Kenneth Gross specializes in Renaissance poetry and drama, and works as well on the arts of performance and lyric poetry more generally. He is also interested in the relation of literature and the visual arts. In addition to studies of Spenser and Shakespeare, his published work has taken up authors from Ovid and Dante to William Blake and Philip Roth. One thread that connects his writing and teaching is a fascination with what Samuel Johnson calls the force of poetry, "that force which calls new powers into being, which embodies sentiment, and animates matter."
Professor Gross's teaching takes up a variety of authors and literary modes, from the biblical narratives and Renaissance drama to modern poetry. One aim they all share is to help students to understand the complex, often ambigous life of literary texts, to hone their powers of analysis and response, their ability to listen for what's said and not said in a work of literature, as well as their capacity for surprise.
