Robert I Matz
Professor
Chair, English
Literature: early modern literature, Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, gender and sexuality
Robert Matz (PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 1993) is a professor of English and chair of the Mason English department. 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 his most recent, The World of Shakespeare's Sonnets: An Introduction (McFarland, 2008). He serves on the Central Executive Committee of the Folger Institute, Folger Shakespeare Library. Matz teaches courses on sixteenth and seventeenth-century English literature, and on Renaissance drama, including Shakespeare.
Current Research
Writings on early modern marriage
Selected Publications
"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.
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
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