Aaron Matz

Aaron Matz is Professor of English and holds the Frederick Hard Chair in English Literature at Scripps College, part of The Claremont Colleges consortium. He teaches courses on the Victorian novel, modern British fiction, fin de siècle literature, realism, satire, and modern drama, and also offers a graduate seminar on the Victorian novel at Claremont Graduate University.

His primary research interests lie in the history and theory of the novel, particularly the 19th and 20th-century English and French traditions. He explores literary realism, satire, modernism, and the cultural implications of narrative form, especially in relation to procreation and ecological crisis. His work bridges literary scholarship with broader philosophical and ethical questions.

His two major monographs, The Novel and the Problem of New Life (2021) and Satire in an Age of Realism (2010), reflect a sustained engagement with the evolution of narrative modes. The former examines literature’s ambivalence toward reproduction across centuries, while the latter analyzes how satire challenged and ultimately undermined Victorian realism. Both works demonstrate deep interdisciplinary insight.

Aaron Matz has published critical essays in The New York Review of Books and London Review of Books, as well as in academic journals, contributing to public and scholarly discourse on literature and culture.

He earned his BA, MA, and PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University, grounding his scholarship in a rigorous interdisciplinary tradition. Though no formal advisees or scientific awards are listed, his academic leadership is evident through his named chair and graduate teaching.

He is actively engaged in ongoing research addressing the climate crisis and its ironic implications for recent literary art, suggesting a forward-looking trajectory in his scholarship.