{"id":213,"date":"2017-11-01T14:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-01T18:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/grll\/?post_type=people&p=213"},"modified":"2025-08-29T10:31:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T14:31:32","slug":"william-egginton","status":"publish","type":"people","link":"https:\/\/krieger.jhu.edu\/modern-languages-literatures\/directory\/william-egginton\/","title":{"rendered":"William Egginton"},"featured_media":10189,"template":"","role":[10436],"filter":[10490],"class_list":["post-213","people","type-people","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","role-aa-faculty","filter-spanish-and-portuguese"],"acf":[],"post_meta_fields":{"_edit_last":["654"],"_edit_lock":["1756477767:654"],"ecpt_people_alpha":["Egginton"],"ecpt_position":["Department Chair, Director of Graduate Studies in Spanish & Portuguese, Head of Section, Decker Professor in the Humanities"],"ecpt_degrees":["PhD, Stanford University "],"ecpt_expertise":["Spanish and Latin American literatures, comparative European literature and thought"],"ecpt_email":["egginton@jhu.edu"],"ecpt_office":["Gilman 470"],"ecpt_website":["https:\/\/www.williamegginton.com\/"],"ecpt_bio":["
William Egginton is the Decker Professor in the Humanities, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, and former director and founder of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute<\/a> at Johns Hopkins University. A scholar of literature and philosophy whose work ranges from early modern Europe to contemporary Latin America, he is the author of twelve books, most recently Alejandro Jodorowsky: Filmmaker and Philosopher<\/em> (2024), which examines the philosophical, psychoanalytic, and surrealist dimensions of the work of Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky. His books, which explore such topics as psychoanalysis, the Baroque, and the philosophy of physics, include How the World Became a Stage<\/em> (2003), Perversity and Ethics<\/em> (2006), A Wrinkle in History<\/em> (2007), The Philosopher\u2019s Desire<\/em> (2007), The Theater of Truth<\/em> (2010), In Defense of Religious Moderation<\/em> (2011), The Man Who Invented Fiction<\/em>\u00a0(2016), The Splintering of the American Mind<\/em> (2018), and The Rigor of Angels<\/em> (2023), which was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times<\/em> and The New Yorker<\/em>. He is also the co-author, with David Castillo, of Medialogies: Reading Reality in the Age of Inflationary Media<\/em> (2017) and What Would Cervantes Do? Navigating Post-Truth with Spanish Baroque Literature<\/em> (2022).<\/p>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>"],"ecpt_publications":[" Egginton\u2019s contributions to early modern scholarship have focused on the importance for cultural and intellectual history of the rise of the great theatrical institutions in Europe, most notably in Spain. His theory of theatricality posits the stage as a fundamental medium for the transmission of ideas that contributed to structuring a way of conceiving of and inhabiting space peculiar to early modernity. Theatricality theory paved the way for his later work on baroque and neobaroque culture, which spanned cultural production in the Americas as well as in Europe.<\/p>\r\n In recent years he has increasingly written for a broader public in venues such as\u00a0The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, and in books for the general public. In this way, the form as well as the content of his work have developed into a full-throated appeal for the essential role of the humanities\u2014particularly literature and literary studies\u2014in society today.<\/p>"],"ecpt_teaching":[" Professor Egginton teaches courses on a range of topics, including Spanish and Latin American literature, literary theory, and the relation between literature and philosophy. His recent courses include:<\/p>\r\n In addition to his scholarly work, Egginton also frequently writes for magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times<\/em>, The New Republic<\/em>, Time<\/em>, the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>, and the Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, among others. His recent articles include:<\/p>\r\n He has also done numerous podcast interviews and events on his recent book, The Rigor of Angels<\/em>, including:<\/p>\r\nSelected Books<\/h4>\r\n
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Selected Edited and Translated Books<\/h4>\r\n
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Selected Articles and Chapters<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n
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