FEATURED AUTHOR

Kirk Combe

Professor Emeritus of English and Cultural Studies
Denison University

Kirk Combe teaches and researches in the areas of early modern British satire and drama, literary and cultural theory, and popular culture. On these topics he’s published numerous books and articles. His recent scholarship focuses on contemporary satire, speculative fiction, and issues of monstrosity. He’s also published short fiction, novels, and is the screenwriter and executive producer of short films. He completed his doctoral study at Oxford University, England.

Subjects: Literature, Media and Cultural Studies

Biography

Kirk Combe teaches literature, critical theory, and writing at Denison University. 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), 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). He has published as well numerous articles on satire, drama, literary history, popular culture, pedagogy, and aging in academic journals such as International Communication Gazette; The Journal of Popular Culture; Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies; The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation; Eighteenth-Century Life; Journal of Aging and Identity; Pretexts: Studies in Writing and Culture; Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700; Texas Studies in Literature and Language; Modern Philology; Notes and Queries. Several of his essays have been anthologized. He has contributed the chapter “Satire and Modern Power” to Options for Teaching Modern British and American Satire (MLA, 2019). He has also contributed the chapter “The Sentimental and the Satirical” to Companion to Restoration Drama (Blackwell, 2001). In addition to his scholarly work, Combe has published the novel 2084 (Mayhaven Publishing, 2009), short fiction in literary journals, as well as screen-written and produced short films.

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.

Education

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Personal Interests

Travel, running, hiking, biking, film

Websites

Kirk Combe/Denison University

Books

Featured Title

Articles

"Satire and Modern Power"

Published: Dec 31, 2019 by Teaching Modern British and American Satire, ed. E. R. Davis and N. D. Nace. New York: MLA, 2019. 162-170.
Authors: Kirk Combe
Subjects: Literature

This article discusses ways to teach satire in the undergraduate classroom.

“Homeland Insecurity: Macho Globalization and Alien Blowback in Monsters”

Published: Oct 01, 2015 by The Journal of Popular Culture 48.5 (October 2015): 1010-1029.
Authors: Kirk Combe
Subjects: Media and Cultural Studies

This article looks at the depiction of macho American imperialism in the 2010 film Monsters.

“Stephen Colbert: Great Satirist, or Greatest Satirist Ever?”

Published: Apr 01, 2015 by International Communication Gazette 77.3 (April 2015): 297-311.
Authors: Kirk Combe
Subjects: Media and Cultural Studies

This article analyzes the satire of Stephen Colbert.

Political Parody and Satire as Subversive Speech in the Global Digital Sphere

Published: Apr 01, 2015 by International Communication Gazette 77.3 (April 2015)
Authors: Kirk Combe and Sangeet Kumar
Subjects: Media Communication

This special edition of the International Communication Gazette explores political satire from around the globe.

Masculinity and Monstrosity in Contemporary Hollywood Films

Published: Dec 01, 2013 by New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
Authors: Kirk Combe and Brenda Boyle
Subjects: Media and Cultural Studies

These chapters explore the confluence of masculinity and monstrosity in major Hollywood films of the 21st century.

“Spielberg’s Tale of Two Americas: Postmodern Monsters in War of the Worlds”

Published: Oct 01, 2011 by The Journal of Popular Culture 44.5 (October 2011): 934-953.
Authors: Kirk Combe
Subjects: Media and Cultural Studies

This article examines the use of invading space aliens to figure American imperialism globally in the 2005 film War of the Worlds.

News

Rant Against the Regime on Substack

By: Kirk Combe

Check out my new Substack blog: Rant Against the Regime. It’s a weekly post exploring issues of Culture and Education through the lens of various cultural theories. While I always shoot for entertaining and whimsical in my tone (maybe tending, at times, toward sardonic and barbed), I never back away from sophisticated and provoking in my content.

My ask is this: Please click on the link below and subscribe for free. As you go through the subscription process, you’ll arrive at my Home page where you can click on About to get a full explanation of what I’m doing. In Archive you can also read my first several posts.

Go to: https://rantagainstregime.substack.com

If none of this looks appealing to you, please just unsubscribe. No worries and thanks for looking!

Videos

Rant Against the Machine: Speculative Satire versus the Neoliberal Hegemon

Published: Mar 03, 2020

Over the past four decades, a new and hybrid form of satire has emerged to combat the most pernicious adversary yet: dominant economic, political, and social doctrines that drive humans toward despair and the planet toward ruin. (Link to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NprZ7zi1zWw)