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Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7, 1943) is a literary critic, theorist and scholar. Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Literary criticism is the study discussion evaluation and interpretation of Literature. Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature

Greenblatt is regarded by many as 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. New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, Renaissance studies and Shakespeare studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere William Shakespeare ( baptised His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on the New York Times Best Seller list for nine weeks. The New York Times Best Seller List is widely considered to be the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. [1]

He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations, which often publishes articles by new historicists. Greenblatt shares many anecdotes about his academic and non-academic experiences in interviews and in his writing.

Contents

Biographical information

Education, academia and employment

Greenblatt was born in Boston and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. He was educated at Yale University (B.A. 1964, M. Phil 1968, Ph.D. 1969 GPA:) and Pembroke College, Cambridge (B.A. 1966, M.A. 1968). "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. Pembroke College is a college of the University of Cambridge, home to over six hundred students and fellows, and is the third oldest of the colleges Greenblatt has since taught at University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University. The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley He was Class of 1932 Professor at Berkeley (he became a full professor in 1980) and taught there for 28 years before taking a position at Harvard University where in 1997 Greenblatt became the Harry Levin Professor of Literature; he was named John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities in 2000. As a visiting professor and lecturer, Greenblatt has taught at such institutions as the universities of Berlin, the University of Florence, Kyoto University, the University of Oxford and Peking University. The University of Florence ( Università degli Studi di Firenze, UNIFI is one of the largest and oldest universities in Italy. or is a major national university in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest university in Japan and formerly one of the Imperial Universities of The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Peking University ( of Beijing, colloquially known in Chinese as Beida (北大 Běidà) is the first formally established university and the first He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been president of the Modern Language Association. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning The Modern Language Association of America (usually referred to as simply Modern Language Association or MLA) is the principal Professional association Greenblatt was "a key figure in the shift from literary to cultural poetics and from textual to contextual interpretation in U. S. English departments in the 1980s and 1990s" (Leitch 2250).

Family

Greenblatt has three children. He was married to Ellen Schmidt from 1969-96; they have two sons (Joshua and Aaron). In 1998 he married fellow academic Ramie Targoff, also a Renaissance expert and a professor at Brandeis University; they have one son (Harry). Brandeis University is a private research University with a Liberal arts focus located in Waltham Massachusetts, United States.

General interest

Greenblatt shares many personal anecdotes in interviews and in his writing. Greenblatt has stated that as counsellor at a summer camp, he spent some time playing guitar and singing “mournful folk songs” with co-counsellor Art Garfunkel, who talked about introducing him to Paul Simon so that they could sing together—Greenblatt declined in favour of college ("Greenblatt Named"). Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American Singer-songwriter and Actor of Romanian Jewish ancestry Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13 1941 is an American Songwriter, Musician, and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Greenblatt has also stated that while pursuing his Ph.D. at Yale he "rushed out of a corner drugstore and knocked down an elderly man who turned out to be T. S. Eliot… he survived" ("Greenblatt Named"). "PhD" redirects here for other uses see PhD (disambiguation. Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM (September 26 1888 – January 4 1965 was a poet Dramatist, and Literary critic. Greenblatt also notes that he performed, "usually in grotesque situations and invariably drawing a somewhat mysterious laugh from the studio audience," with the group that would become Monty Python's Flying Circus troupe ("Greenblatt Named"). Monty Python’s Flying Circus (also known as Flying Circus or during the final series just Monty Python) is a BBC Sketch comedy

Literary interests, influences and personal favourites

"At a certain point I passed from the naïve to what Schiller calls the sentimental—that is, I stopped reading books of marvels and began reading ethnographies and novels—but my childhood interests have survived in a passionate curiosity about other cultures and a fascination with tales" (Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions 2).

"My students. . . have had a profound influence upon everything I have written. And at the center of my intellectual life at Berkeley is the group of colleagues who have. . . shared ideas, argued, criticized, and given of themselves with remarkable generosity" (Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations ix).

Greenblatt’s scholarly interests are listed as “Shakespeare; Early Modern Literature and Culture; Literature of Travel and Exploration; Religion and Literature; Literature and Anthropology; [and] Literary and Cultural Theory” on his faculty profile webpage. Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of His critical work is deeply indebted to "Foucauldian and Marxist theories of history" (Rivkin 506). Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In an interview with Barnes and Noble, Greenblatt stated that the book which most influenced his life/career as a writer was Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals. Barnes & Noble Inc is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of Bookstores Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist On the Genealogy of Morality, or On the Genealogy of Morals (German Zur Genealogie der Moral) subtitled "A Polemic " ( Eine Streitschrift Though he hated the book, it made him aware that some books have the power to challenge one’s beliefs (Greenblatt, Interview). He lists Michel de Montaigne's Essais, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, William Shakespeare’s Complete Works and Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina among his favourite works (Greenblatt, Interview). Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Edward Gibbon ( April 27, 1737 January 16, 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (known popularly as The History) was written by English Historian Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy ( –) (Лев Никола́евич Толсто́й, was a Russian Writer widely regarded Anna Karenina ( Анна Каренина) also Anglicised as Anna Karenin, is a Novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy Some of his favourite films are M, The Third Man and Shakespeare in Love (Greenblatt, Interview). M is a 1931 German drama - thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou The Third Man ( is an award-winning British Film noir directed by Carol Reed and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 Romantic comedy / Drama Film. The film was directed by John Madden and co-written by playwright He enjoys classical music, including Verdi's opera Don Carlo and Mozart's opera Così fan tutte, but does not listen to music while writing (Greenblatt, Interview). Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to mainstream music produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and Secular music Opera is an art form in which Singers and Musicians perform a Dramatic work (called an opera which combines a text (called a Libretto

Works

Greenblatt on his audience and work: “I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough” ("Meet the Writers").

Greenblatt has written extensively on Shakespeare, the Renaissance, culture and new historicism (which he often refers to as "cultural poetics"). William Shakespeare ( baptised The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate" generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s Much of his work has been “part of a collective project,” such as his work as co-editor of the Berkeley-based literary-cultural journal Representations (which he co-founded in 1983), as editor of publications such as the Norton Anthology of English Literature and as co-author of books such as Practicing New Historicism (2000), which he wrote with Catherine Gallagher (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 1). Catherine Gallagher (born 16 February 1945) is a historicist literary critic and Victorianist and is currently Professor of English at the University of California Greenblatt has also written on such subjects as travelling in Laos and China, story-telling and miracles. Laos (ˈlɑːoʊs or /ˈlaʊs/ officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a Landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Storytelling is the ancient art of conveying events in Words Images and Sounds often by Improvisation or embellishment A miracle is an event believed to be caused by interposition of Divine intervention by a Supernatural being in the Universe by which the ordinary operation

Greenblatt's collaboration with Charles L. Mee, Cardenio, premiered on May 8, 2008 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Charles L Mee is an American Playwright and Author. He was born in Barrington Illinois in 1938 The American Repertory Theatre ( ART) is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts. While the critical response to Cardenio was mixed, audiences responded quite positively. Some audience members even went so far to send the theatre emails to about the unfair treatment of the piece in the press. The American Repertory Theatre has posted audience responses on the organization's blog. The American Repertory Theatre ( ART) is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts.

New historicism

Greenblatt is quoted as saying, “My deep, ongoing interest is in the relation between literature and history, the process through which certain remarkable works of art are at once embedded in a highly specific life-world and seem to pull free of that life-world. I am constantly struck by the strangeness of reading works that seem addressed, personally and intimately, to me, and yet were written by people who crumbled to dust long ago" (“Greenblatt Named”).

Greenblatt first used the term “new historicism” in his 1982 introduction to The Power of Forms in the English Renaissance wherein he uses Queen Elizabeth's “bitter reaction to the revival of Shakespeare’s Richard II on the eve of the Essex rebellion" to illustrate the “mutual permeability of the literary and the historical” (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 1-2). New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595 New historicism is regarded by many to have had an impact on "every traditional period of English literary history” (Cadzow). New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Some critics have charged that it is “antithetical to literary and aesthetic value, that it reduces the historical to the literary or the literary to the historical, that it denies human agency and creativity, that it is somehow out to subvert the politics of cultural and critical theory [and] that it is anti-theoretical” (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 1). Aesthetics or esthetics ( also spelled æsthetics) is commonly known as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values sometimes called Others praise new historicism as “a collection of practices” employed by critics to gain a more comprehensive understanding of literature by considering it in historical context while treating history itself as “historically contingent on the present in which [it is] constructed” (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 3). Literature is the Art of written works Literally translated the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin littera letter History is the study of the past particularly the written record Those who study history as a Profession are called Historians Etymology

In an interview with Matthew Norris, he says "I didn’t imagine [New Historicism] as a program, or a long-range ten-year plan. Or a twenty-year plan. It was a way of trying to do a new kind of work. Of course, I hoped it would have an impact, but I wasn’t trying to start a school or imagining myself as founding a new movement. I imagined it as expressing this powerful sense that we need to try to do things differently. " Paradigm Interview

Greenblatt's works on new historicism and “cultural poetics” include Practicing New Historicism (2000) (written with Catherine Gallagher), in which Greenblatt discusses how “the anecdote… appears as the ‘touch of the real’” and "Towards a Poetics of Culture" (1987), in which Greenblatt asserts that the question of “how art and society are interrelated,” as posed by Jean-François Lyotard and Frederic Jameson, “cannot be answered by appealing to a single theoretical stance” (Cadzow). Catherine Gallagher (born 16 February 1945) is a historicist literary critic and Victorianist and is currently Professor of English at the University of California Jean-François Lyotard (ʒɑ̃ fʀɑ̃swa ljɔˈtaʀ August 10 1924 April 21 1998) was a French philosopher and literary Fredric Jameson (born April 14, 1934) is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. Renaissance Self-Fashioning and the Introduction to the Norton Shakespeare are regarded as good examples of Greenblatt's application of new historicist practices (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 3). W W Norton & Company is an American book publishing company that has remained independent since its founding

Shakespeare and Renaissance studies

Will in the World
Will in the World

"I believe that nothing comes of nothing, even in Shakespeare. I wanted to know where he got the matter he was working with and what he did with that matter" (Greenblatt, Hamlet in Purgatory 4).

Greenblatt states in "King Lear and Harsnett's 'Double-Fiction'" that "Shakespeare's self-consciousness is in significant ways bound up with the institutions and the symbology of power it anatomizes" (Richter 1295). His work on Shakespeare has addressed such topics as ghosts, purgatory, anxiety, exorcists and revenge. He is general editor of the Norton Shakespeare.

Greenblatt's new historicism opposes the ways in which new criticism “[consigns] texts to an autonomous aesthetic realm that [dissociates] Renaissance writing from other forms of cultural production” and the historicist notion that Renaissance texts “[mirror]… a coherent world-view that was held by a whole population,” asserting instead “that critics who [wish] to understand sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writing must delineate the ways the texts they [study] were linked to the network of institutions, practices, and beliefs that constituted Renaissance culture in its entirety” (Cadzow). New Criticism was a dominant trend in English and American Literary criticism of the mid twentieth century from the 1920s to the early 1960s As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar Institutions are structures and mechanisms of Social order and Cooperation governing the Behavior of a Set of Individuals Greenblatt’s work in Renaissance studies includes Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980), which “had a transformative impact on Renaissance studies” (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 3).

Shakespearean Negotiations

"This book argues that works of art, however intensely marked by the creative intelligence and private obsessions of indivduals, are the products of collective negotiation and exchange" (Greenblatt, Shakespearean Negotiations, p vii). This book investigates how complex events influenced the works of Shakespeare and how he chronicled them. William Shakespeare ( baptised It takes the form of five essays discussing theory or events of the time and relating them to the plays of Shakespeare. The word theory has many distinct meanings in different fields of Knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters William Shakespeare ( baptised The essays are entitled:

Norton Anthology of English Literature

Greenblatt joined M. H. Abrams as general editor of the Norton Anthology of English Literature published by W.W. Norton during the 1990s. This article explains the Theory of Subversion and Containment as discussed by Stephen Greenblatt in his essay Invisible Bullets. Meyer (Mike Howard Abrams (born July 23[[ 912]] is an American Literary critic, known for works on Romanticism The Norton Anthology of English Literature is an anthology of English literature published by the W W W Norton & Company is an American book publishing company that has remained independent since its founding The 1990s collectively refers to the years between and including 1990 and 1999 [1] He is also the co-editor of the anthology's section on Renaissance literature (Gewertz) and the general editor of the Norton Shakespeare, “currently his most influential piece of public pedagogy” (Greenblatt, Greenblatt Reader 3).

Honours

Selected works

Quotations

Lisa Jardine, Queen Mary, University of London: "I was putting together some lectures in the early 80s and I suggested Greenblatt to the faculty. The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright-Hays Program, is a program of grants for international educational exchange for scholars educators graduate Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who The Modern Language Association of America (usually referred to as simply Modern Language Association or MLA) is the principal Professional association The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS is an organization dedicated to scholarship and the advancement of learning The American Repertory Theatre ( ART) is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts. The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England Lisa Anne Jardine CBE (born 12 April 1944) née Lisa Anne Bronowski, is a British Historian of the Early modern period Queen Mary University of London (known as Queen Mary and Westfield College until 2000 and still officially named as such in its charter Queen Mary incorporates several The University of London is a university based primarily in London, England, UK. No one had heard of him. But when he and I arrived at the lecture room we were greeted by a grumpy porter who complained that the event was a fire hazard. The audience was hanging from the rafters. That was Stephen Greenblatt. The faculty hadn't heard of him, but the students were in there. " (Miller)

Stephen Greenblatt’s account of his reaction to being told that several American job advertisements were requesting responses from experts in new historicism: "I said, 'You've got to be kidding. You know it was just something we made up!' I began to see there were institutional consequences to what seemed like a not particularly deeply thought-out term. " (Miller)

See also

Bibliography

Richard Burt, Medieval and Early Modern Film and Media (Palgrave MacMillan, 2008) ISBN-10: 0230601251

Cadzow, Hunter, Alison Conway and Bryce Traister. New Historicism developed in the 1980s primarily through the work of the critic Stephen Greenblatt, and gained widespread influence in the 1990s Michel Foucault ( (15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984 was a French philosopher, Historian, Intellectual, Critic and Sociologist. Discourse (L discursus, "running to and from" means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion Distinguished from Techne, the word ἐπιστήμη is Greek for Knowledge or Science, coming from the verb Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Historicism refers to philosophical theories that include one or both of two claims that there is an organic succession of developments a notion also Literary theory in a strict sense is the systematic study of the nature of Literature and of the methods for analyzing literature “New Historicism. ” Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism 2005. Feb. 2006 <http://litguide.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/view.cgi?eid=194&query=greenblatt#top>.

"Faculty Profiles. " 3 Feb. 2006. 7 Feb. 2006. <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~english/people/facultyprofiles.html>.

Gewertz, Ken. “Greenblatt Edits Norton Anthology. ” Harvard University Gazette 2 Feb. 2006. 2 Feb. 2006 <http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/02.02/05-anth.html>.

“Greenblatt Named University Professor of the Humanities. ” Harvard University Gazette 21 Sept. 2000. 2 Feb. 2006 <http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2000/09.21/greenblatt.html>.

Greenblatt, Stephen. Interview. Barnes and Noble. “Meet the Writers: Stephen Greenblatt. ” 2004. 07 Feb. 2006 <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?userid=AG6YcY2DW0&cid=1305369#interview>.

Greenblatt, Stephen J. . The Greenblatt Reader. Ed. Michael Payne. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. ISBN 1-4051-1566-1

---. Hamlet in Purgatory. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 2001. ISBN 0-691-05873-3

---. Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture. New York: Routledge, 1990. ISBN 0-415-90173-1}

---. Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1991. ISBN 0-226-30651-8

---. Shakespearean Negotiations: The Circulation of Social Energy in Renaissance England. Los Angeles: U of California P, 1988. ISBN 0-520-06160-8

Leitch, Vincent, ed. Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. ISBN 0-393-97429-4

“Meet the Writers: Stephen Greenblatt. ” 2006. 07 Feb. 2006 <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?userid=AG6YcY2DW0&cid=1305369>.

Miller, Lucasta. “The Human Factor. ” The Guardian 26 Feb. 2005. 8 Feb. 2006 <The Guardian http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1424576,00.html>.

Pieters, Jürgen, ed. Critical Self-Fashioning: Stephen Greenblatt and the New Historicism. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1999. ISBN 3-631-34116-4

Pieters, Jürgen, 'Moments of Negotiation. The New Historicism of Stephen Greenblatt'. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Pess, 2001. ISBN 90-5356-502-7

Pieters, Jürgen. 'Speaking with the dead. Explorations in Literature and History. ' edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-7486-1588-1

Richter, David, ed. The Critical Tradition: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Boston: Bedford Books, 1988. ISBN 0-312-10106-6

Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan, eds. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. ISBN 1-4051-0696-4

Ruder, Debra Bradley. “Renaissance Literature Scholar to Join FAS. ” Harvard University Gazette 6 Feb. 1997. 8 Feb. 2006 < http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/1997/02.06/RenaissanceLite.html>.

“Stephen_Greenblatt. ” Photo. 2005. 07 Feb. 2006 <http://www.brattleboroliteraryfestival.org/authors.html> (dead link)

Notes

  1. ^ Donadio, Rachel, The New York Times, January 8, 2006, "Keeper of the Canon,"

External links

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