Bio
Blair Hoxby writes on literature and culture from 1500 to 1800. Two of his foremost interests are the commercial culture and the theatrical practices of the period. Mammon's Music: Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) examines the impact of the commercial revolution on writings of major seventeenth-century poets such as Milton and Dryden. Together with Ann Coiro, he is editing a large multi-author collection of essays on Milton in the Long Restoration. Two of his new books nearing completion focus on tragic dramaturgy. What Is Tragedy? Theory and the Early Modern Canon seeks to free the early modern poetics of tragedy and the early modern theatrical repertoire from the expectations erected by the romantic and post-romantic philosophy of the tragic that has dominated tragic theory from Schelling to the present. Reading for the Passions: Performing Early Modern Tragedy argues that the passions, not deeds or character, hold the keys to early modern tragic performance.
Recent and forthcoming articles include Passion, for 21st-Century Approaches: Early Modern Theatricality, ed. Henry Turner (forthcoming, OUP); What Was Tragedy? The World We Have Lost, 1550-1795, Comparative Literature 64 (2012): 1-32; Allegorical Drama, in The Cambridge Companion to Allegory, ed. Rita Copeland and Peter Struck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009); The Function of Allegory in Baroque Tragic Drama: What Benjamin Got Wrong, in Thinking Allegory Otherwise, ed. Brenda Machowsky (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009); and "Areopagitica and Liberty," in The Oxford Handbook of Milton, ed. Nicholas McDowell and Nigel Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Academic Appointments
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Professor, English
Administrative Appointments
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Associate Professor of English, Stanford University (2007 - Present)
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Associate Professor of History and Literature, Harvard University (2005 - 2007)
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Associate Professor of English, Yale University (2003 - 2005)
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Associated faculty, Renaissance Studies, Yale University (2003 - 2005)
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Assistant Professor of English, Yale University (1998 - 2003)
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Associated faculty, Renaissance Studies, Yale University (1998 - 2003)
Honors & Awards
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Internal Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (2009 - 2010)
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Visiting External Fellow, Stanford Humanities Center (2005)
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Morse Fellowship, Juilliard School (2001 - 2002)
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Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize, Yale University (2001)
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John Addison Porter Prize, Yale University (1999)
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Monroe Kirk Spears Award, for the best essay in Studies in English Literature 1998, Rice University (1999)
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Whiting Fellowship in the Humanities, Yale University (1996 - 1997)
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Richard J. Franke Interdisciplinary Fellowship in the Humanities, Yale University (1994 - 1996)
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Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education (1992 - 1996)
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William K. Wimsatt Fellowship, Yale University (1992 - 1994)
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Wendell Herbruck Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Oxford (1989 - 1990)
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Rhodes Scholarship, University of Oxford (1988 - 1990)
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Briggs Traveling Fellowship, English Department, Harvard University (1988)
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Hoopes Prize, Harvard University (1988)
Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
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Director of Undergraduate Studies, English Department, Stanford University (2011 - 2014)
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Faculty Director of Education as Self-Fashioning, Stanford University (2012 - 2014)
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Member, Search Committee, Romanticism search, Stanford University (2013 - 2013)
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Member, Curriculum review taskforce, Stanford University (2013 - 2014)
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Referee, Oxford University Press (2012 - 2013)
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Referee, University of Pennsylvania Press (2012 - 2013)
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Referee, Ashgate Press (2012 - 2013)
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Referee, Milton Studies (2011 - 2013)
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Referee, Modern Philology (2011 - 2013)
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Member, Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Practices, Stanford University (2011 - 2012)
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Member, Search Committee, Pre-1900 Poetry, Stanford University (2010 - 2011)
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Member, Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Practices, Stanford University (2010 - 2012)
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Member, Publication committee, Milton Society of America (2010 - 2011)
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Project Director, Timeline Project, Stanford English Department (2010 - 2010)
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Member, Executive Committee, Milton Society of America (2009 - 2013)
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Member, Graduate Studies Committee, English Department, Stanford University (2008 - 2011)
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Director of Graduate Admissions, English Department, Stanford University (2008 - 2011)
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Member, Selection Committee, Rhodes Trust (2008 - 2012)
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Member, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities Steering Committee, Stanford University (2008 - 2009)
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Convener, The Value of Music Workshop, Stanford University (2008 - 2009)
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Member, Admissions Committee, Yale College (2003 - 2004)
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Director of Undergraduates Studies, Renaissance Studies, Yale University (2002 - 2004)
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Organizer, Medieval and Early Modern Colloquium, Yale University (2001 - 2004)
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Member, State or District Selection Committees, Rhodes Trust (1993 - 2001)
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Class Secretary, Rhodes Trust (1992 - 2014)
Professional Education
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Ph.D., Yale University, English (1998)
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M.Phil., University of Oxford, English Studies, 1500-1660 (1990)
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A.B., Harvard University, English and American Literature and Language (1988)
2024-25 Courses
- Court Theater from Shakespeare to Mozart
ENGLISH 301 (Win) - Introduction to English II: From Milton to the Romantics
ENGLISH 11A (Win) - Introduction to Graduate Study for Ph.D. Students
ENGLISH 396 (Aut) -
Independent Studies (4)
- Independent Study
ENGLISH 394 (Win, Spr) - Individual Work
ENGLISH 198 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Research Course
ENGLISH 398 (Aut, Win, Spr) - Revision and Development of a Paper
ENGLISH 398R (Aut, Win, Spr)
- Independent Study
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Prior Year Courses
2023-24 Courses
- Baroque Tragedy
ENGLISH 323A (Win) - Intro to English I: Love and Death from Chaucer to Milton
ENGLISH 10E (Aut) - Introduction to English II: From Milton to the Romantics
ENGLISH 11A (Win) - Sex and Violence in Jacobean Tragedy
ENGLISH 140C (Aut)
2022-23 Courses
- Humanities Core: The Renaissance in Europe
ENGLISH 112C, HUMCORE 122 (Win) - Intro to English I: Love and Death from Chaucer to Milton
ENGLISH 10E (Aut) - Introduction to English II: From Milton to the Romantics
ENGLISH 11A (Win) - Sex and Violence in Jacobean Tragedy
ENGLISH 140C (Aut) - Shakespearean Tragedy and Its Critics
ENGLISH 373 (Aut)
2021-22 Courses
- Humanities Core: The Renaissance in Europe
ENGLISH 112C, HUMCORE 122 (Win) - Late Shakespeare and Contemporary Drama/Literature
ENGLISH 340 (Win) - Sex and Violence in Jacobean Tragedy
ENGLISH 140C (Aut) - Theatrical Wonders from Shakespeare to Mozart
ENGLISH 40N (Aut)
- Baroque Tragedy
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Myrial Holbrook, Mattea Koon -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Ben Gee -
Doctoral (Program)
Ben Gee, Erin O'Keefe
All Publications
- Reading for the Passions: The Case of All for Love Approaches to Teaching Dryden edited by Lewis, J., Zunshine, L. New York: MLA. 2013
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Reading Masques: The English Masque and Public Culture in the Seventeenth Century (Book Review)
MILTON QUARTERLY
2012; 46 (2): 123-125
View details for DOI 10.1111/j.1094-348X.2012.00325.x
View details for Web of Science ID 000304301100007
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What Was Tragedy? The World We Have Lost, 1550-1795
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2012; 64 (1): 1-32
View details for DOI 10.1215/00104124-1539190
View details for Web of Science ID 000302337700001
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CULTURE AND SACRIFICE RITUAL DEATH IN LITERATURE AND OPERA (Book Review)
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2010; 62 (3): 302-305
View details for Web of Science ID 000281493700006
- The Function of Allegory in Baroque Tragic Drama: What Benjamin Got Wrong Thinking Allegory Otherwise edited by Machowsky, B. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2009
- Areopagitica and Liberty The Oxford Handbook of Milton edited by McDowell, N., Smith, N. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009
- Allegorical Drama The Cambridge Companion to Allegory edited by Copeland, R., Struck, P. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009
- Milton and the Climates of Reading, by Balachandra Rajan Ideas, Aeshetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era 2008; 15
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All passion spent: The means and ends of a tragedie en musique
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2007; 59 (1): 33-62
View details for Web of Science ID 000246091800003
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The wisdom of their feet: Meaningful dance in Milton and the Stuart masque
ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE
2007; 37 (1): 74-99
View details for Web of Science ID 000245180100004
- Sick Economies: Drama, Mercantilism, and Disease in Shakespeare's England, by Jonathan Gil Harris Journal of Economic History 2006
- The Doleful Airs of Euripides: The Origins of Opera and the Spirit of Tragedy Reconsidered Cambridge Opera Journal 2005; 17: 253-69
- Dryden's Baroque Dramaturgy: The Case of Aureng Zebe Enchanted Ground: Reimagining John Dryden edited by Novak, M., Lewis, J. Toronto: Toronto Univ. Press. 2004: 244–72
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Milton and modernity: Politics, masculinity, and 'Paradise Lost' (Book Review)
MODERN PHILOLOGY
2002; 100 (2): 283-286
View details for Web of Science ID 000180492500011
- Representing Revolution in Milton and His Contemporaries: Religion, Politics, and Polemics in Radical Puritanism by David Loewenstein H-Albion 2002
- How Milton Works by Stanley Fish H-Albion 2002
- At the Public Mill of the Philistines: Samson Agonistes and the Problem of Work after the Restoration Altering Eyes: New Perspectives on Milton's Samson Agonistes edited by Kelley, M. R., Wittreich, J. University of Delaware Press. 2002
- Mammons Music: Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton New Haven: Yale University Press. 2002
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The government of trade: Commerce, politics, and the courtly art of the Restoration
ELH-ENGLISH LITERARY HISTORY
1999; 66 (3): 591-627
View details for Web of Science ID 000082625500003
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The trade of truth advanced: 'Areopagitica', economic discourse, and libertarian reform (Milton)
MILTON STUDIES XXXVI
1998; 36: 177-202
View details for Web of Science ID 000079272200009
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Milton's steps in time (Themes, English poetry)
STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE 1500-1900
1998; 38 (1): 149-172
View details for Web of Science ID 000072092900008