Donovan Sherman, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of English
My research focuses on early modern drama, with a focus on Shakespeare. I am particularly interested in how performance of that era can conduct philosophical and spiritual work. My most recent book, The Philosopher’s Toothache: Embodied Stoicism in Early Modern English Drama (Northwestern, 2021), explores how Stoic philosophy became realized in Shakespeare’s day as a theatrical, embodied practice, rather than simply as a set of doctrines. I am also the author of Second Death: Theatricalities of the Soul in Shakespeare’s Drama (Edinburgh, 2016), which examines how the figure of the soul caused a crisis in dramatic representation. Editorial projects include a special issue of The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, with Ineke Murakami, on the topic of “Performance Beyond Drama”; Shakespeare and Virtue: A Handbook, with Julia Reinhard Lupton (forthcoming from Cambridge); and Early Modern Liveness: Mediating Presence in Text, Stage, and Screen, with Danielle Rosvally (under contract with Arden Shakespeare). I have published essays in several journals, including Shakespeare Quarterly and English Literary Renaissance, and in many collections, including The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Philosophy and Lesser Living Creatures of the Renaissance. I am a member of the American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) and the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA) and have organized working groups and given talks at both of those organizations. Since 2020, I have been Book Review Editor of Theatre Survey. And I have co-authored, first with Robert Cohen and recently with Michelle Carriger, several editions of the textbook Theatre, published by McGraw-Hill Higher Education, which is entering its 13th edition.
I teach classes in many topics, ranging from Shakespeare to early modern literature to modern drama to literary theory. I also frequently co-teach the second colloquium in the Honors Program. I also frequently co-teach the second colloquium in the Honors Program.
Education
- Ph.D., University of California, Irvine
Scholarship
- The Philosopher’s Toothache: Embodied Stoicism in Early Modern English Drama. Northwestern University Press, 2021.
- Special Issue: “Performance Beyond Drama.” The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol.51, no. 3, 2021, with Ineke Murakami.
- “Stoicism.” Shakespeare and Virtue: A Handbook. Edited by Julia Reinhard Lupton and Donovan Sherman, under contract with Cambridge University Press.
- “What Is It Like to Be Like a Wasp?” Lesser Living Creatures: Insect Life in the Renaissance, edited by Keith Bothelo and Joseph Campana, under contract with Penn State University Press.
- “‘Still I Danced’: Performing Death in Ford’s The Broken Heart.” The Routledge Companion to Death and Literature, Routledge, edited by W. Michelle Wang, Daniel K. Jernigan, and Neil Murphy, 2020, pp. 20-28.
- "Stoicism as Performance in Much Ado About Nothing: Acting Indifferently." Elements in Shakespeare Performance. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
- "Stoic Embodiment in Marston's Antonio Plays." English Literary Renaissance 48.3 (Fall 2018): 291-313.
- Second Death: Theatricalities of the Soul in Shakespeare’s Drama. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
- “Timely Knowing: The Intimate Conspiracies of Cymbeline.” Upstart: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies. August, 2015.
- “‘What more remains?': Messianic Performance in Richard II.” Shakespeare Quarterly 65.1 (Spring 2014): 22-48.
- “Stages of Revision: Performance, History, and Textuality in Anonymous.” Literature/Film Quarterly 41.2 (April 2013): 129-142.
- "Governing the Wolf: Flesh and Soul in The Merchant of Venice." Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 43.1 (Winter 2013): 99-120.
Accomplishments
- Shakespeare Association of America, American Society for Theatre Research
- American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR)
- Columbia University Shakespeare Seminar
- The Shakespeare Association of America (SAA)
- The California State Long Beach Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
- The University of California, Irvine Group for the Study of Early Cultures (invited talk)
- Awarded Fellowship from American Society for Theatre Research, 2017
- Awarded University Research Council Summer Stipend, Summer 2014
- Member of National Humanities Center Summer Institute for Literary Study, Summer 2013