Julianne Werlin

I am a scholar of the English Renaissance with two major areas of interest: sociological approaches to literary history, and poetry and poetics. I am currently working on a project entitled English Renaissance Authors: A Demographic History, which considers how literary history evolved in response to trends in mortality, nuptiality, education, and economic change over the period from 1500 to 1700. I am also beginning a study of literary generations, from the Black Death to the modern era. 

My work also examines connections between economic and literary history. My first book, Writing at the Origin of Capitalism (Oxford) attempted to synthesize book history with the history of the transition to a capitalist economy to show how market centralization shaped the production and circulation of books and manuscripts. I have an ongoing interest in the intersection of literary history and the economy, including the sociology of authorship, the relationship between class and genre, and Marxist and historical materialist approaches to literary history.

In my scholarship and teaching on poetry and poetics, I am currently particularly interested in prosody, rhyme, and metaphor. I also enjoy considering long literary histories, from the ancient world to the present, and welcome conversations with students at any level who share that interest.