Sarah Beckwith, Katherine Everett Gilbert Distinguished Professor of English

Sarah Beckwith

Sarah Beckwith works on late medieval religious writing, medieval and early modern drama, and ordinary language philosophy. She is the author of Christ's Body: Identity, Religion and Society in Medieval English Writing (London: Routledge, 1993, pbk 1996); Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York's Play of Corpus Christi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, pbk 2003), and Shakespeare and the Grammar of Forgiveness (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011, pbk 2013). She is currently working on a book about Shakespearean tragedy and about philosophy's love affair with the genre of tragedy and The Book of Second Chances, a book about versions of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. She co-edited JMEMS for several years, and co-founded the book series Re-Formations with the University of Notre Dame Press and is the editor of numerous collections of essays and journals.

Office Location:  302A Allen, Box 90014, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:  +1 919 660 3342
Email Address: send me a message
Division:  Graduate, Undergraduate

Teaching (Fall 2024):

Office Hours:

Fall 2022 Semester:

Mondays between 1:00-3:00 pm and by appointment (315A Allen)


Education:

Ph.D.King's College London (United Kingdom)1992
M.A.University of Oxford (United Kingdom)1982
B.A. with HonorsOxford University1981
B.A.University of Oxford (United Kingdom)1981
Specialties:

Medieval Literature
Dramatic Literature
Renaissance/Early Modern Literature
Research Interests: Medieval Literature, Shakespeare, Ordinary Language Philosophy

Current projects: Shakespeare's Late Tragedies, The Book of Second Chances, Book on Theatre and Ordinary Language Philosophy

Sarah Beckwith works on late medieval religious writing, medieval and early modern drama, and ordinary language philosophy. She is the author of Christ's Body: Identity, Religion and Society in Medieval English Writing (London: Routledge, 1993, pbk 1996); Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York's Play of Corpus Christi (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, pbk 2003), and Shakespeare and the Grammar of Forgiveness (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011, pbk 2013). She is currently working on a book about Shakespearean tragedy and about philosophy's love affair with the genre of tragedy and The Book of Second Chances, a book about versions of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. She co-edited JMEMS for several years, and co-founded the book series Re-Formations with the University of Notre Dame Press and is the editor of numerous collections of essays and journals.

Areas of Interest:

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

Current Ph.D. Students  

Representative Publications

  1. Beckwith, S, Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York’s Play of Corpus Christi (2001), University of Chicago Press
  2. Beckwith, S, Christ’s Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings (1996), Routledge
  3. Beckwith, S, Sacrifice: Medieval and Early Modern, edited by Aers, D; Beckwith, S, JMEMS, vol. 31 no. 3 (Fall, 2001)
  4. Beckwith, S, The Cultural Work of Medieval Theatre: Ritual Practice in England 1350-1600, edited by Beckwith, S, JMEMS, vol. 29 no. 1 (Winter, 1999)
  5. S Beckwith, Catholicism and Catholicity: Eucharistic Communities in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by G. Jones and J. Buckley, Directions in Modern Theology, vol. 15 no. 2 (March, 1999), Blackwell  [abs]
  6. Stephen Greenblatt's Hamlet and the Forms of Oblivion, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies (Jan. 2003) (8000 words.)  [abs]
  7. Beckwith, S, Absent Presences: Resurrection Theatre in York, in Festschrift for Derek Pearsall, edited by Aers, D; Woodbridge, B; Brewer, (2000)