Philip  Purchase

Philip Purchase

Senior ​Lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities
PhD, University of Southern California
research interests:
  • Hellenistic poetry
  • Classical reception
  • Pastoral literature
  • Psychoanalytic theory

contact info:

office hours:

  • ​By Appointment

mailing address:

  • Washington University

    CB 1029-150-207

    One Brookings Drive

    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

​Philip Purchase teaches courses in Greek and Latin, as well as courses for the Comparative Literature and the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities programs.

Teaching in Text and Traditions defines and nourishes my intellectual life at Washington University.

It is a delight regularly to revisit works such as the Iliad, the lyrics of Sappho, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and Madame Bovary; to do so in the company of others is a privilege. I approach the literature survey courses as evolving meditations on the uses of tradition. Similarly, my Pastoral Literature class engages the rich transformative history of the singing shepherd, a figure whose course we trace from ancient Greece to contemporary America.

I also take great pleasure in teaching Greek and Latin at all levels, from introductory grammar to literary and rhetorical analysis.

In my research, I trace currents of inheritance and transformation in various literary fields. I am currently considering the representation of the city in the poetry of Theocritus and Cavafy, and I am pursuing the interplay of psychoanalytic thought and artistic practice in the writings of Marion Milner, D. W. Winnicott, and Joyce Cary.

Recent Courses

L16 CompLitTht 375 Topics in Comparative Literature: Pastoral Literature

Why, in 2025, should we read and think about literature that concerns itself with the lives and loves of shepherds? This course takes the position that the reasons are multiple, provocative, and rewarding. Pastoral leads us from what may initially seem picturesque and quaint to broad, compelling questions that address how humans conceptualize and interact with nature, what the role of animals is and should be, how meanings are assigned to landscape and its preservation or destruction, and what versions of the Arcadian locus amoenus (ideally beautiful place) tell us about both conservative and revolutionary potentials of utopian thought. In this time of environmental crisis, the pastoral speaks to us with ever-increasing urgency and authority. Throughout the course, tensions between town and country, enslaved and free, elite and demotic, and sophisticated and naive will frame our discussions. Authors studied will range from Theocritus, Vergil, and Longus to Milton, Tennyson, and J. M. Barrie. Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" and its film adaptation by Ang Lee will cap our survey, affording us the opportunity to review many of the strands-not least of love and longing-that unite the pastoral mode. No prerequisites. Pastoral Literature can count towards major and minor requirements in Environmental Studies.