Staff profile
Dr Iain Edward Topliss
Honorary Associate
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Communication, Arts and Critical EnquiryHumanities 2, level 5, Melbourne (Bundoora)
- T:
- F: +61 3 9479 3637
- E: I.Topliss@latrobe.edu.au
Qualifications
BA (Monash), MA PhD (Cambridge).
Membership of professional Associations
Australian Humour Scholars Network
Area of study
English
Creative Arts
Brief Profile
Iain Topliss’ interest in narrative, the cultural history of the twentieth century, and humour (particularly the comic art of The New Yorker) drives his work on a full-scale biography of the celebrated American artist Saul Steinberg.
Research interests
Literary Studies
- Cartooning, graphic humour and illustration.
- Humour in twentieth-century culture and society
- Recent British and American fiction
Recent Publications
The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams and Saul Steinberg (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005 [p.b. 2007]).
“Iain Topliss”, an interview by Leslie Wilson in Leslie Wilson (ed.) Conversations with Scholars of American Popular Culture (Los Angeles: Press Americana, 2006).
‘Saul Steinberg: En Ligne Directe', introduction to Saul Steinberg, Poche Illustrateur series (Paris: Delpire Editeur, 2008).
‘Saul Steinberg: un art de vivre’, in Thérèse Willer (ed.), Saul Steinberg: l’ècriture visuelle (Strasbourg: Editions des Musées de Strasbourg, 2009), pp. 14-27.
Research projects
A biography of Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)


