ALUMNI NEWS
English Man —Literary historian Phil Gould ’79 is twisting the perspective on early-American studies “What I do is academic and is written for the tribe, but academics is tribal,” observes Phil Gould ’79. Reached by phone from his home in Providence, RI, where he lives with his wife, Athena Poppas, a physician, and their three children—Nick, 18, Sophia, 14, and Alex, 11, the Brown University English professor and early-Americanist is finishing his fifth book. It’s a literary history of the American Revolution, but one that’s viewed from the Loyalist side. “I call it my ‘book of the losers,’” he quips.
Phil Gould ’79 with his wife, Athena Poppas, and two of their children, Nick, 18, and Sophia, 14, during a recent vacation to St. John.
Literary and cultural studies of the Revolution, especially those written over the last two decades, have focused primarily on Patriot writers and figures, like Jefferson and Adams. “I’m trying to twist the perspective and ask ‘What does the Revolution look like, and what does literature look like, if you were—as probably a third of Americans were at the time—loyal to the King and wanted to stay in the British Empire?’” says Gould. Such an approach represents a new model in early American literature, one in which the focus has shifted from the Colonies, and how they became a nation, to literature that’s written by people who see themselves as English, but are living somewhere else. “It’s really fascinating to see a Colonial perspective with these writers,” he says. “They’re aware of themselves as being in Annapolis or in Baltimore, Maryland, but they’re also very aware of being firmly within this thing called the British Empire, and of being ‘civilized’ because of it.” This new perspective demonstrates the surprising dynamism of 18th and 19th century literary criticism. “When I started, Colonial American studies meant studying the New England Puritans and Ben Franklin and maybe John Smith,” says Gould. “It’s amazing what’s happened in just 20 years. Some of the best poetry written in America [during that era] wasn’t even published.
Instead, it was circulated in manuscripts among social groups that would write and read for each other.” Technology, and the ability to access primary texts online, has also dramatically shaped the field. “Thirty years ago, you’d have to apply for a research grant or a fellowship and then travel to various archives,” says Gould. “Now a college freshman can go to the university website, hit a couple of links, and be reading 17th century material.” Gould entered the field of early American literature at a fortuitous time, when historical methods and historicists’ criticism of literary studies was gaining popularity. “I got lucky in some ways by being a historian who went into literary studies,” he says. Still, his decision to pursue a life in academia did not come naturally. “Going into an academic training ground was kind of brutal at first,” he admits. “It’s something I struggled with.” A graduate of Brown University, where he received a degree in history, Gould taught at Moses Brown, a pre-K–12 Quaker school in Rhode Island, before moving to Madison, WI to enroll in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin. He credits the university and “a couple mentors who hung with me,” including noted Colonial New England and Puritan studies’ scholar Sargent Bush, Jr., with pulling him into the profession; and he’s grateful to his Friends School teachers for laying the groundwork. “I don’t think the trajectory of my professional life would have happened the way it did without its foundations at Friends School, and I mean that genuinely,” he shares.
I don’t think the trajectory of my professional life would have happened the way it did without its foundations at Friends, and I mean that genuinely. Asked if he has advice for Friends graduates who are considering careers in academia, Gould is circumspect. “You have to be prepared to take rejection and be able to move on,” he offers. Recalling a challenging time at the outset of his teaching career, when the pressure to “publish or perish” was intense, Gould says he wrote several essays, each of which had been rejected by notable journals “five, six, seven, eight times—sometimes in the same journal” before they were eventually published. “Just realize that you will fail a lot in life,” he says. “If you keep at it, you’ll be okay.” n
Collection Magazine
Friends School of Baltimore
Spring 2011
9