Sarah Beckwith | Scholars@Duke

Sarah Beckwith
Katherine Everett Gilbert Distinguished Professor of English

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 Hours

Virtual Office Hours Mondays between 1:30 and 3:30 pm and by appointment
https://duke.zoom.us/j/5664588112

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Katherine Everett Gilbert Distinguished Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2013
Professor of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009
Professor in the Department of Religion, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2011
Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2001
Bass Fellow, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2008

Contact Information

302A Allen, Box 90014, Durham, NC 27708
Duke Box 90014, Durham, NC 27708-0680
ott@duke.edu (919) 684-2741

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., King's College 1992
- M.A., University of Oxford (United Kingdom) 1982
- B.A., University of Oxford (United Kingdom) 1981
Previous Appointments & Affiliations
- Chair of the Department of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2015 - 2018
- Chair, Department of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009 - 2012
- Marcello Lotti Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2003 - 2008
- Professor of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2001 - 2006
- Associate Professor of Religion, Religious Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1997 - 2002
- Associate Professor of English, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1996 - 2001
- Instructor, University, English, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 1989 - 1992
Recognition
In the News
- MAY 29, 2013
  
  The Humanities: The Next Generation
Awards & Honors
- Katherine Everitt Gilbert Chair. Duke University. July 2013
- M.Abrams Fellowship. National Humanities Center. January 2013
- Fellow. National Humanities Center. 2012
- Folger Institute. Folger Institute. January 2008
- Fellow. National Humanities Center. 1994
Expertise
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - United Kingdom (Country)
- Teaching
  - United Kingdom (Country)
Research
Selected Grants
- Forms of Conversion: Religion, Culture, and Cognitive Ecologies in Early Modern Europe and its Worlds awarded by Mcgill University, Montreal 2013 - 2019
- Paper Dolls awarded by The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation 2001 - 2002
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Beckwith, S. Shakespeare and the Grammar of Forgiveness. 2011.
  - Beckwith, S., and J. Simpson. Premodern Shakespeare. Vol. 40, 2010, pp. 1–5. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-2009-011.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Beckwith, S., and J. Simpson. Premodern Shakespeare. Vol. 40, 2010, pp. 1–5. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-2009-011.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Beckwith, S. Reform and Cultural Revolution: Writing English Literary History 1350-1547. Edited by D. Aers and S. Beckwith, vol. 35, 2005.
  - Beckwith, S. Hermeneutics and Ideology: Reading Medieval and Early Modern Texts. Edited by D. Aers and S. Beckwith, vol. 33.1, 2003.
  - Beckwith, S. Sacrifice. Edited by D. Aers and S. Beckwith, vol. 31.3, 2001.
  - Beckwith, S. Signifying God: Social Relation and Symbolic Act in York’s Play of Corpus Christi. University of Chicago Press, 2001.
  - Beckwith, S. Christ’s Body: Identity, Culture and Society in Late Medieval Writings. Routledge, 1996.
- Academic Articles
  - Aers, D., and S. Beckwith. “Conversions.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 48, no. 3, Sept. 2018, pp. 433–34. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-7048535.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Reading for our lives.” Pmla, vol. 132, no. 2, Mar. 2017, pp. 331–36. Scopus, doi:10.1632/pmla.2017.132.2.331.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Are there any women in Shakespeare's plays?: Fiction, representation, and reality in feminist criticism.” New Literary History, vol. 46, no. 2, Mar. 2015, pp. 241–60. Scopus, doi:10.1353/nlh.2015.0018.
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  - Bauer, Nancy, et al. “Introduction.” New Literary History, vol. 46, no. 2, Project Muse, 2015, pp. v–xiii. Crossref, doi:10.1353/nlh.2015.0012.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Language goes on holiday: English allegorical drama and the virtue tradition.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 42, no. 1, Dec. 2012, pp. 107–30. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-1473118.
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  - Beckwith, S. William Shakespeare and Stanley Cavell: Acknowledgement, Confession and Tragedy. Continuum, Sept. 2011.
  - Aers, D., and S. Beckwith. “Reform and cultural revolution: Introduction.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 35, no. 1, Jan. 2005, pp. 3–12. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-35-1-3.
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  - Beckwith, S., and D. Aers. “Reform and Cultural Revolution.” Jmems, 2005.
  - Beckwith, S. “Stephen Greenblatt's Hamlet and the forms of oblivion.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 33, no. 2, Jan. 2003, pp. 261–80. Manual, doi:10.1215/10829636-33-2-261.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Skepticism and the Tasks of Theater: Stanley Cavell and the Commitments of Speech.” Saq, Jan. 2003.
  - Aers, David, and Sarah Beckwith. “Introduction.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, Duke University Press, Sept. 2001, pp. 443–44. Crossref, doi:10.1215/10829636-31-3-443.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Sacrifice: Medieval and Early Modern.” Jmems, edited by D. Aers and S. Beckwith, vol. 31, 2001.
  - Beckwith, S. “Sacrifice: Medieval and Early Modern.” Jmems, edited by D. Aers and S. Beckwith, vol. 31, 2001.
  - Beckwith, Sarah. “The Body Broken: The Calvinist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization of Power in Sixteenth-Century France. By Christopher Elwood. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. xii + 251 pp. $49.95 cloth.” Church History, vol. 69, no. 1, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Mar. 2000, pp. 183–85. Crossref, doi:10.2307/3170607.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Catholicism and Catholicity: Eucharistic Communities in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.” Directions in Modern Theology, edited by G. Jones and J. Buckley, vol. 15, no. 2, Blackwell, Mar. 1999.
  - Beckwith, S. “Introduction.” Modern Theology, vol. 15, no. 2, Jan. 1999, pp. 113–14. Scopus, doi:10.1111/1468-0025.00088.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Introduction - The cultural work of medieval theater: Ritual practice in England, 1350-1600.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 29, no. 1, 1999, pp. 1–5.
    Link to Item
  - Beckwith, S. “The Cultural Work of Medieval Theatre: Ritual Practice in England 1350-1600.” Jmems, edited by S. Beckwith, vol. 29, 1999.
  - Beckwith, S. “The Cultural Work of Medieval Theatre: Ritual Practice in England 1350-1600.” Jmems, edited by S. Beckwith, vol. 29, 1999.
  - Beckwith, S. “English communities in transition, 1350-1600 - Introduction.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, 1998, pp. 257–62.
    Link to Item
  - Beckwith, S., and S. Wharton AJ. “Body, Matter, Spirit.” Jmems, Special Issue, edited by A. Wharton, vol. 28, 1998.
  - Beckwith, S. “The Present of Past Things: The York Corpus Christi Theatre as a Contemporary Theater of Memory.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 1996.
  - Beckwith, S. “Passionate Regulation: Enclosure, Ascesis and the Feminist Imaginary.” Saq, vol. 93, 1994, pp. 803–24.
  - Beckwith, S. “Problems of authority in late medieval english mysticism: Language, agency, and authority in the book of margery kempe.” Exemplaria, vol. 4, no. 1, Jan. 1992, pp. 171–99. Scopus, doi:10.1179/exm.1992.4.1.171.
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  - Beckwith, S. “Women sing the Blues.” Review of Wilfrid Mellers’ Angels of the Night, Women’S Review, Jan. 1987.
  - Beckwith, S. “Kingsley and the Women.” Review of Kingsley Amis’S ’The Old Devils,’ New Socialist, Jan. 1987.
  - Beckwith, S. “Steven Berkoff’s Theatre of the Grotesque.” Review of Sink the Belgrano, New Socialist, Oct. 1986.
  - Beckwith, S. “Schlock up your Daughters.” Review of Recent ’Exploitation’ Cinema, New Socialist, July 1986.
  - Beckwith, S. “Women beware Barker.” Review of Howard Barker’S Women Beware Women, New Socialist, June 1986.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Geoff Dyer’s Ways of Telling: The Works of John Berger.” City Limits, Jan. 1986.
  - “Communities in Transition.” Jmems, Special Issue, vol. 28.
- Book Sections
  - Beckwith, S. “Hamlet’s ethics.” Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Philosophical Perspectives, 2017, pp. 222–46. Scopus, doi:10.1093/oso/9780190698515.003.0009.
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  - Bauer, N., et al. Introduction. Vol. 46, 2015, pp. v–xiii. Scopus, doi:10.1353/nlh.2015.0012.
    Full Text
  - Beckwith, S. “William Shakespeare and Stanley Cavell: Acknowledgement, Confession and Tragedy.” Stanley Cavell and Literary Studies, Continuum, 2011.
  - Aers, D., and S. Beckwith. “The Eucharist.” Cultural Reformations, edited by James Simpson and Brian Cummings, Oxford University Press, 2011.
  - Beckwith, S. “Acknowledgement and Confession in Cymbeline.” Shakesepeare and Religion: Early Modern and Postmeodern Perspectives, University of Notre Dame Press, 2011, pp. 97–126.
  - Aers, D., and S. Beckwith. “The Eucharist.” Cultural Reformations, edited by Brian Cummings, 2010, pp. 153–65.
  - Beckwith, S. “Shakespeare’s Resurrections.” Shakespeare and the Middle Ages, edited by Curtis Perry and John Watkins, Oxford University Press, 2009.
  - Beckwith, S. “Middle English Drama.” The Cambridge Companion to Middle English Literature, edited by Larry Scanlon, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  - Beckwith, S. “Drama.” The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500, 2009, pp. 83–94. Scopus, doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521841672.007.
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  - Aers, D., and Sarah Beckwith. “Discerning the Body.” Collection on Medieval and ReformationCulture, edited by Brian Cummings and James Simpson, Oxford UP, 2008.
  - Beckwith, S. “Medieval Penance, Reformation Repentance and Measure for Measure.” Reading the Medieval in Early Modern England, edited by Gordon McMullan and David Matthews, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 193–204.
  - Beckwith, S. “The Play of Voice: Knowledge, Acknowledgment and Judgement in Measure for Measure.” Spectacle and Public Performance in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, edited by R. Stillma, Brill, 2006.
  - Beckwith, S. “Preserving, Conserving, Deserving the Past: A Meditation on Ruin in Postwar Britain in five Fragments.” A Place to Believe In: Locating Medieval Landscapes, edited by Clare Lees and Gillian Overing, Penn State University Press, 2006, 2006, p. p.191-210.
  - Beckwith, S. “Long review essay on Catholic Shakespeares.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, 2006.
  - Beckwith, S. “Repairs in the Dark: Medieval Penance and Reformation Repentance in Measure for Measure.” Reading the Medieval in the Early Modern Edited by David Mathews and Gordon MacMullan, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  - Beckwith, Sarah. “Office,Role,Persona: Martin Marprelate’s Contribution to Theater History.” Image and Imagination of the Religious Self in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe Edited by Walter Melion, 2005.
  - Beckwith, S. “Preserving, Deserving, Conserving the Past: A Meditation in Fragments on Ruin as Relic in Post War England.” Eds, Lees and Overing, edited by Clare Lees and Gillian Overby, State Press, 2004.
  - Beckwith, S. “Absent Presences: Resurrection Theatre in York.” Festschrift for Derek Pearsall, edited by D. Aers et al., 2000.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Covert Operations: Secrecy in Middle English Literature.” Studies in the Age of Chaucer, U of Pennsylvania P, 1999.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of The Body Broken: the Calvinist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization of Power in Sixteenth Century France.” Church History, Clarendon, 1998.
  - Beckwith, S. “"Pytussely beholde": Duffy, Consolation and the Contemporary Past.” Assays, edited by P. Knapp, 1997.
  - Beckwith, S. “Sacrum Signum: Sacramentality and Dissent in York’s Theatre of Corpus Christi.” Dissent in the Middle Ages, edited by Rita Copeland, Cambridge UP, 1996.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Texts of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society.” Studies in Philology, U of Pennsylvania P, 1996.
  - Beckwith, S. “Ritual, Theatre and Social Space in York’s Play of Corpus Christi.” Bodies and Disciplines: Intersections of Literature and History in Fifteenth Century England, edited by Barbara Hanawalt and David Wallace, U of Minnesota P, 1995.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Feminist Approaches to the Medieval Body.” Speculum, edited by Sarah Stanbury and Linda Lomperis, 1995.
  - Beckwith, S. “Making the World in York and the York Corpus Christi Cycle.” Framing Medieval Bodies, edited by Sarah Kay and Miri Rubin, Manchester UP, 1994, pp. 254–76.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of The New Medievalism.” Envoi: A Review Journal of Medieval Literature, edited by Marina Borwnlee et al., 1993.
  - Beckwith, S. “Ritual, Church and Theatre: Medieval Dramas of the Sacramental Body.” Culture and History: Essays on English Communities, Identities and Writing 1350-1600, edited by David Aers and Hemel Hempstead, Harvester, 1992, pp. 65–90.
  - Beckwith, S. “The Power of Devils and the Hearts of Men: Notes Towards a Drama of Witchcraft.” Shakespeare and the Changing Curriculum, edited by Nigel Wheale and Lesley Aers, Routledge, 1991, pp. 143–61.
  - Beckwith, S. “A Very Material Mysticism: The Medieval Mysticism of Margery Kempe.” Medieval Literature: History, Criticism and Ideology, edited by David Aers, 1986, pp. 34–57.
- Other Articles
  - Beckwith, S. Program notes for Adrian Noble’s Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth for Barbican, Stratford, US tour. Jan. 2003.
  - Beckwith, S. The Mind’s Retreat From the Face. Jan. 2003.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Michal Kobialka’s This is My Body: Representational Practices in the Early Middle Ages.” Theatre Journal, Jan. 2003.
  - Beckwith, S. “Review of Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages by George Duby; Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies, edited by Angeliki E. Laiou; Wife and Widow in Medieval England, edited by Sue Sheridan Walker.” Medievalia Et Humanistica, 1996.
- Conference Papers
  - Aers, D., and S. Beckwith. “The fortunes of tragedy.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 49, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–5. Scopus, doi:10.1215/10829636-7279600.
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Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
- ENGLISH 101S: The Art of Reading 2022
- ENGLISH 235: Shakespeare 2022
- ENGLISH 590S-1: Special Topics Seminar I 2022
- ENGLISH 616S: Literature and Philosophy 2022
- ENGLISH 891: Special Readings 2022
- LIT 616S: Literature and Philosophy 2022
- MEDREN 330: Shakespeare 2022
- MEDREN 590S-3: Special Topics Seminar I 2022
- PHIL 616S: Literature and Philosophy 2022
- THEATRST 222: Shakespeare 2022
- THEATRST 495: Senior Distinction Project 2022
- ENGLISH 236S: Shakespeare's Nature 2021
- ENGLISH 890S: Special Topics Seminar 2021
- ENGLISH 891: Special Readings 2021
- MEDREN 336S: Shakespeare's Nature 2021
- THEATRST 237S: Shakespeare's Nature 2021
- THEATRST 493-1: Research Independent Study 2021
- ENGLISH 390S-7: Special Topics in Language and Literature 2020
- ENGLISH 890S: Special Topics Seminar 2020
- ENGLISH 891: Special Readings 2020
- MEDREN 390S: Seminar in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 2020
- THEATRST 290S-1: Special Topics in Dramatic Literature, History, Theory, or Criticism 2020
- XTIANTHE 890: Theological Topics 2020
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession
- Re-formations: Medieval and Early Modern. January 12, 2008 2008

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Previous Appointments & Affiliations

In the News

Awards & Honors

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Teaching

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Conference Papers

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession