Amy Clanton

Teaches: Yeats and the Occult

I am currently a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida working on my dissertation under the direction of Dr. Phillip Sipiora. I expect to complete and defend my dissertation on the relationship between art and religion in the work of W. B. Yeats and Aleister Crowley by May 2011.

I have experience teaching a variety of subjects in the humanities, including courses in English literature and composition, art history, and film. Additionally, for the past two years I have conducted classes as a teaching assistant for Dr. Stephanie Moss for the course Literature and the Occult. In addition to my doctoral work in literature and film, my educational background includes degrees in art and art education, with extensive undergraduate coursework in music as well. These wide-ranging interests give me a distinct advantage in inter-disciplinary teaching.

My dissertation topic reflects several of my scholarly interests: the relationship between religion, ritual, myth, magic, and the arts, and the work of William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley. I am tracing the theoretical conjunctions of art and religion in the Romantic era, and, building upon this foundation, analyzing the performative use of myth and ritual in the poetry and plays of Yeats and Crowley. In order to further my study of Yeats, in 2008 I received scholarships to attend the Yeats International Summer School in Sligo, Ireland. My other research interests include speculative and dystopian fiction and film. My areas of focus for my doctoral exams were 19th century British literature, early 20th century British and American literature (with an emphasis on poetry), and film (for which I earned a pass plus, i.e. pass with distinction).

In addition to my scholarly pursuits, I am a practicing artist and musician. For my visual art, I work primarily in oil and acrylic. One of my major paintings, Fractal Tree of Life (1997), is on permanent display in the Isis-Urania Temple of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in Florida. My musical pursuits include bass guitar and vocal work with a number of bands throughout the years, in addition to teaching lessons on bass guitar.