Robert I Matz

Campus Dean, George Mason University, Korea

Early modern literature, Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, gender and sexuality

Robert Matz (PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 1993; BA, Cornell University, 1986) is a professor of English and campus dean of George Mason University, Korea. His field is Renaissance Literature. He has published essays on Shakespeare and on Renaissance poetry and poetic theory, as well as two books, Defending Literature in Early Modern England: Renaissance Literary Theory in Social Context (Cambridge UP, 2000) and The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction (McFarland, 2008), which was selected as a 2008 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. His edition of two early modern marriage sermons was published in 2016. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Departments of English (ADE) and on the Executive Committee of the Folger Institute. Matz teaches courses on sixteenth and seventeenth-century English literature, and on Renaissance drama, including Shakespeare.

Selected Publications

Two Early Modern Marriage Sermons: Henry Smith’s A Preparative to Marriage (1591) and William Whately’s A Bride-Bush (1623). Edition. Routledge, 2016.

"The Scandals of Shakespeare's Sonnets." ELH 77 (2010): 477-508

The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction. McFarland, 2008. Selected as a 2008 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Defending Literature in Early Modern England: Renaissance Literary Theory in Social Context, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

"Slander, Renaissance Discourses of Sodomy, and Othello," ELH 66 (1999): 261-76.

Expanded Publication List

Published

“Theories and Philosophies of Poetry,” Blackwell Companion to Renaissance Poetry, ed. Catherine Bates. Blackwell Press, 2018.

“‘Who is Speaking Here?’: Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Modern Authorship and the Contemporary University,” in World-Making in Early Modern Literature, ed. Marcie Frank, Jonathan Goldberg and Karen Newman. Fordham University Press, 2016.

Two Early Modern Marriage Sermons: Henry Smith’s A Preparative to Marriage (1591) and William Whately’s A Bride-Bush (1623). Edition. Routledge, 2016.

“‘To serve, love and obey’: The Taming of the Shrew and Early Modern Marriage.” Approaches to Teaching Taming of the Shrew. Ed. Margaret Dupuis and Grace Tiffany. MLA, 2013.

"The Scandals of Shakespeare's Sonnets." ELH 77 (2010): 477-508

The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction. McFarland, 2008. Selected as a 2008 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Defending Literature in Early Modern England: Renaissance Literary Theory in Social Context, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

"Slander, Renaissance Discourses of Sodomy, and Othello," ELH 66 (1999): 261-76.

"Poetry, Politics and Discursive Forms: The Case of Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie," Genre 30 (1997): 195-214.

“Speaking What We Feel: Torture and Political Authority in King Lear,” Exemplaria 6 (1994): 223-41.

Reviews

Review of Kasey Evans, Colonial Virtue: The Mobility of Temperance in Renaissance England. Renaissance Quarterly 65 (2012)

Review of Stephen Greenblatt, Shakespeare’s Freedom. Journal of British Studies 51 (2012).

Review of Sean Keilen, Vulgar Eloquence: On the Renaissance Invention of Literature. Shakespeare Quarterly 60 (2009).

Courses Taught

ENGL 401: Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose

ENGL 402: Seventeenth-Century Poetry and Prose

ENGL 472: Spenser

ENGL 335: Shakespeare: Histories and Comedies

ENGL: 336: Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances

ENGL 473: Special Topics in Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Sonnets

ENGL 630: Early Modern Literature

Education

PhD, Johns Hopkins University, English and American Literature, 1993

MA, Johns Hopkins University, English and American Literature, 1988

BA, Cornell University, summa cum laude, with distinction in all subjects, 1986

In the Media

"Valentine's Day Truths about Shakespeare." Inside Higher Ed. February 14, 2008

"Shakespeare's Sonnets" Turns 400. With Good Reason. August 15, 2009

"Dear Garrison Keillor: Stop Making Jokes about English Majors." Inside Higher Ed. February 5, 2012

"Bardolatry as Idolatry." Inside Higher Ed. May 4, 2015

"The Myth of the English Major Barista." Inside Higher Ed. July 6, 2016