Robert Dale Parker

Robert Dale Parker is the Frank Hodgins Professor of American Literature Emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he writes and teaches about American literature and critical theory, especially poetry and fiction. His recent book is The Literature of Extreme Poverty in the Great Depression, and he is the author of the primer How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Undergraduate Students. Parker's scholarship explores literary form, aesthetics, history, gender, socio-political roles of literature, and critical theory.