Christopher Lane
Professor of English
University Hall Room 206
Telephone: (847) 491-7475
Fax: (847) 467-1545
E-mail
Christopher Lane (Ph.D. University of London) teaches and writes about Victorian and modern British fiction, and has a secondary interest and specialization in 19th- and 20th-century psychology, psychiatry, and intellectual history. He is the author of five books on literature and psychology in both centuries: The Ruling Passion (Duke, 1995), The Burdens of Intimacy (Chicago, 1999), Hatred and Civility: The Antisocial Life in Victorian England (Columbia, 2004), and Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness (Yale, 2007; paperback 2008), winner of the 2010 Prescrire Prize for Medical Writing (France) and translated into French, Spanish, Korean, and Japanese, with translations in Danish and Turkish forthcoming. His latest book, a study of Victorian agnosticism, is called The Age of Doubt: Tracing the Roots of Our Religious Uncertainty (Yale, 2011; paperback 2012).
Lane, formerly Herman and Beulah Pearce Miller Research Professor of Literature at Northwestern, is also the editor of The Psychoanalysis of Race (Columbia, 1998) and coeditor, with Tim Dean, of Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis (Chicago, 2001). He has published articles in journals such as Raritan, Novel, Victorian Studies, ELH, Modernism/Modernity, PMLA, Theory and Psychology, Common Knowledge, the Oxford Literary Review, the International Journal of Psychoanalysis, and the International Literary Quarterly. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New York Sun, Slate, Chronicle Review, and the New Statesman and Society.
Lane is the recipient of fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the British Academy, the Guggenheim Foundation, and several more. He is currently writing a book on American psychiatry and religion in the 1940s and 50s (under contract with Yale University Press).
He writes a blog for Psychology Today called "Side Effects." He also writes for the Huffington Post.
Christopher Lane's Shyness Resources (Personal Webpage)
Publications by Christopher Lane
The Age of Doubt: Tracing the Roots of Our Religious Uncertainty
Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness
Winner of the Prescrire Prize for Medical Writing (France, 2010)
Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness
(Japanese translation)
"Ranzou sareru kokoro no byou" (romanized Japanese title)
Cómo la psiquiatría y la industria farmacéutica han convertido emociones cotidianas en enfermedad: La timidez
(Spanish translation of Shyness)
Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness
(Korean translation)
Comment la psychiatrie et l'industrie pharmaceutique ont médicalisé nos émotions
(French translation of Shyness)
Hatred and Civility: The Antisocial Life in Victorian England
The Burdens of Intimacy
The Ruling Passion 
Homosexuality and Psychoanalysis (co-editor)
The Psychoanalysis of Race (editor)
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The English Major in Writing Celebrates 30 Years on campus
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Jo Ann Beard, Frank Bidart, and George Saunders were Writers in Residence for the English Major in Writing’s 3rd Annual Spring Writers’ Festival
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Creative Writing students gather at the 3rd Annual Spring Writer’s Festival
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English Department faculty attend one of the talks organized as part of the annual One Book, One Northwestern program
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Writing students Cathy Gao (left) and Alleliah Nuguid (right) meet writer Elizabeth Benedict (center) at the Skidmore Summer Writers’ Institute.
Photo provided by Cathy Gao.
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Northwestern writing students Matt Pacult, Cathy Gao, and Alleliah Nuguid meet poet Frank Bidart at the Skidmore Summer Writers’ Institute.
Photo provided by Cathy Gao.
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Professors Mary Kinzie and John Keene celebrate 30 Years of creative writing at Northwestern
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Professors Wendy Wall (Avalon Foundation Professor, left) and Reginald Gibbons (Frances Hooper Chair in the Arts and Humanities, right) at their inauguration, with Professor Christopher Herbert (Chester D. Tripp Professor of Humanities, center)
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English Department faculty and students gathering before the Department's Fall Collation
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Professor Rebecca Johnson speaks at the English Department's Fall Collation
Upcoming Event
The Political Theory Colloquium presents: Matthew Gibney
May 20, 2013 • 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
