Victor Morris Udwin

Victor Udwin

Associate Professor of German and Comparative LiteratureOliphant Hall 164
(918) 631-2414
victor-udwin@utulsa.edu

Historical reconstruction of social issues through analysis of literary texts. Work in print includes Between Two Armies: the Place of the Duel in Epic Culture (Brill 1999), a reconstruction of Late Bronze Age warrior culture through analysis of the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, the Nibelungenlied, the Hildebrandslied, and I Samuel. Present research (unpublished) focuses on Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. The project includes a line-by-line analysis of the entire play.
The premise on which this work is based is that literary texts present their audiences with problems that prompt them to engage in subconscious problem-solving activities which can be represented as passages of reasoning. Literary works do not make explicit arguments, but they prompt their audiences to make these arguments for themselves. When these arguments are made explicit, it becomes possible to identify both the issues that they address and the conclusions towards which they tend.

Education and Degrees Earned

  • BA Comparative Literature, The University of California, 1976
  • MA Comparative Literature, The University of California, 1980
  • PhD Comparative Literature, The University of California, 1985

Previous Teaching Experience

  • TU 1990-
  • UC San Diego 1989-90
  • Uni-Siegen 1986-87
  • UC Berkeley 1985-86

Courses Taught at TU

  • Beginning Greek (GRK 1005)
  • Beginning Latin I and II (LAT 1004, 1014)
  • History of the German Language (GERM 4313)
  • Intermediate German I and II (GERM 2003, 2013)
  • Intermediate Greek I and II (GRK 2005, 2014)

Publications

  • Between Two Armies
    Leiden: Brill, 1999.