John Sider

A Canadian by birth, Professor John Sider has taught courses in each of the periods of British literature before 1900. One semester’s study at Goshen Seminary led to his literary studies of the parables of Jesus, and the exciting enterprise of co-leading four of Westmont’s Europe Semesters has drawn him more recently into the history of Western art. His “new Shakespeare play,” The Marriage of King Arthur, is a farcical comedy composed entirely of lines from all of Shakespeare’s plays-staged in 1991 by the Westmont Classical Repertory Theatre. His pastimes include singing in the choir at Montecito Covenant Church, and bicycle touring with his wife Anna. Their daughter Rebecca has three charming daughters of her own, and their son Phil and his wife Sonya met as students at Westmont.

Vita

Education

• 1965 Honours B.A. in English, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario
• 1966 M.A. in English, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
• 1971 Ph.D. in English, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana

Teaching

• Bethel College, Mishawaka, Indiana, 1966-68, 1970-72
• Westmont College, Santa Barbara, 1972-

Publications

• The Troublesome Raigne of King John. New York and London: Garland, 1979.
• Interpreting the Parables: A Hermeneutical Guide to Their Meaning. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995. “Shakespeare’s Cornetts,” Shakespeare Quarterly 22 (1971), 401-404.
• “Serious Elements of Shakespeare’s Comedies,” Shakespeare Quarterly 24 (1973), 1-12.
• “Reading for the OED: A Case History,” English Language Notes 18 (1980), 131-138.
• “The Meaning of Parabole in the . . . Synoptic Evangelists,” Biblica 62 (1981), 453-470.
• “Nurturing Our Nurse: Literary Scholars and Biblical Exegesis,” Christianity and Literature 32.1 (1982), 15-21.
• “Reconstructing the Parables: The Logic of the Jeremias Tradition,” Journal of Biblical Literature 102 (1983), 61-83.
• “Interpreting the Hid Treasure,” Christian Scholar’s Review 31 (1984), 360-372.
• “Falstaff’s Broken Voice,” Shakespeare Survey 37 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 65-68.
• “Proportional Analogy in the Gospel Parables,” New Testament Studies 31 (1985), 1-23.
• “The Parables,” chapter 31 in The Complete Literary Guide to the Bible, ed. Leland Ryken and Tremper Longman III (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 422-435.
• “‘One Man in His Time Plays Many Parts’: Authorial Theatrics of Doubling in Early Renaissance Drama, ” Studies in Philology 91 (1994), 359-89).
• “Index of Scriptural Allusions” (to Hymns for the Family of God) in The Hymnal Companion, ed. Fred Bock and Bryan Jeffrey Leech (Nashville: Paragon House, 1979).
• “Hannah,” “Inn,” “Ishmael,” “Rhodes,” “Simon,” and other articles, Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, ed. Walter A. Elwell, 2 vols. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988.

Westmont Guidebooks

• A Guide to Art in Europe. Westmont College, 1995-1999.
• Westmont College Europe Semester: A Manual for Leaders. Westmont College, 1999.

Awards

• Dissertation Year Fellowship, Canada Council, 1969-70
• Westmont College Faculty Research Award, 1985

Research Interests

John is researching the history of the liberal arts at Westmont College since its founding in 1937.

Courses

At Westmont he teaches:

Composition: Teaching this course mainly in conferences, one-on-one, enables students to grow according to their diversely developing skills and needs. The conference format also encourages close acquaintance between student and teacher.

Introduction to Literature: A whole course devoted to eight very different plays of Shakespeare helps students answer such questions as: “Why is Shakespeare a cultural icon?” “How could a popular entertainer be considered also as the greatest of English dramatists and poets?” and “What does the career of a literary genius look like?” Seeing every play in performance makes the texts easier to read-and, for some students, transforms Shakespeare from a high-school chore into a lifetime delight.

Survey of British Literature to 1800, & 1800 to the present: The two-semester sequence, divided at 1800, locates and describes principal authors, works, and traditions as parts of the great story of English literature for a millennium and more. The course concentrates on objective facts-of texts, authors, audiences, and the history of interpretation-which provide students with illuminating context for all their future reading of literature in English.

Literary Analysis: This course provides exercise in various methods and skills of thinking and writing about literature, to help students to benefit more from whatever they read, and to write with greater satisfaction in their literature courses. To prepare for the required formal essays, students present to the class brief drafts of each assignment, modeled on the example of professional critics’ writing. Classroom discussion and comparison of these drafts gives students concrete and detailed guidance toward developing the final form and content of their essays.

Chaucer and Medieval Literature: The early masterworks of English bear fascinating witness to eight centuries of diverse human life, thought, and culture. Besides sampling this rich variety, the course focuses on the incomparable poetry and stories of Chaucer, and on other great writers of his singularly gifted generation, such as the Gawain poet and William Langland.