Lee Edelman

Early life

Lee Edelman was born in 1953. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, and he received an MPhil and a PhD from Yale University.

Career

Edelman began his academic career as a scholar of twentieth-century American poetry. He has since become active in the development, dissemination, and rethinking of queer theory. His current work explores the intersections of sexuality, rhetorical theory, cultural politics, and film. He holds an appointment as the Fletcher Professor of English Literature and has served as the Chair of the English Department. He gained international recognition for his books about queer theory, post-structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural studies.

Edelman is the author of four books. His first book, Transmemberment of Song: Hart Crane's Anatomies of Rhetoric and Desire, is a critique of Hart Crane's poetry. His second book, Homographesis: Essays in Gay Literary and Cultural Theory, explores the significance of gay literature. His third book, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, is a post-Lacanian analysis of queer theory.

Edelman's work has been contentious in queer theory, with José Esteban Muñoz's Cruising Utopia polemicizing against his "queer negativity." A 2005 Modern Language Association Conference held a special symposium on the subject, with participants Robert L. Caserio, Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz and Tim Dean debating the utility of the critique of reproductive futurism.

Personal life

Edelman is married to critic and fellow English professor Joseph Litvak.

Bibliography

Books

• Edelman, Lee (2023). Bad Education. Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 9781478018629

Selected articles

• A review of:

References

References

1. Edelman, Lee. (2019). "Adventures in Theory: A Compact Anthology". [[Bloomsbury Academic]].
2. (2006). "The Antisocial Thesis in Queer Theory". PMLA.