), The Highwayman and Mr. Dickens (1992), The Hoydens and Mr. Dickens (1997), and The Dons and Mr. Dickens (2001). Dr. Palmer has published more than 20 journal articles on the novel genre, Victorian and Modern Literature, and Film Studies in scholarly journals such as PMLA, Studies in the Novel, Mosaic, Modern Fiction Studies, Dickens Studies Annual, and Contemporary Literature. Specialties include the Victorian novel, twentieth-century literature. and film studies. Interests include New Historicism, sports and literature, feminist theory, and postmodernism. Dr. Palmer offers graduate courses on both nineteenth- and twentieth-century British topics. He has recently (2005) become director of the department's film studies program.