ROBERT SAWYER

 

 

Associate Professor and Graduate Coordinator                                                425 W. Poplar Street
English Department, East Tennessee State University                                        Johnson City, TN 37604
Campus Box 70683                                                                                        423.928.3551
Johnson City, TN 37614-0683                                                                        resawyer1@charter.net

 

EDUCATION

 

Ph.D. August 1997, English, University of Georgia

           Dissertation: Mid-Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare.

M.A. May 1987, English, Western Carolina University

B.A. May 1979, English, Stetson University

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

BOOKS:

Lives of Shakespearean Actors: Charles Kean. London: Pickering & Chatto (contracted, due June, 2009)

 

Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare: George Eliot, A. C. Swinburne, Robert Browning and Charles Dickens.

            New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2003

 

CO-EDITED BOOKS:

Re-Placing King Shakespeare in the Nineteenth Century, under review at Palgrave, 2008

Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare. Co-edited with Christy Desmet. Palgrave, 2002

Shakespeare and Appropriation. Co-edited with Christy Desmet. Routledge Press, 1999

 

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS:

“Prologues and Epilogues: Performing Shakespearean Criticism in the Restoration.” Prologues, Epilogues and Afterpieces: The Rest of the Eighteenth Century.

        Ed. Judith Slagle and Daniel Ennis, (U. of Delaware Press, 2006).  

“Looking for Mr. Goodbard: Swinburne, Resentment Criticism, and the Invention of Harold Bloom.” Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare. Ed. Christy Desmet and

        Robert Sawyer. New York: Palgrave, 2002. 167-181. 

“The Shakespeareanization of Robert Browning.” Shakespeare and Appropriation. Ed. Christy Desmet and Robert Sawyer. London: Routledge,1999. 142-160.

 

 

ESSAYS:

“Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations.”  South Atlantic Review. 72.2 (Spring 2007):  6-22.

            “Jerry Lee Lewis: Whole Lotta Shakespeare Goin’ On.” The Upstart Crow 26 (2006/2007): 29-37.              

“Re-Visioning Victorian Shakespeare.” Review Essay. South Atlantic Review. 72:1 (Winter 2007): 230-238.

            “The New Shakspere Society: 1873-1894.”Borrowers & Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation 2.2 (  Fall / Winter 2006, online).

“Carlyle’s Influence on Shakespeare.” Victorian Newsletter. (Forthcoming, Spring 2006).

            “Country Matters: Shakespeare and Songs of the American South.” Borrowers & Lenders: The Journal of Shakespearean Appropriation 1.1 (2005):     

“He Do Redemption in Different Voices: Charles Dickens and the Failure of Atonement.” South Atlantic Review. 68:2 (Spring 2003): 47-70.

“Looking for Mr. Goodbard: Swinburne, Resentment Criticism, and the Invention of Harold Bloom.” Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare. Ed. Christy Desmet and Robert Sawyer. New York: Palgrave, 2002. 167-181. 

“Democratizing the Bard: Shakespeare, Folk Art, and Ragtime Music.” The Upstart Crow, Vol. 19, 1999. 11-21.

“The Shakespeareanization of Robert Browning.” Shakespeare and Appropriation. Ed. Christy Desmet and Robert Sawyer. London: Routledge,1999. 142-160.

 

OTHER WORKS:

Fifteen entries in The Greenwood Shakespeare Encyclopedia. Ed. Patrcia Parker. 5 vols. (forthcoming, 2009)

Review of  Early Responses to Renaissance Drama. Theatre Survey 49.2 (forthcoming, 2008)

Review of The Cambridge Companion to Christopher Marlowe. The Marlowe Society Newsletter 26.1 ( Spring 2006)

Review of The Taste of the Town: Shakespearian Comedy and the Early Eighteenth-Century Theatre, by Katherine West Scheil. South Atlantic Review

Review of Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life, by Constance Kuriyama. South Atlantic Review 68:3 (Fall 2003)

Review of Sexual Shakespeare: Forgery, Authorship, Portraiture, by Michael Keevak. South Atlantic Review 67:1 (Winter 2002)

Review of Church and Stage in Victorian England, by Richard Foulkes. Comparative Drama 34.4 (Spring 2001)

Review of Shakespeare’s Victorian Stage, by Richard Schoch. South Atlantic Review 65:1 (Winter 2000)

Review of Unspeakable Shaxxxpeares: Queer Theory and Kiddie Culture, by Richard Burt. South Atlantic Review 64:2 (Spring 1999)

“Multiple Pleasures.” Review of The Trick of Singularity, by Laurie Osborne. Shakespeare Newsletter 48:4 (Winter 1998/99)

Review of Twelfth Night: New Casebooks. Ed. R. S. White. Shakespeare Bulletin (Winter 1999)

Review of The Shakespeare Trade: Appropriations and Performances, by Barbara Hodgdon. South Atlantic Review 64:1 (Winter 1999)

Review of Women Reading Shakespeare: 1660-1900. Ed. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts. Shakespeare Bulletin (Fall 1997)

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 

Associate Professor, East Tennessee State University, 2004-present

Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University, 2001-2004

Courses Taught at ETSU:

Shakespeare and Film (English 5507)

Supervised Teaching (English 5019)

Methods of Research (English 5950)

The Dramatic Life of Christopher Marlowe (English 5730)

Shakespeare and Appropriation (English 4957/5957)

Shakespeare and His Age (English 4200)

Victorian Literature (English 5350)

M.A. Thesis in English (English 5960)

Survey of British Literature, Part I, to 1700 (English 2210)

Survey of British Literature, Part II, 1700-present (English 2220)

Composition I and Composition II (English 1010 and 1020)

Enhanced Student Teaching (ED CUAI 5580)

 

Honors Thesis Director

Augusto Husmillo (2001)

Chris White (2001)

Jewel Aldea (2006)

 

MA Thesis Director

Erin Presley (2004)

 

MAT Thesis Committee

Ashley Keys (2008)

 

Robert E. Park Post-Doctoral Fellow, University of Georgia (UGA), 1997-2001

Teaching Assistant, UGA, 1991-96

Courses Taught at UGA:

Shakespeare I and Shakespeare II

Victorian Literature and Nineteenth-century British Novel

Survey of British Literature I, Beowulf to 1700

Survey of British Literature II, 1700-present (one an honors course, and one a writing intensive course)

“Brothers and Sisters: Siblings in English Literature” (course designed for a freshman honors course)

Distance Learning English 1101 (Composition, Independent Study)

English 1101 and English 1102 (computer assisted and non-computer sections)

 

Lecturer, Western Carolina University (WCU), 1987-91

Teaching Assistant, WCU, 1985-87

Courses Taught at WCU:

English 101 (composition) and English 102 (literature and composition)

Tutor, Special Services, 1986-88 (composition tutor for physically-challenged students)

 

CONFERENCES (selected)

 

“Shakespeare and Marlowe: Rewriting the Rivalry.” Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 2008

“Mid-Victorian Detractors of Shakespeare: Delia Bacon and F. G. Fleay.” Shakespeare Association of America, Dallas, March 2008

“The New Aestheticism in Shakespeare Studies.”  SAMLA, Atlanta, Nov. 2007

“Shakespeare and Appropriation,” Chair, SASCOL, Johnson City, TN, October 2007

“Swinburne,  Shakespeare, and Ethical Criticism.” Shakespeare Association of America, San Diego, April 2007

Victorian Sages and Shakespearean Stages, Invited Seminar Leader, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-Upon-Avon, 2006

Shakespeare Forums, Seminar co-leader, Shakespeare Association of America, Philadelphia, 2006

History Across Genres, Chair, South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 2005, Atlanta

“Shakespeare and Country Music.” Appalachian Writers Association, July, 2005, Bristol, TN

“Critical Performances: Remembering Shakespeare,” Chair, Shakespeare Association of America, 2005, Bermuda

“Hank and Willie.” South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 2004, Roanoke.

Shakespeare and the American South, Seminar co-leader, Shakespeare Association of America, 2004, New Orleans

“Country Matters: Shakespeare and Songs from the South.” Shakespeare Association of America, 2004, New Orleans

“They Play the Sodomites, or Worse’: Marlowe, Edward II, and A. C. Swinburne.” Fifth International Marlowe Conference, June 2003, Cambridge, England

“Titus Andronicus and the Victorian Authorship Controversy.” South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 2002, Baltimore

Transforming Titus: Past, Present, and Future, Organizer and Chair, South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 2002, Baltimore

Theater and Shakespearean Criticism in the Long Nineteenth Century, Seminar co-leader, Shakespeare Association of America, 2002, Minnesota

Re-placing “King Shakespeare” in the Nineteenth Century. Chair, MLA Special Session, 2001, New Orleans

“Dickens and Shakespeare: A Continental Connection.” World Shakespeare Congress, April 2001, Valencia, Spain 

“Bloom’s Borrowings.” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies, Nov. 2000, New Orleans

Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human, Seminar co-leader, Shakespeare Association of America, April 2000, Montreal, Canada

             “The Divine Dane: Sarah Bernhardt’s Hamlet.” Shakespeare Association of America, April 1999, San Francisco

Arguing Appropriation: Shakespeare and the Body of the Text, Organizer and Chair, South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 1998, Atlanta

“Characterizing Shakespeare: A.C. Swinburne and 1 Henry IV.” Shakespeare Association of America, March 1998, Washington, DC

“Bill Shakespeare Never Knew Ragtime.” Popular Culture Conference, Oct. 1997, Baltimore

“Mother and Child Reunion: Hamlet, Daniel Deronda, and George Eliot’s Maternal Subtext.” 18th- and 19th-century British Women Writers Conference, March 1996, Columbia, SC

“                      “Arms and the Man: Shakespeare’s Restoration of the Father from Hamlet to the Tempest.” South Atlantic MLA, Nov. 1992, Knoxville

 

INVITED LECTURES

 

“Jerry Lee Lewis: A Whole Lot of Shakespeare Goin’ On,” Kingsport Alliance for Continued Learning, April, 2007

“Mary Shelley and Shakespeare: Monstrous Creations,” Johnson City Public Library, March 2006

“Battered Pick-up Trucks, Blue Tick Hounds, and the Bard of Avon,” Phi Kappa Phi, Induction Ceremony, ETSU, Nov. 2005

“Shakespeare and Country Music.” Institute for Continued Learning, ETSU, Oct. 2005

“Shakespeare and Country Music.” Johnson City Kiwanis Club. March 2005

“Shakespeare and Songs of the South.” The Appalachian Writers Association, Bristol VA,  July 2005

 

ADMINISTRATIVE AND OTHER SERVICE

 

Reader, Victorian Review (2008-present)

Editorial Board, South Atlantic Review (2007-present)

Associate Editor, Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation (2004-present)

Grant Proposal Reviewer for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2006): Title of proposal: “Identity and Ethics in Shakespeare”

Manuscript reviewer for Routledge Press (2002)

Member, South Atlantic Review Prize Committee (2003-2008)

Executive Committee, “English II: 1500-1600,” South Atlantic MLA (2003-2005)

Board Member, Friends of the Johnson City Public Library, 2002-2005

 

East Tennessee State University:

Educational Affairs Committee, 2001-2003

Grade Appeals Committee, 2003-2006

 

English Department

Graduate Coordinator, 2005-present

Chair, Romanticist Search Committee, 2004-2005

Undergraduate Committee, 2002-2005

Student Teacher Supervisor, 2002-2005

English Department Tenure and Promotion Standards Committee, 2001-2002

Chair, English Department Public Relations Committee, 2002-2004

 

University of Georgia:

Chair, Final exam committee, English 1101 and English 1102

 

Western Carolina University:

Chair, 101 exam committee and textbook selection committee (4 semesters)

Chair, 102 exam committee (2 semesters)

Taught Counseling 130 (introduction to the college environment), 1989-91

Summer Orientation Leader, 1989-91; Early Enrollment Program Advisor, 1989-91

 

ACADEMIC AWARDS AND HONORS

 

Society for Theatre Research Award [London], (research at the British Museum), Summer 2008

Research award, English Department, ETSU, (research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC), Winter 2008

Invited Seminar Leader, Shakespeare Institute, Summer 2006

Elected Member of the Shakespeare Institute, International Shakespeare Association (2005)

ETSU, Small Research Grant, summer 2004 (to work in London on Charles Dickens)

ETSU, Presidential-Grant-in-Aid, summer 2003 (research on Marlowe and Shakespeare)

ETSU, Major Research Grant, summer stipend, 2002 (to finish my book with FDUP)

Franklin College Travel Grant, UGA, 1996-97 (research at the Folger Shakespeare Library)

English Department Dissertation Travel Grant, UGA, 1995-96

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, UGA, 1995

 

MEMBERSHIPS

 

Shakespeare Institute (by invitation only)

Modern Language Association and South Atlantic Modern Language Association

Shakespeare Association of America

 

REFERENCES

 

Professor Judith Slagle, Chair, English Dept., ETSU (slagle@mail.etsu.edu)

Professor Terence Hawkes, Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, Cardiff University, Wales  (hawkest@aol.com)

Professor Christy Desmet, English Dept., UGA (cdesmet@uga.edu)

Professor Tricia Lootens, English Dept., UGA (tlootens@uga.edu)