Beecher, Donald
- B.A., M.A. (University of California, Santa Barbara), Ph.D. (Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)
- Email Beecher, Donald
Research Interests
- Early English prose fiction
- English and continental Renaissance drama
- The implications of the cognitive sciences for the production and reception of literature
- The Renaissance folktale and the Piacevoli notti of Straparola
Current Research
Much of my long-term research has been caught up with scholarly editing, a way of realizing the joys and conquests that come with restoring deserving authors from the Renaissance through critical and historical editions. Currently I am translating and editing a selection of stories from Boccaccio鈥檚 Decameron. Past projects include the 73 stories of Francesco Straparola鈥檚 Piacevoli notti (1550), and works by George Gascoigne, Barnabe Riche, Thomas Lodge, John Dickenson, and Sir Thomas Overbury (among the English), and Caro, della Porta, Turn猫be, Calderon, de Sommi, and Bernini (among the continental dramatists). My critical writing is eclectic, vacillating between the history of ideas and cognitive approaches to literature. For a number of years I explored the medico-literary relationships arising from lovesickness鈥攊ntellectual history almost entirely鈥攁s well as diseases of the imagination, nostalgia, witchcraft, and invective. This work includes editions of Jacques Ferrand鈥檚 Treatise on Lovesickness (1623) in both French and English. But when, in more recent years, I found myself writing about laughter, memory, contagion, suspense, spiritual conversion, mind theatres, the self, bioethics, and the theatrical dimensions of folk psychology, perspectives from the cognitive philosophers began to appear with increasing frequency. A new collection of twelve essays should soon be heading to press, entitled: Adaptive Minds and Imaginative Worlds: Studies in Cognition and the Literature of the English Renaissance.
Honours and Awards
Montaigne Prize from the Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies 2017
Distinguished Visiting Professor, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA 2011
Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship 2010
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bologna 2010
杏吧原创 University, Chancellor鈥檚 Professor 2008
杏吧原创 University, Research Achievement Award 2008
Lifetime Achievement Award, Canadian Society for Renaissance Studies 2003
Lansdowne Lectures, University of Victoria 2001
Books
Annibale Caro, The Scruffy Scoundrels, a new translation in a bi-lingual edition (with Massimo Ciavolella). New York: Italica Press, 2017.
Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron, Selected Tales. Trans. with Intro. and Notes (with Massimo Ciavolella) for Broadview Press, Peterborough and Calgary, 2017.
Adapted Brains and Imaginary Worlds: Cognitive Science and Renaissance Literature, Montreal: McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2016
Giovan Francesco Straparola, The Pleasant Nights. Two volumes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014.
Ferrand, Jacques. Traite sur la maladie d鈥檃mour (1623). Ed. with introduction and annotations in French by Donald Beecher. Paris: Garnier Classique, 2010.
Ars Reminiscendi: Mind and Memory in Renaissance Culture. Eds. Donald Beecher and Grant Williams. Toronto: CRRS Publications, 2009.
Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters. Volume II. Lorenzo da Ponte Library. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Dickenson, John. Greene in Conceit. Ed. with introduction and annotations by Donald Beecher and David Margolies. Barnabe Riche Society Publications No.19. Toronto: CRRS Publications, 2008.
Renaissance Comedy: The Italian Masters. Volume I. Lorenzo da Ponte Library. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
Recent Publications
鈥淭imothy Bright鈥檚 Dilemma: Materializing the Wrath of God.鈥 Mirrors of Melancholy. Ed. H茅l猫ne Cazes. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.
鈥淪uspense is Believing: The Reality of Ben Jonson鈥檚 Alchemist.鈥 Seeing is Believing, Or Is It? Ed. Andr茅 Lascombes and Richard Hillman. Collection THETA Vol. 8, Centre d鈥櫭﹖udes Superi猫ure de la Renaissance (2009): 3-14.
鈥The Fables of Bidpai from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.鈥 Renaissance Medievalisms. Ed. Konrad Eisenbichler. Toronto: CRRS Publications, 2008. 94-106.
鈥溾楩olk Psychology鈥 and the Reality of Theatrical Characters: The Case of John Marston鈥檚 The Fawn.鈥 Outsiders Within: Figures of Mediation in Tudor Drama. Ed. Andr茅 Lascombes and Richard Hillman. Collection THETA Vol. 8, Centre d鈥櫭﹖udes Superi猫ure de la Renaissance (2007): 273-90.
Recent Graduate Courses
5304: Masterpieces of Jonsonian Comedy
5308: Milton and the Intellectual Tradition
5301: Early English Prose Fiction
5306: Shakespeare鈥檚 Problem Comedies