Dr Michal Zechariah

LLB, Law and English (Hebrew University of Jerusalem); MA, English Language and Literature (University of Chicago); PhD, English Language and Literature (University of Chicago).

Before joining the College, I was a Minerva Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, where I was part of the History of Emotions Research Centre, and a Teaching Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. 

I teach English literature from 1550 to 1760.

My research of early modern English literature focuses on the relationship between emotional change and moral requirement, particularly in the works of Shakespeare and Milton. I am interested in how representations of emotional unresponsiveness to reason, persuasion, or duty suggest a disjuncture between subjects and the normative expectations that they inhabit. This break has the potential to transform perceived ethical demands by drawing on emotional experience (and lack thereof) for moral insight. My project therefore asks how literature participates in broader contemporary debates about the ethical implications of unmoved emotions and reflects on literature’s ongoing role in shaping the moral imagination. 

“Satanic Ingratitude and Psychological Determinism in Paradise Lost.” Milton Studies 64: 2 (Fall 2022).