Stephen Greenblatt: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|American scholar (born 1943)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}

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Greenblatt is one of the founders of [[new historicism]], a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, [[Renaissance]] studies and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal ''[[Representations]]'', which often publishes articles by new historicists. His most popular work is ''Will in the World'', a biography of Shakespeare that was on [[The New York Times Best Seller list|''The New York Times'' Best Seller list]] for nine weeks.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07EFD81738F930A15752C0A9639C8B63&fta=y|title= Who Owns Shakespeare?|author= Rachel Donadio|date=January 23, 2005|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 2, 2012}}</ref> He won the [[Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction]] in 2012 and the [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]] in 2011 for ''[[The Swerve: How the World Became Modern]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2012-General-Nonfiction|title=The 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winners|access-date=March 25, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2011_nf_greenblatt.html |title=2011 National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction|access-date=March 25, 2014|publisher=[[National Book Foundation]]}}</ref>

 

==Life and career==

===Education and career===

 

Greenblatt is the founder and faculty co-chair of Harvard's branch of the [[Scholars at Risk]] (SAR) program. SAR is a U.S.-based international network of academic institutions organized to support and defend the principles of [[academic freedom]] and to defend the [[human rights]] of scholars around the world.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wu |first1=Sarah |title=A Safe Haven for Scholars at Risk |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/12/14/scholars-at-risk-harvard/ |access-date=February 23, 2022 |work=[[The Harvard Crimson]] |date=December 14, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=MLA: Widening the lens |url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/mla-widening-the-lens/173734.article |access-date=February 23, 2022 |work=[[Times Higher Education]] |date=December 20, 2002 |language=en|url-access=registration}}</ref> Greenblatt was a long-term fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wiko-berlin.de/en/institute/living-and-working/looking-back/history-of-the-institute/chronicle-of-the-wissenschaftskolleg/ |title=Chronicle of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin 1978–2006|publisher=Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin|access-date=October 7, 2015|quote="2001 ... Stephen Greenblatt, Humanities, Harvard, is appointed a Non-Resident Permanent Fellow."}}</ref> As a visiting professor and lecturer, Greenblatt has taught at institutions including the [[École des Hautes Études]], the [[University of Florence]], [[Kyoto University]], the [[University of Oxford]] and [[Peking University]]. He was a resident fellow at the [[American Academy in Rome]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aarome.org/news/features/stephen-greenblatt-contemplates-the-enduring-power-of-lucretius-and-his-dangerous-ideas |title=Stephen Greenblatt Contemplates the Enduring Power of Lucretius and his Dangerous Ideas |date=April 2, 2013 |access-date=October 7, 2015 |quote=A lecture by Stephen Greenblatt, RAAR '10, took place Wednesday evening under an auspicious full moon at the Villa Aurelia.}}</ref> and is a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1987), the [[American Philosophical Society]] (2007),<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Stephen+J.+Greenblatt&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=May 14, 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> and the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] (2008); he has been president of the [[Modern Language Association]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Greenblatt |first=Stephen |jstor=1261517|title=Presidential Address 2002: "Stay, Illusion". On Receiving Messages from the Dead|work=[[Publications of the Modern Language Association of America]]|date=May 2003}}</ref>

 

===Family===

 

In 1998, he married literary critic Ramie Targoff, whom he has described as his soulmate.<ref name="Guardian 2005">{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Lucasta|author-link=Lucasta Miller|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/26/biography|title=The human factor|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=February 26, 2005|access-date=October 7, 2015}}</ref>

Greenblatt's collaboration with [[Charles L. Mee]], ''Cardenio'', premiered on May 8, 2008, at the [[American Repertory Theater]] in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While the critical response to ''Cardenio'' was mixed, audiences responded quite positively. The American Repertory Theater has posted audience responses on the organization's blog. ''Cardenio'' has been adapted for performance in ten countries, with additional international productions planned.{{Citation needed|date=April 2017}}

 

 

===New Historicism===

 

===Shakespeare and Renaissance studies===

 

===''Norton Anthology of English Literature''===

 

===Political commentary===

 

==Honors==

*''Carpenter Lectures'', [[University of Chicago]] (1988)

*''Adorno Lectures'', [[Goethe University Frankfurt]] (2006)

*''Sigmund H Danziger Jr Lecture'', [[University of Chicago]] (2015)

*''Rosamond Gifford Lecture Series'', Syracuse, New York (2015)

*''Mosse Lecture Series'', [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Humboldt University]] (2015)

*''Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Museums, Galleries and Libraries'', [[University of Oxford]] (2015)

 

==Bibliography==

 

===Books===

*{{cite book |author=Greenblatt, Stephen |title=Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare|year=2005|orig-year=1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-226-30659-9|author-mask=1|ref=none}}

*{{cite book |author=Greenblatt, Stephen |title=Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England|url=https://archive.org/details/shakespeareanneg00gree |url-access=registration |year=1989|publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-06160-6|author-mask=1|ref=none}}

*{{cite book |author=Greenblatt, Stephen |title=The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve|year=2017|publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York|isbn=978-0-393-24080-1|author-mask=1|title-link=The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve|ref=none}}

*{{cite book |author=Greenblatt, Stephen |title=Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics|year=2018|publisher=W. W. Norton|location=New York|isbn=9780393635751|author-mask=1|ref=none}}

 

===Essays and reporting===

[[Category:1943 births]]

[[Category:Living people]]

[[Category:20th-century American essayists]]

[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]

[[Category:21st-century American essayists]]

[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]

[[Category:Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]

[[Category:American literary critics]]

[[Category:American literary historians]]

[[Category:American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent]]

[[Category:Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge]]

[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]

[[Category:Holberg Prize laureates]]

[[Category:National Book Award winners]]

[[Category:New Historicism]]

[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction winners]]

[[Category:Shakespearean scholars]]

[[Category:Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]

[[Category:Writers from Newton, Massachusetts]]

[[Category:Yale University alumni]]