• The British novel from Defoe through Joyce—special focus on Joyce, Conrad, Lawrence, Hardy, Forster, and Woolf—but also the Victorian novel
• Cultural criticism, especially the modernist tradition, including the relation between, on the one hand, painting and sculpture and, on the other, literature
• Twentieth-century poetry, especially Wallace Stevens
• Literary theory
• The changing nature of literary studies and the profession
• Victorian poetry and Victorian studies
• The history and theory of the novel

Books in Progress:

• In Defense of Reading (Blackwell) Under consideration
  
• The Metamorphoses of the Old Grey Lady: The Transformation of the New York Times, 1944-2005. 

Editor:

• Consulting Editor, The Early Novels of Benjamin Disraeli, 6 vols. (London: Pickering and Charro Publishers LTD), 2004. I wrote the general introduction to the edition.
  
• Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer": A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism (New York: Bedford Division of St. Martin's Press), 1997. I have written three essays for this volume: the bibliographical and historical introduction, the critical overview, and the psychoanalytic essay.
• James Joyce's "The Dead": A Case Study of Contemporary Criticism (New York: Bedford Division of St. Martin's Press, 1994). I have written three essays for this volume: the bibliographical and historical introduction, the critical overview, and "Gabriel Conroy's Psyche: Character as Concept in Joyce's 'The Dead.'"
  
• Narrative and Culture (with Janice Carlisle) (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994).
  
• General Editor, Seven volume series entitled Reading the British and American Novel, New York and London: Blackwell.
  

• Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel: 1900-1950, ( New York and London: Blackwell), 2005.
• Broadway Boogie Woogie: Damon Runyon and the Making of New York Culture (New York: Palgrave), 2003. Paperback, 2004.
• Rereading Conrad (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press), spring 2001. Also in paperback.
• Imagining the Holocaust (New York: St. Martin's Press; London: Macmillan, 1999). Revised paperback edition, 2000.
• Reconfiguring Modernism: Explorations In the Relationship Between Modern Art and Literature, (St. Martin's Press: New York; London: Macmillan, 1997). Also in paperback.
• Narrative and Representation in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993). Also in paperback. Chosen by Choice as an outstanding book of 1993.
• The Case for a Humanistic Poetics (London: Macmillan; Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991). Also in paperback.
• The Transformation of the English Novel, 1890-1930: Studies in Hardy, Conrad, Joyce, Lawrence, Forster, and Woolf. (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989). Revised second and paperback edition, 1995.
• Reading Joyce's "Ulysses" (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1987; revised, 1991). Also in paperback. Centenary edition with new Preface and bibliography, 2004.
• The Humanistic Heritage: Critical Theories of the English Novel from James to Hillis Miller (London: Macmillan; Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986; revised, 1989). Also in paperback.
• Conrad: The Later Fiction (London: Macmillan; Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1982).
• Conrad: "Almayer's Folly" to "Under Western Eyes" (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press; London: Macmillan, 1980).
• Disraeli's Fiction (London: Macmillan Press; NY: Barnes & Noble, 1979).

• "Creating a Second Self: Transference as Narrative Form in "The Secret Sharer," Approaches to Teaching Conrad's Heart of Darkness and "The Secret Sharer,'" ed. Hunt Hawkins and Brian Shafer (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2002), 79-90
  
• "A Humanistic Ethics of Reading," Mapping the Ethical Turn: A Reader in Ethics, Culture, and Literary Theory, ed. Todd F. Davis and Kenneth Womack (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001), 3-15.
• Almost 100 articles and chapters in collections and over 30 published poems. 

College of Arts and Sciences:

• Russell Award for Distinguished Teaching Prize Committee, 1999-2001
• Dean's Advisory Committee on Appointments, 1980-83
  
• Director, Advanced Placement in English, 1977-88
  
• Committee on New Faculty, 1977-82; Chair, 1979-82
• Board of Undergraduate Education, 1976-78
  

Cornell University:

• Weiss Presidential Fellow Selection Committee, 2001-
• Weiss Presidential Fellows-Campus Life Partnership (co-developed with Susan Murphy and LeNorman Strong ), 2000-
  
• Cybertower (Cornell on the Web) Site Development Project, 1999-2001; Cybertower Site Participant ("Imagining the Holocaust"), 2001-
• Faculty Advisor, Men’s Varsity Tennis team, 1998-
• Planning and Steering Group, Academic Leadership Series, 1997-2001; Ehrenberg Subcommittee on Retirement issues, 1997

Department of English:

• Acting Chair, Summer 1981
• Chair, Travel and Grant-in-Aid Committee, 1981-85
  
• Appointments Committee, 1981-83, 1989-90, 1996-97, 2001-2; Chair, 1996-97
• Chair, Curriculum Committee, 1977-80; member, 1983-4
• Director of Undergraduate Studies, 1976-80
• Graduate Committee, 1971-74, 1994-5; Chair 1971-4 Director of Honors, 2003-

Professional Service:

• Consultant, Elie Wiesel, PBS hour show, produced by Robert Gardner, November 2002
• Editorial Board, Narrative, 1992-
• Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, founding member, 1984; Nominating Committee, 1984-87, chair, 1986-87; Executive Council, 1986-88; Second Vice President, 1988-89; First Vice President, 1989-90; President, 1990-91; Executive Committee, 1992-93; International Conference Program Committee (Vancouver), 1994
• Reader, over a hundred manuscripts for university and commerical presses and probably close to two hundred articles for scholarly journals, including PMLA, and referee for over a hundred tenure and promotion decisions