Mr. Daniel Pereira

Biography:

Mr. Pereira was born in the hometown of Robert Louis Stevenson. He grew up where Ken Kesey attended college, and then spent a year living next to a house formerly inhabited by Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. He went to high school in the town Judy Blume wrote about in a book which is currently 8th on the list of most-banned books in America . He went to college at Elizabeth Bishop's alma mater, where his heroes were David Foster Wallace and Oliver Sacks. He started teaching at GW in 2001. In addition to teaching English, he provides college counseling and coordinates curriculum. To distract himself from thinking about his classes, Mr. Pereira spends time writing an absurdist philosophical novel about pirates, playing Ms. Pac-Man, and hiking. He is married with one daughter and owns two very fat cats.  He loves books so much his daughter’s middle name is Page.

Mr. Pereira is the Winner of the 2008-2009 Washington Post Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award

Courses Taught:

World Literature I:

Explosions! Giant Scorpions! Romance! Beast-men! Haiku! Ancient literature is my favorite class. People back in the day really knew how to tell stories, and all the stories we tell today have been influenced by the classics. In this course, we will explore the early literature of many regions, including China, Japan, Greece, Italy, and the Middle-East. 

World Literature II:

Do you want to be sophisticated and elegant?  Do you want to drink tea and eat crumpets and wear a monocle?  Do you want people to listen to you and exclaim "what an educated person!"?  Well then, World Lit II is the class for you.  In this class we will explore the crown jewels of Western culture, from Shakespeare to Voltaire to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  In doing so, we will gain familiarity with the history, and recurring themes in Western Literature, excluding North American literature, from the Renaissance to Modernism.  As time permits, we will also take note of correlative developments in music, painting, and philosophy.

American Literature:

American literature is really cool.  Do you want to know why?  Well, I won't tell you.  If you want to know, you have to take this class.  In it, we will cover the history of American literature from the earliest Native American folk tales all the way through to the present day.

Senior Seminar: Hamlet:

By most accounts, the most performed play in history is William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  But why?  The play is over four hours long, it's ridiculously complicated, and it's really really weird.  What is it about Hamlet that has made it such a popular and enduring play?  How have other dramatists interpreted, adapted from, and stolen from Hamlet?  What relevance does the play have to us today?  And what does it mean to call someone a "fishmonger?"  We explore these, and many other questions, in this course.  Please note that we will be watching several movies in the course of the year.  These movies will be shown after class and attendance will be mandatory.

Hours Available For Extra Help: