Paul L. Fortunato, PhD

Associate Professor of English, University of Houston Downtown

Ph.D. English, University of Illinois at Chicago

 

Paul Fortunato is a writer, speaker, and professor of English literature at the University of Houston-Downtown. He focuses on narrative theories as a way to understand the history of culture and as guides for seeking a fulfilled life. He is the Director of the Reading Books Initiative.

 

 

Publications

 

Book

Modernist Aesthetics and Consumer Culture in the Writings of Oscar Wilde. New York: Routledge, 2007
 

Podcast Series

The Meaning Crisis: Science, Spirituality and Art

https://www.youtube.com/@paul.fortunato6696/podcasts

The Paper Books Cure

https://www.youtube.com/@paul.fortunato6696/podcasts 

 

Podcast Interviews

“What should we think of Oscar Wilde?” Austin Institute Podcast. February 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ8Tg9zbUBM 

“Oscar Wilde and J.R.R. Tolkien with Paul Fortunato.” Other Life Podcast. March 2023.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/other-life/id1195362330?i=1000602487755 

“The Importance of Beauty: An Interview with Paul Fortunato on the Writings of Oscar Wilde.” Raised to Walk Podcast. March 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzs79tmNbuI

 

Selected articles in Books

 

“ ‘Well-dressed women do.’: Embracing the Irrational in Wilde’s Consumer Aesthetic.” Wilde’s Wiles: Studies of the Influences on Oscar Wilde and His Enduring Influences in the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Annette M. Magid. Cambridge Scholars Press. 2013.
 

 “Communication Theory Meets Interfaith Dialogue.” (co-author, Diana Bowen). A Communication Perspective on Interfaith Dialogue: Living Within the Abrahamic Traditions. Ed. Daniel Brown. New York: Lexington Books, of Rowman & Littlefield, 2013.
 

 “Deliberative Democracy and Interfaith Dialogue: An Applied Perspective.” (co-author, Diana Bowen). Interfaith Dialogue in Practice: Christian, Muslim, Jew. Ed. Daniel Brown. Kansas City, Missouri: Rockhurst University Press, 2012.
 

Journal Articles (Peer-Reviewed)

“Philosophy with a Needle and Thread: Wilde’s Modernist Aesthetics-cum-Commodification.” College Literature, Vol. 34.3 (2007): 37-54.