Queer Early Modern Book History: Lecture with Jeffrey Masten

 Please join us on October 26 at 4:30pm in HQ 136 for a lecture by Professor Jeffrey Masten (Northwestern) titled “Queer Futures of Queer Pasts: Marlowe, Shakespeare, and the Play of History.” Treating two English history plays that are themselves often said to trace an authorial lineage, Professor Masten’s talk will read Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II and Shakespeare’s Richard II for their projections of queer pleasure, reproductive futurity, and queer futures. From this perspective, it will also consider the proliferation of queer children in recent productions and adaptations of Marlowe’s play.

Graduate students are also invited to participate in “Queering Early Modern Book History,” a workshop with Professor Masten the following day (Friday, October 27th, at 11am in HQ 109). This will be an open discussion of pre-circulated chapters from Queer Philologies, focusing on methodological issues at the intersection of queer theory and book history. Masten will present some recent provenance research on early modern queer readership. A light lunch will be served at the workshop - please RSVP using this link so we know how much food to order.

Jeffrey Masten is Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern University. He teaches and writes at the intersection of early modern English literature, book history, and sexuality studies. He has written influentially about collaboration, authorship, and discourses of sexuality in early English drama in Textual Intercourse: Collaboration, Authorship, and Sexualities in Renaissance Drama (Cambridge), and about sexuality and the history of the language in Queer Philologies: Sex, Language, and Affect in Shakespeare’s Time (Penn). Queer Philologies received the 2018 Elizabeth Dietz Memorial Award for best book in early modern drama studies. Masten was named a Guggenheim Fellow for 2022-23.

This event is part of the yearlong interdisciplinary speaker series Queer and Trans Case Studies in Early Modern Literature, which highlights the range of geographies, languages, and methodologies which animate the study of gender and sexuality in early modern literature. Future speakers include Colby Gordon (Bryn Mawr) and Abdulhamit Arvas (Penn) in the spring semester. Please reach out to Jacob Romm (jacob.romm@yale.edu) or Patrick Soto (patrick.soto@yale.edu) with any questions.