Perry, Curtis

PERSONAL:

Male.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 608 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61801. E-mail—cperry@uiuc.edu.

CAREER:

Arizona State University, Tempe, associate professor of English; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, professor of English, 2006—.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1997.

(Editor) Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Brepols (Turnhout, Belgium), 2001.

Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England, Cambridge University (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of numerous articles on early modern English literature and culture.

SIDELIGHTS:

Curtis Perry is a professor of English, and the author and editor of books on English literary and cultural history. Among the subjects covered in his research and writing are the history of drama aspects of Shakespeare and Milton, and the role of political ideology in the English Renaissance. Perry's book The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice reviews some of the already established differences between Elizabethan and Jacobean culture, focusing on the ways the contrast between the two cultures became visible.

In his book, Perry suggests that King James I sought to impose his personal style on the culture of his day. Despite his efforts, however, his ability to influence his kingdom was limited. According to Leah S. Marcus in the Journal of English and Germanic Philology: ‘The strongest sections of Perry's book are those dealing with the Jacobean ‘magnification’ of Elizabeth I's memory and James's relations with the London civic elite.’ Reviewing the book in the Renaissance Quarterly, Ronald R. Macdonald stated that it is ‘one of the strengths of Perry's fine study that he consistently refuses totalizing views of culture and society in favor of the plurality, specificity, and contingency which he sees as the conditions of literary production."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, January, 2007, H.R. Hayton, review of Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England, p. 835.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, October, 1999, Leah S. Marcus, review of The Making of Jacobean Culture: James I and the Renegotiation of Elizabethan Literary Practice, p. 581.

London Review of Books, October 5, 2006, Michael Dobson, review of Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England, p. 9.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2003, review of Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, p. 31.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 2007, Michael Denbo, review of Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England, p. 307.

Sixteenth Century Journal, winter, 2004, Whitney Leeson, review of Material Culture and Cultural Materialisms in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, p. 1130.

Times Literary Supplement, January 12, 2007, Peter Holbrook, review of Literature and Favoritism in Early Modern England, p. 11.

ONLINE

Arizona State University Web site,http://www.asu.edu/ (October 25, 2007), biographical information about Curtis Perry.

Cambridge University Press Web site,http://www.cambridge.org/ (October 25, 2007), biographical information about Curtis Perry.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of English Web site,http://www.english.uiuc.edu/ (September 25, 2007), biographical information about Curtis Perry.