Anita Sherman Professor Literature
- Additional Positions at AU
- Folger Institute, Central Executive Committee
- Faculty Associate, Political Theory Institute
- Degrees
- BA Harvard University (History and Literature); MA Oxford University (Philosophy and Theology); PhD The University of Maryland (English Literature)
- Languages Spoken
- Spanish, French, Italian, Latin
- Favorite Spot on Campus
- The Library
- Book Currently Reading
- Giorgio Agamben, The Time That Remains
- Bio
- Anita Gilman Sherman studies 16th and 17th century literature, specializing in works that have problems of knowledge and interpretation at their thematic center. Her book, Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), explores the repercussions of skepticism on representations of memory, history and temporality in Shakespeare and Donne, arguing that in their hands the art of memory becomes an art of doubt. Her new book , 鈥淪kepticism in Early Modern English Literature: The Problems and Pleasures of Doubt鈥 (Cambridge University Press, 2021), extends her work on skepticism, developing its aesthetic and political implications. Professor Sherman has published essays on John Donne, Garcilaso de la Vega, Herbert of Cherbury, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Heywood, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald in edited collections and in journals such as Connotations, Criticism, Shakespeare Quarterly, The Shakespearean International Yearbook, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Studies in English Literature, Texas Studies in Language and Literature, the Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies, and Sin Nombre. She enjoys taking students to the theater.
- See Also
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Fall 2024
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CORE-106 Complex Problems Seminar: The Examined Life
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LIT-334 Topic Renaissance/17C Lit/Clt: Literature/Plague Across Ages
Spring 2025
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LIT-232 Shakespeare: Shakespeare: the Second Decade
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LIT-334 Topic Renaissance/17C Lit/Clt: Lit of the English Revolution
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
Publications
(Cambridge, 2021)
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
Critical Essays
"The Impact of Thomas Stanley's聽History of Philosophy聽on Margaret Cavendish."聽Studies in Philology聽120.2 (2023): 315-339.
"Andrew Marvell's Taste for Death" in聽Memory and Mortality in Renaissance England.聽Ed. William Engel, Rory Loughnane and Grant Williams (Cambridge UP, 2022), pp. 201-217.
"Poland in the Cultural Imaginary of Early Modern England." Journal of Early Modern Cultural Studies 15.1 (2015): 55-89.
鈥淔antasies of Private Language in Shakespeare鈥檚 鈥楶hoenix and Turtle鈥 and Donne鈥檚 鈥楨cstasy鈥欌 in Shakespeare and Donne: Generic Hybrids in the Cultural Imaginary, eds. Judith Anderson and Jennifer Vaught (Fordham UP, 2013), pp. 250-278.
鈥淭he Politics of Truth in Herbert of Cherbury.鈥 Texas Studies in Language and Literature 54.1 (2012): 189-215.
鈥淔orms of Oblivion: Losing the Revels Office at St. John鈥檚,鈥 Shakespeare Quarterly 62.1 (2011): 75 鈥 105.
Criticism 52.1 (2010): 1 鈥 24.
鈥淭he Skeptical Ethics of John Donne: The Case of Ignatius his Conclave.鈥澛 Reading Renaissance Ethics. Ed. Marshall Grossman (Routledge, 2007): 367 鈥 405.
鈥淭he Aesthetic Strategies of Skepticism: Mixing Memory and Desire in Montaigne and Shakespeare.鈥澛 Shakespearean International Yearbook 6. Ed. Graham Bradshaw,Tom Bishop and Peter Holbrook (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006): 99 鈥 118.
鈥淛ohn Donne and Spain.鈥澛 Studies in Honor of Denah Lida. Ed. Mary G. Berg and Lanin A. Gyurko (Potomac, Maryland: Scripta Humanistica, 2005): 71 鈥 83.
Studies in English Literature 44.2 (Spring 2004): 277 鈥 295.
鈥淭he Status of Charity in Thomas Heywood鈥檚 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody II.鈥 Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 12 (1999): 99 鈥 120.
鈥淓l Viento como Destino en la Obra de Garcilaso de la Vega.鈥 Revista Sin Nombre 14 (1984): 132 鈥 143.聽聽 聽
Research Interests
Renaissance literature, early modern philosophy, Shakespeare, Montaigne, drama, reception theory, memory studies
AU Experts
Area of Expertise
Renaissance literature, Shakespeare
Additional Information
Anita Gilman Sherman is author of the book Skepticism and Memory in Shakespeare and Donne (Palgrave MacMillan, 2007).
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.