Walker, Greg 1959–

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Walker, Greg 1959–

PERSONAL:

Born 1959.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of English, University of Leicester, University Rd., Leicester LE1 7RH, England. E-mail—gmw4@leicester.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of Leicester, Leicester, England, professor of early-modern literature and culture and director of the Medieval Research Centre, beginning c. 1986, Leverhulme Trust Major Research fellow, 2001-04. Secretary, Council for College and University English; member, Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College; member of Research Assessment Exercise sub-panel, English Language and Literature, 2008.

MEMBER:

Royal Historical Society (fellow), English Association (fellow).

WRITINGS:

John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1991.

Persuasive Fictions: Faction, Faith, and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry VIII, Scolar Press (Aldershot, England), 1996.

The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(Editor) Medieval Drama: An Anthology, Blackwell Publishers (Malden, MA), 2000.

The Private Life of Henry VIII, I.B. Tauris (New York, NY), 2003.

Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Greg Walker is an English professor who specializes in early-modern literature and medieval research. Focusing primarily on sixteenth-century literature, drama, and political history, he also writes about late-medieval drama and poetry and the early films of Alexander Korda. He has written extensively on the cultural consequences of the Henrician Reformation during the reign of England's King Henry VIII. His books in this area include John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII, Persuasive Fictions: Faction, Faith, and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry VIII, The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, and Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henri-cian Reformation. ‘Taken together, these five books provide historians and literary scholars with detailed expositions of a wide range of dramatic and nondramatic writing in English to 1547, with some important new readings of political drama beyond that date,’ according to Rivkah Zim on the Institute of Historical Research Web site.

In Plays of Persuasion, the author considers how plays served as a means of fostering political discourse and debate. The plays examined are the morality play Hickscorner, John Skelton's Magnificence, the comedy-tragedy Godly Queene Hester, John Heywood's Play of the Weather, and John Bales's King Johan. Journal of Ecclesiastical History contributor Marie Axton called the book an ‘engaging and thought-provoking study.

Persuasive Fictions presents eight essays, five of which were previously published. Here, Walker writes about issues such as royal honor and conduct in the court and how art and literature play a role in helping to establish a dialogue within the political environment and community. C.D.C. Armstrong, writing in History Today, noted that the work ‘is certainly not an introverted or unoriginal book,’ adding: ‘Readers should not be deterred by its apparently modish title."

Writing in Medium Aevum, Peter Happe referred to The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama as ‘an outstanding contribution to the scholarship of medieval theatre.’ The book, which Walker has referred to as a companion piece to Plays of Persuasion, focuses on the relationship between politics and drama from the time that Henry VIII took the throne of England to the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I. In the process, Walker examines the relationships between politics, court culture, and drama. ‘His analyses are sound and lucid,’ reported Lisa Hopkins in Notes & Queries. Calling The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama ‘a welcome addition to the critical material focusing on Henrician and later Tudor drama,’ Early Modern Literary Studies contributor Bryan N.S. Gooch went on to write that the author ‘convincingly demonstrates [how] politics and courtly drama of the period were inseparable."

Walker's 2005 book, Writing under Tyranny, was called ‘persuasively written’ by Tracey A. Sowerby in Notes & Queries. Walker examines how tyrannical government impacts the work of writers during the early English Renaissance, primarily between the years 1428 and 1547. Through the examination of a number of texts, Walker reveals how writers of the time, including poets, playwrights, and prose writers, worked to mitigate and resist oppression. ‘Walker is entirely convincing in his description of the intentionality of his writers and in his view that each of them was at least implicitly addressing the king,’ wrote James Carley on the Davenant Press Web site. ‘He also maintains that the king in turn read the texts.’ Walker shows that because of this response to oppression, some forms of writing were left behind to create new forms that not only dominated the writings of the times but also for the centuries that followed. Notes & Queries contributor Jason Powell called Writing under Tyranny the author's ‘most ambitious book in both scope and argument.’ Alessandra Petrina stated in the Renaissance Quarterly: ‘This is an actively engaging book, required reading for anyone interested in the relation between literature and politics, and a welcome addition to the ranks of intellectual history."

Among Walker's other books is The Private Life of Henry VIII, which examines the 1933 British film of the same title that was directed by Alexander Korda. Writing about the film in History Today, Walker noted that ‘the film's treatment of English history and of Englishness is more subtle than it first appears,’ adding: ‘Its status as a ‘classic’ costume drama has obscured the sharpness of its contemporary political edge; but it is important to recover that sharpness if we are to appreciate the full impact of the film.’ In his in-depth analysis of the film, Walker establishes its place within the cinematic and cultural history of the time. He discusses the film's creation and examines the portrayal of the king by actor Charles Laughton. ‘Walker's book offers a detailed, thorough and insightful analysis, as well as bringing together well-known, and not so well-known, facts about how the film came to be produced and how a range of critics have interpreted its significance,’ concluded Sarah Street in the English Historical Review.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 1990, Arthur J. Slavin, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 1189; June, 1992, Retha M. War- nicke, review of Plays of Persuasion: Drama and Politics at the Court of Henry VIII, p. 845; December, 1997, Thomas F. Mayer, review of Persuasive Fictions: Faction, Faith, and Political Culture in the Reign of Henry VIII, p. 1473.

Canadian Journal of History, August, 1989, C.G. Ericson, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 226.

Catholic Historical Review, October, 1989, Alistair Fox, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 701.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, March, 1992, S.X. Mead, review of Plays of Persuasion, p. 1082; April, 1999, C.J. Zabrowski, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 1461; January, 2001, J.S. Carducci, review of Medieval Drama: An Anthology, p. 907; May, 2006, J.S. Carducci, review of Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation, p. 1603.

Church History, September, 1991, Alan L. Hayes, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 382.

Early Modern Literary Studies, May, 1999, Bryan N.S. Gooch, ‘Politics of Playing"; May, 1999, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama.

English Historical Review, February, 1998, Glyn Redworth, review of Persuasive Fictions, pp. 166-167; September, 2004, Sarah Street, review of The Private Life of Henry VIII, pp. 1095-1096.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, October, 1989, Helen Miller, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 515; July, 1998, R.W. Hoyle, review of Persuasive Fictions, p. 534.

History Today, June, 1992, Steven Gunn, review of Plays of Persuasion, p. 55; February, 1997, C.D.C. Armstrong, review of Persuasive Fictions, p. 59; September, 2001, Greg Walker, ‘The Private Life of Henry VIII,’ p. 9.

Journal of British Studies, January, 2007, Christopher Highley, review of Writing under Tyranny, p. 155.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, July, 1989, S.J. Gunn, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 427; April, 1993, Marie Axton, review of Plays of Persuasion, p. 305.

Journal of the History of Ideas, October, 1991, review of Plays of Persuasion, p. 704.

Medium Aevum, spring, 1990, John Scattergood, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 161; spring, 2000, Peter Happe, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 139.

Modern Philology, February, 2001, W.R. Streitberger, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 450.

New Theatre Quarterly, February, 2000, Maureen Bell, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 100.

Notes & Queries, June, 1990, Derek Pearsall, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 217; March, 2000, Lisa Hopkins, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, pp. 123-124; Volume 54, number 1, 2007, Jason Powell, review of Writing under Tyranny, pp. 95-97; Volume 54, number 1, 2007, Tracey A. Sowerby, review of Writing under Tyranny, pp. 95-97.

Renaissance Quarterly, winter, 1992, Peter L. Rudnytsky, review of Plays of Persuasion, p. 868; summer, 2000, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 529; fall, 2006, Alessandra Petrina, review of Writing under Tyranny, p. 941.

Sixteenth Century Journal, spring, 1990, William T. Walker, review of John Skelton and the Politics of the 1520s, p. 142; spring, 1998, James D. Alsop, review of Persuasive Fictions, p. 267; winter, 1999, Stephanie Chamberlain, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 1065.

Theatre Research International, autumn, 1999, Rebecca D'Monte, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 294.

Times Literary Supplement, January 1, 1999, review of The Politics of Performance in Early Renaissance Drama, p. 17.