Postmodern
Stephen Greenblatt
b. 1943
American literary critic, theorist and scholar
- United States
- American
- New Historicism
- Literary Theory
About
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is an American literary historian and author. He has served as the John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University since 2000. Greenblatt is the general editor of The Norton Shakespeare (2015) and the general editor and a contributor to The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Portrait by Bachrach (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.
Life on the Timeline
Major Works
No works have been hung in this gallery yet — the acquisitions team is at work.
Exam Dossier
Most-asked topics
- New Historicism: origins and methodology
- Concept of 'self-fashioning' in Renaissance Self-Fashioning (1980)
- 'Social energy' and 'cultural poetics'
- Greenblatt's debt to Michel Foucault and Clifford Geertz
- The Swerve (2011) and the rediscovery of Lucretius
- Greenblatt as general editor of The Norton Shakespeare
- New Historicism vs Cultural Materialism (Greenblatt vs Raymond Williams)
- Greenblatt's biographical/critical works on Shakespeare (Will in the World, Hamlet in Purgatory, Tyrant)
Previous-year themes
- Definition and key features of New Historicism
- Greenblatt's coinage and use of the term 'self-fashioning'
- Distinction between New Historicism and Cultural Materialism
- Influence of Foucault's power/discourse theory on Greenblatt
- Identification of Greenblatt's major works and their years
- The Swerve and its argument about the origins of modernity
- Greenblatt's editorial role in Norton Shakespeare/Norton Anthology
Common confusions
- Confusing New Historicism (Greenblatt, American) with Cultural Materialism (Raymond Williams/Dollimore-Sinfield, British) — both study history and power but differ in political stance and national origin.
- Confusing Greenblatt's 'self-fashioning' (Renaissance Self-Fashioning, 1980) with Foucault's 'discourse'/'power-knowledge' — self-fashioning is Greenblatt's applied literary concept, not Foucault's own term.
- Confusing The Swerve (about Lucretius/Poggio Bracciolini) with Will in the World (Shakespeare biography) — both are popular Greenblatt books but on different subjects.
- Confusing Norton Shakespeare (complete works edition) with Norton Anthology of English Literature (period survey anthology) — Greenblatt edits both but they are separate publications.
- Mistaking Greenblatt for a structuralist or formalist critic — he is a poststructuralist-influenced historicist who reads literature alongside archival/non-literary documents.
- Confusing 'social energy' (Shakespearean Negotiations) with 'thick description' (Clifford Geertz's anthropological term that Greenblatt adapts, not coins).
Memory tricks
'Greenblatt = Green + New' — New Historicism grows (green) history freshly from archives and literature together.
SELF-FASHIONING: 'S' for Sixteenth-century (More to Shakespeare) — remember the subtitle 'From More to Shakespeare' fixes the historical range (1980 book).
SWERVE = 'Sixty (15th c.) Would-be Erased Rediscovered Verse Epicurus' — helps recall The Swerve is about the Renaissance recovery of Lucretius' Epicurean poem.
Harvard Cogan = 'H' for Harvard, since 2000, John Cogan University Professor — pairs Greenblatt firmly with Harvard, not Berkeley (his earlier post).
Norton x2: 'Shakespeare AND Anthology' — Greenblatt edits both major Norton literature products; remember the double-Norton link.
'Speak with the Dead' = Shakespearean Negotiations opening line — 'dead' rhymes with '1988 read', pinning quote to year.
