Elizabeth Napier

Elizabeth Napier served as a Professor in the English Department at Middlebury College from 1978 to 2019. Her academic focus centered on 18th-century English literature, particularly the novel, and literary translation with an emphasis on painter-poets. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Her research explores intersections of space, identity, and form in literature, with notable works analyzing Defoe’s autobiographical narratives, Gothic genre disjunction, and Kandinsky’s artistic theory through translation. She received the Choice Outstanding Academic Title and Community College Top 75 awards for Defoe’s Major Fiction (2016).

Napier’s publications span monographs, translations, and critical entries in major literary guides. Her translational work includes Kandinsky’s Sound (1981/2019) and F.T. Marinetti’s futurist poetry (2002). She has also contributed extensively to Dictionary of Literary Biography entries on 18th-century novelists.

Her teaching emphasized 18th-century literature and the novel, reflecting her deep engagement with historical and formal aspects of literary production. Napier’s scholarship bridges literary criticism with interdisciplinary approaches, including art theory and body studies.