Barbara Schapiro
Academic Background
B.A. University of Michigan;
M.A., Ph.D. Tufts University
I have been at RIC since 1987, having taught previously at Harvard and Boston University. For twenty years (1998-2018) I served as director of the MA and MAT programs in English.
My field of expertise is psychoanalysis and literature, though I also specialize in 19th and 20th century British literature. Book publications include
D. H. Lawrence and the Paradoxes of Psychic Life (SUNY Press, 1999),
Literature and the Relational Self (NYU Press, 1994), and
The Romantic Mother: Narcissistic Patterns in Romantic Poetry (Johns Hopkins U Press, 1984). I am also co-editor of
Narcissism and the Text: Studies in Literature and the Psychology of Self (NYU Press, 1986), and I have authored numerous articles in such journals as
American Imago, Mosaic, Pedagogy, Contemporary Literature, and
Nineteenth Century Studies. I serve on the editorial boards of
American Imago and The D. H. Lawrence Review. In 1999-2000 I received Rhode Island College's Mary Tucker Thorp Award for distinguished scholarly and creative achievement.
For over twenty years I have taught in the college honors program and served on the College Honors Admissions and Scholarships Committee. My teaching interests include women's literature, modern British fiction, trauma theory and literature, and contemporary American short stories.
For fun, I'm very active in community theater and serve on the board of The Gazebo Players, an organization that performs Shakespeare in the Park every summer in various Massachusetts communities. Favorite acting roles include Prospera in
The Tempest, Malvolio in
Twelfth Night, Brutus in an all-female
Julius Caesar, Mrs. Bennet in
Pride and Prejudice, and Madame Arcati in
Blithe Spirit.
Courses Taught
ENGL 120 Gender Identity, Love and Power in Literature
ENGL 201 Introduction To Literary Study
ENGL 265 Women’s Stories Across Cultures
ENGL 323 The British Novel and the Modernist Revolution
ENGL 324 Literature By Women
ENGL 460 Seminar In Major Authors & Themes
ENGL 532 Topics Brit Lit Since 1900
ENGL 541 Topics Amer Lit Since 1900
Publications
Books
D. H. Lawrence and the Paradoxes of Psychic Life. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Literature and the Relational Self. New York: New York University Press, 1994.
Narcissism and the Text: Studies in Literature and the Psychology of Self. Co-Editor with Lynne Layton. New York: New York University Press, 1986.
The Romantic Mother: Narcissistic Patterns in Romantic Poetry. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
Selected Articles
“Love’s Shadow: The Unconscious Underside of Romance in Hardy’s
The Woodlanders.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 47.2 (June 2014): 153-167.
“Negotiating a Third Space in the Classroom.”
Pedagogy. 9.3 (Fall 2009): 423-439.
"A Modern Psychoanalytic Approach to
Sons and Lovers." D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lover's: A Casebook. Ed. John Worthen and Andrew Harrison. New York: Oxford UP, 2005. 91-138.
“Trauma and Sadomasochistic Narrative: Mary Gaitskill’s ‘The Dentist.’”
Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 38.2 (June 2005): 37-52.
“Psychoanalysis and the Problem of Evil: Debating
Othello in the Classroom.”
American Imago 60.4 (Winter 2003): 481-499.
“Who’s Afraid of Being Kicked Off the Island? The Psychological Appeal of
Survivor.” Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society 7.2 (Fall 2002): 274-279. Revised and updated version reprinted in
The Psychology of Survivor. Ed. Richard J. Gerrig. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2007. 3- 14.
Awards and Affiliations
1999-2000 Mary Tucker Thorp Professor
