Kirk Combe

Kirk Combe teaches literature, critical theory, and writing at Denison University in Ohio. His specialty area is Restoration and 18th-Century British literature, with an emphasis on satire and stage comedy. He also teaches courses in cultural theory and popular culture. He won the Charles A. Brickman Teaching Excellence Award in 2011. He was named to the Viola Kleindienst Endowed Professorship for 2017-2022.

Combe has published a number of books, to include Speculative Satire in Contemporary Literature and Film: Rant Against the Regime (Routledge, 2021), Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013; co-authored with Brenda M. Boyle), A Martyr for Sin: Rochester’s Critique of Polity, Sexuality, and Society (University of Delaware Press, 1998), and Theorizing Satire: Essays in Literary Criticism (St. Martin’s Press, 1995; co-edited with Brian Connery). He has published as well numerous articles on satire, drama, literary history, popular culture, pedagogy, and aging in academic journals such as The Journal of Popular Culture; Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies; The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation; Texas Studies in Literature and Language; and Modern Philology. Most recently, he’s co-edited (with Sangeet Kumar) a special issue of International Communication Gazette (77.3, April 2015) titled Political Parody and Satire as Subversive Speech in the Global Digital Sphere; this issue includes his essay “Stephen Colbert: Great Satirist, or Greatest Satirist Ever?” Several of his essays have been anthologized. He has also contributed the chapter “Satire and Modern Power” to Options for Teaching Modern British and American Satire (MLA, 2019) as well as the chapter “Rakes, Wives, and Merchants: Shifts from the Satirical to the Sentimental” to A Companion to Restoration Drama (Blackwell, 2001).

In addition to his scholarly work, Combe has published the novel 2084 (Mayhaven Publishing, 2009; revised ebook edition 2018), short fiction in literary journals (most recently in The Write Launch), as well as co-written and executive produced two short films, “The Feed” (2015) and “Ironrite” (2019). Both films have been Official Selections at numerous U.S. film festivals.

Combe received his B.A. from Davidson College (North Carolina) and his M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College (Vermont). He completed his D.Phil in literature at Oxford University, England. He has taught at universities in both Europe and the United States. Prior to becoming a career egghead, he spent several years playing professional basketball in Switzerland and Germany.

Google personal website:

https://sites.google.com/a/denison.edu/kirk-combe/home

ORCID iD

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3889-6976