Stephen Greenblatt's Bio
All the deets on your favorite critic's personal life.
Basic Information
| Name | Stephen Jay Greenblatt |
| Tagline | Every time you think you've got a material understanding of my views on Shakespeare, I swerve. |
| Nickname | The Mean Green, Steve "the Swerve" Greenblatt, Will.I.Ain't |
| Sex | Male |
| Home town | I was born in Boston, but I was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which I where I live now. |
Work & Education
| Occupation | I'm totally the John Cogan Professor of the Humanities at Harvard, where I write and teach about Shakespeare, Renaissance literature, and a lot of other things—including, of course, New Historicism. |
| Education | I got my B.A. from Yale, my M.Phil. from Cambridge (I'm talking England, not my hometown in the U.S. of A.), and then I went back to Yale for my Ph.D. I've always been serious business. |
Beliefs
| Political views | Oh, I am so very glad that you asked. I'll be honest: you won't find me waving protest signs around anytime soon, but it's safe to say I lean to the left. I even wrote a pretty snazzy piece on Shakespeare and power after recalling a meeting with President Clinton at a White House dinner. Also, check out my guest spot on The Colbert Report—it's tops. |
| Religious views | I don't bring it up in my work, really, but since you asked, I'm Jewish. My family emigrated from Russia in the 1890s to avoid the forced conscription of Jewish men in to the Russian army. Aside from that, though, I'm mostly interested in religion as a historical phenomenon. |
Activities & Interests
| Likes | Shakespeare Lucretius Ghosts Exorcism Revenge |
| Dislikes | Art for Art's Sake New Criticism Pokémon Rumors The Medieval Period |
| Interests | Early Modern (Renaissance) Literature and Culture Writing Like a Boss History Non-Literary Texts The Cardenio Project |
| Groups | Cultural Poets The Shakespearians Meet the Jedis FanFic Writing Group Bard Astrologers New Historicists |