Research Interests for Sarah Beckwith

Sarah Beckwith works on late medieval religious writing, medieval and early modern drama, and ordinary language philosophy. Her book, Christ's Body: Identity, Religion and Society in Medieval English Writing was published by Routledge in 1993. Her book, Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York's Play of Corpus Christi was published by the University of Chicago Press in the summer of 2001. Her book, Shakespeare and the Grammar of Forgiveness, will be published by Cornell University Press in April, 2011. She is currently working on a book about Shakespearean tragedy and about philosophy's love affair with the genre of tragedy.

Areas of Interest:

Medieval Literature & Culture
Early modern British Literature and Culture
Theatre History
Religious Studies

Representative Publications

1. Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York's Play of Corpus Christi (2001, Paperback ed. 2003), U of Chicago P
2. Christ's Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings (1996), Routledge
3. JMEMS (Jan. 2003)
4. with D. Aers, eds., Sacrifice: Medieval and Early Modern, JMEMS, special issue, vol. 31 no. 3 (Fall, 2001)
5. The Cultural Work of Medieval Theatre: Ritual Practice in England 1350-1600, JMEMS, special issue, vol. 29 no. 1 (Winter, 1999)
6. Catholicism and Catholicity: Eucharistic Communities in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Modern Theology, vol. 15 no. 2 (Mar. 1999) (based on conference being held at Duke, April 17-19, under auspices of the Homeland Foundation.)
7. Stephen Greenblatt's Hamlet and the Forms of Oblivion, JMEMS (Jan. 2003) (8000 words.)
8. Absent Presences: Resurrection Theatre in York, in Festschrift for Derek Pearsall, edited by D. Aers, Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer (2000)