Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Recovering Jewishness
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://stamford.uconn.edu/person/frederick-roden/ * http://english.uconn.edu/frederick-roden/ * http://english.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/451/2014/05/roden.pdf
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2002103710
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2002103710
HEADING: Roden, Frederick S., 1970-
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100 1_ |a Roden, Frederick S., |d 1970-
670 __ |a Roden, Frederick S. Same-sex desire in Victorian religious culture, 2002: |b CIP t.p. (Frederick S. Roden, University of Connecticut) data sheet (Roden, Frederick S.; b. Sept. 6, 1970)
670 __ |a Palgrave advances in Oscar Wilde studies, 2004: |b t.p. (Frederick S. Roden) pub. info. (lives in New York, NY)
953 __ |a sh18 |b lh03
PERSONAL
Born September 6, 1970.
EDUCATION:Drew University, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1992; New York University, M.A., 1994, Ph.D. (with distinction), 1998.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Historian and educator. University of Connecticut, Stamford and Storrs campuses, assistant professor, 1999-2005, associate professor, 2005-2017, professor, 2017—.
MEMBER:Universalist Judaism Coalition (board member, 2010), Society for Classical Reform Judaism, CLAS Teaching Excellence Committee, UConn Reads Committee, Holocaust Studies Committee, CLAS Teaching Excellence Committee, Phi Beta Kappa.
AWARDS:AAUP Excellence in Teaching Promise Award, University of Connecticut, 2004; Distinguished Faculty Research Award, University of Connecticut, 2008, 2009; Club Advisor of the Year Award, University of Connecticut-Stamford, 2012; Teaching Excellence in the Humanities Award, University of Connecticut, 2014; Faculty Recognition Award, University of Connecticut, 2015; Scholarship Facilitation Fund Award, 2015, 2016.
University of Connecticut junior faculty summer fellow, 2001; grants from University of Connecticut, 2001-2002, 2004, 2006, 2008.
WRITINGS
Contributor to books, including Reading Wilde, Querying Spaces, edited by Carolyn Dever and Marvin J. Taylor, New York University Press, 1995; Women’s Theology in Nineteenth Century Britain: Transfiguring the Faith of Their Fathers, edited by Julie Melnyk, Garland Press, 1998; Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays, edited by Maud Burnett McInerney, Garland Press, 1998; Women of Faith in Victorian Culture: Reassessing “The Angel in the House,” edited by Andrew Bradstock and Anne Hogan, St. Martin’s Press, 1998; Masculinity and Spirituality in Victorian Culture, edited by Andrew Bradstock et al., St. Martin’s Press, 2000; Reclaiming the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture, 2nd ed., edited by Raymond Frontain, Hayworth Press, 2003; Butler Matters: Judith Butler’s Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies, edited by Margaret Soenser Breen and Warren J. Blumenfeld, Ashgate, 2005; Michael Field and Their World, edited by Margaret D. Stetz and Cheryl A.Wilson, Rivendale Press, 2007; Approaches to Teaching the Works of Oscar Wilde, edited by Philip E. Smith, MLA, 2008; On the Meaning of Friendship Between Gay Men, edited by Andrew R. Gottlieb, Routledge, 2008; Unruly Catholics from Dante to Madonna: Faith, Heresy, and Politics in Cultural Studies, edited by Marc DiPaolo, Scarecrow Press, 2013; Critical Insights: Gender, Sex, and Sexuality, edited by Margaret Breen, Salem Press, 2014; Inquiry, Thought, and Expression, edited by J. Patrick Hornbeck II and Michael A. Norko, Fordham University Press, 2014; and Critical Insights: LGBTQ Literature, edited by Robert C. Evans, Salem Press, 2015.
Also contributor to periodicals, including Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages Newsletter, Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Nineteenth-Century Literature, George Eliot – George Henry Lewes Studies, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies, GLQ, Prose Studies, SHARP News, Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Studies, Journal of British Studies, and The Oscholars.
SIDELIGHTS
Frederick S. Roden is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Drew University, where he graduated summa cum laude, and he completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at New York University. Roden’s research interests include Victorian literature, LGBT literature/queer theory, religion and culture (both Christian and Jewish), Holocaust studies, and medievalism. Roden’s written work has appeared in several publications, such as the Society for the Study of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages Newsletter, Victorian Literature and Culture, and Nineteenth-Century Literature.
One of Roden’s books, Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture, addresses the works of the Victorian era from a queer perspective—particularly within the religious sector. Roden tries to illuminate how deeply intertwined piety and sexual expression were during this period. In covering the relationship between these two subjects, Roden creates a timeline of their interactivity and how homosexuality was perceived by the Church, as well as how religious artists and writers depicted same-sex relationships. Deeming the volume an “astute historical study, Victorian Studies contributor George Robb commented: “Frederick Roden uses queer theory cleverly and provocatively to examine a great deal of Victorian Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic religious writings and practices.”
Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed deals exclusively with the subject of Jewish identity in all its facets. Roden seeks to answer the question of where Jewish people fit into society, as well as what makes someone Jewish. To do this, Roden takes a look at several pieces of writing from an array of Jewish authors whose works span many different periods and countries. At the same time, Roden also evaluates the place of Jewish people within the societies of their respective periods, as well as the prevalence and expression of anti-Semitic attitudes of different cultures and how Jewish people responded to them socially and creatively. CHOICE contributor G.R. Sharfman stated that “Roden writes clearly, explaining the literature and offering erudite commentary that will prompt readers to delve into the primary sources.”
Love’s Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich is a translation of works by the medieval female religious scholar Julian of Norwich. The book also features commentary by Roden that provides background on Julian and expands on her writings in order to clarify their meaning and significance to modern readers. In a review in Theological Studies, Brigid O’Shea Merriman remarked that Roden’s “commentary is as challenging and uplifting as the translation, and merits a careful reading.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, October, 2016, G.R. Sharfman, review of Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed, p. 262.
Reference & Research Book News, November, 2009, review of Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities.
Theological Studies, March, 2010, Brigid O’Shea Merriman, review of Love’s Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich, p. 255.
Victorian Studies, spring, 2004, George Robb, review of Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture, p. 529.
ONLINE
University of Connecticut, Department of English, http://english.uconn.edu (September 14, 2017), faculty profile, curriculum vitae, and list of publications.
Frederick Roden
Professor
English
Background
Dr. Frederick S. Roden is a Professor of English. He earned his PhD from New York University and is author of Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture and Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed. He is editor of Palgrave Advances in Oscar Wilde Studies and Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities. Roden is co-editor of Catholic Figures, Queer Narratives and an edition/translation of an 1896 sexological work, Marc-Andre Raffalovich’s Uranism and Unisexuality. He also wrote a commentary to the medieval theologian Julian of Norwich published in an edition of her work entitled Love’s Trinity.
Expertise
Dr. Roden’s specializations include Victorian and medieval literature, gender studies and queer theory, and religious studies. He is the author of numerous book chapters, journal articles, and reviews in these fields, about which he lectures internationally. At UConn-Stamford he teaches for the Women’s/Genders/Sexualities Studies Program and also offers courses in Holocaust Literature. He has received the UConn AAUP award for Teaching Excellence, the CLAS Excellence in Teaching in the Humanities award, and the Stamford Campus Faculty Recognition award. Past president of the GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association, his research in lesbian/gay studies has been recognized for distinction at UConn and elsewhere.
Frederick Roden
Professor
frederick.roden@uconn.edu
Phone: 203-251-8559
Office: Stamford Campus
Frederick Roden
Professor. Stamford Campus.
Specialties: Victorian literature; religion and culture (Christianity, Jewish studies); Holocaust studies; LGBT literature/queer theory; medievalism.
Current Research: An edition/translation of Marc-Andre Raffalovich’s Uranisme et Unisexualite (1896); a book project entitled Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed
Roden, 1
Frederick S. Roden
Professor, Department of English
University of Connecticut, Stamford
Date of first appointment: 1999 Revised May 22, 2017
Department of English
University of Connecticut
One University Place
Stamford, CT 06901
(203) 251-8559
frederick.roden@uconn.edu
EDUCATION
Ph.D. 1998 New York University
M.A. 1994 New York University
B.A. 1992 Drew University
DISSERTATION
“Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture.”
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
2017-. Professor University of Connecticut
2005-2017 Associate Professor University of Connecticut
1999-2005 Assistant Professor University of Connecticut
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Religion and literature (Christianity, Judaism), Victorian studies, LGBTQ history and theory, Holocaust studies.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
Editor, Palgrave Advances in Oscar Wilde Studies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).
Roden, 2
Co-editor with Patricia J. Smith and Lowell Gallagher, Catholic Figures, Queer Narratives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
Love’s Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich (Liturgical Press, 2009).
Editor, Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities (Ashgate, Queer Interventions Series, 2009).
Co-editor (with Philip Healy), Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Uranism and Unisexuality: A Study of
Different Manifestations of the Sexual Instinct. Translated by Nancy Erber and William A. Peniston (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).
Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed (Praeger, 2016).
Articles
“Introduction.” Marc-Andre Raffalovich, Uranism and Unisexuality: A Study of Different Manifestations of the Sexual Instinct. Eds. Philip Healy and Frederick S. Roden, trans. Nancy Erber and William A. Peniston. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 1-21.
“E.M. Forster’s Maurice: A Roadmap to the First `Gay’ Novel in English.” Critical Insights:
LGBTQ Literature. Ed. Robert C. Evans. Ipswich (MA): Salem Press, 2015. 161-178.
“Writing Gender: Authorship and Authority. Critical Insights: Gender, Sex, and
Sexuality. Ed. Margaret Breen. Ipswich (MA): Salem Press. 3-19.
“Wild(e) Theology.” More Than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church.
Vol. 2: Inquiry, Thought, and Expression, ed. J. Patrick Hornbeck II and Michael A. Norko. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014. 174-180.
“Wild(e) Religion: The Legacy of Oscar Wilde for Queer Theology.” Unruly Catholics from
Dante to Madonna: Faith, Heresy, and Politics in Cultural Studies. Ed. Marc DiPaolo. Lanham(MD): Scarecrow Press, 2013. 33-38.
“Decadence and Dorian Gray: Who’s Afraid of Oscar Wilde? ” Critical Insights: Good and Evil. Ed. Margaret Breen. Ipswich (MA): EBSCO Publishing, 2012. 79-94.
“Writing Rites: Religion and Queerness in the Literature Classroom.” Bulletin for the Study of
Religion (BSOR) 39.4(2010).
“Introduction: Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities.” Jewish/Christian/Queer:
Crossroads and Identities. Ed. Frederick S. Roden. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2009. 1-18.
Roden, 3
“Marc-Andre Raffalovich: A Russian-French-Jewish-Catholic Homosexual in Oscar Wilde’s
London.” Jewish/Christian/Queer. 127-137.
“Faith of Our Fathers as Blood Sacrifice: Judaic Recovery and the Broken Christian Body in
Michael Arditti’s The Celibate and Easter.” Jewish/Christian/Queer. 205-234.
"The Love That Dare Not Teach Its Name: Wilde, Religious Studies, and Teaching Tolerance."
Approaches To Teaching the Works of Oscar Wilde. Ed. Philip E. Smith. New York: MLA,
2008. 212-219.
“Why `Friendship’ Works – And Doesn’t.” On the Meaning of Friendship Between Gay Men. Ed. Andrew R. Gottlieb. New York: Routledge, 2008. 9-16.
“Michael Field and the Challenges of Writing a Lesbian Catholicism.” Michael Field and
Their World. Eds. Margaret D. Stetz and Cheryl A.Wilson. High Wycombe: Rivendale Press, 2007. 155-162.
“Michael Field, John Gray, and Marc-Andre Raffalovich: Re-Inventing Romantic Friendship in Modernity." Catholic Figures, Queer Narratives. Ed. Lowell Gallagher, Frederick S. Roden, and Patricia Juliana Smith. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 57-68.
“The Catholic Modernist Crisis, Queer Modern Catholicisms,” Catholic Figures, Queer Narratives. 1-18.
"Eppie's Queer Daddy: Spiritual Fatherhood in Silas Marner." George Eliot - George Henry Lewes Studies 48-49(2005): 33-38.
"`What a Friend We Have in Jesus': Same-Sex Biblical Couples in Victorian Literature."
Raymond Frontain, ed. Reclaiming the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture, 2nd edition. Binghamton (NY): Haworth Press, 2003. 115-135.
"Queer Christian: The Catholic Homosexual Apologia and Lesbian/Gay Practice."
International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 6.4(2001): 251-265.
"Becoming Butlerian: On the Discursive Limits (and Potentials) of Gender Trouble at Ten
Years of Age." Special issue, "Gender Trouble: Judith Butler and Her Impact on Sexuality and
Gender Studies," International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 6.1-2(2001): 25-33.
“Becoming Butlerian: On the Discursive Limits (and Potentials) of Gender Trouble” (revised
version). Butler Matters: Judith Butler’s Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies. Eds. Margaret
Soenser Breen and Warren J. Blumenfeld. Burlington (VT): Ashgate, 2005. 27-37.
"Medieval Religion, Victorian Homosexualities." Special issue, "Medievalism and the Quest for
the `Real' Middle Ages," Prose Studies 23.2(2000):115-130.
Roden, 4
"Aelred of Rievaulx, Same-Sex Desire, and the Victorian Monastery." Masculinity and
Spirituality in Victorian Culture. Ed. Andrew Bradstock, Anne Hogan, Sean Gill, and Sue Morgan. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. 85-99.
"`Sisterhood Is Powerful': Christina Rossetti's Maude." Women of Faith in Victorian Culture:
Reassessing `The Angel in the House'. Ed. Andrew Bradstock and Anne Hogan. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. 63-77.
"Two `Sisters in Wisdom': Hildegard of Bingen, Christina Rossetti, and Feminist Theology."
Hildegard of Bingen: A Book of Essays. Ed. Maud Burnett McInerney. New York: Garland
Press, 1998. 227-253.
"The Kiss of the Soul: Christina Rossetti's Mystical Theology." Women's Theology in
Nineteenth Century Britain: Transfiguring the Faith of Their Fathers. Ed. Julie Melnyk. New York: Garland Press, 1998. 37-57.
"The Scarlet Woman." Reading Wilde, Querying Spaces. Ed. Carolyn Dever and Marvin J.
Taylor. New York: NYU Press, 1995. 21-25.
Reviews
"Gender and Religion in Recent Victorian Studies Publications." Victorian Literature and
Culture 31.1(2003): 393-403.
Gerald Barry, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” after Oscar Wilde. The Royal Opera,
Lincoln Center. 2nd-4th June 2016. https://oscholars.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/roden-on-barry.docx
David Hare, The Judas Kiss, BAM (Brooklyn, NY): May 11-June 12, 2016. The Oscholars.
https://oscholars.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/roden-on-hare.docx
James Campbell, Oscar Wilde, Wilfred Owen, and Male Desire: Begotten, Not Made. The
Oscholars May 2016. https://oscholars-oscholars.com/the-critic-as-critic/
Richard Griffiths, The Pen and the Cross: Catholicism and English Literature 1850-2000.
Victorian Studies 55.2(2013): 337-339.
U. Boker, R. Corballis, and J. A. Hibbard, The Importance of Reinventing Oscar: Versions of
Wilde during the Last 100 Years. The Oscholars 52 (August 2010). http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Tcac/Critic1.htm#_Reinventing_Oscar
Cynthia Scheinberg, Women's Poetry and Religion in Victorian England. The Oscholars
52(August 2010). http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Tcac/Critic2.htm#_Women’s_Poetry_
Roden, 5
Jill R. Ehnenn, Women's Literary Collaboration, Queerness, and Late-Victorian Culture.
Journal of British Studies 49.2(2010): 468-469.
Joseph Bristow, ed. Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend. Journal of
British Studies 49.2(2010): 464-466.
“Facing the Late Victorians: Portraits of Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner
Collection,” The Grolier Club, New York, February 21-April 26, 2008. SHARP News
17.3(2008): 3.
Mark D. Jordan, Meghan T. Sweeney and David M. Mellott, eds. Authorizing Marriage: Canon,
Tradition, and Critique in the Blessing of Same-Sex Unions. GLQ 14.2-3(2008): 431-433.
Patrick R. O’Malley, Catholicism, Sexual Deviance, and Victorian Gothic Culture. The Journal
of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 16(2007): 111-114.
Mark Knight and Emma Mason, Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature. The Oscholars
IV.2.33(February 2007).
http://www.oscholars.com/TO/Thirty-three/Critic/The_Critic_as_Critic.htm
Mark D. Jordan, Blessing Same-Sex Unions: The Perils of Queer Romance and the Confusion of
Christian Marriage. GLQ 12.4(2006): 641-643.
Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini, Love the Sin: Sexual Regulation and the Limits of
Religious Tolerance. GLQ 11.2(2005): 309-310.
Josephine M. Guy and Ian Small, Oscar Wilde's Profession: Writing and the Culture Industry in
the Late 19th Century. Nineteenth-Century Contexts 25.2(2003): 188-190.
Lisa Moore, Dangerous Intimacies: Toward a Sapphic History of the British Novel. Nineteenth-
Century Contexts 23(2001): 321-324.
Ellis Hanson, Decadence and Catholicism. Nineteenth-Century Literature 54.1(1999): 119-123.
Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology. Society for the Study of
Homosexuality in the Middle Ages Newsletter 6.1(1998): 3-5.
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND COLLOQUIA
“Past and Present: Re-reading Sexology in Contemporary Christian Practice.” New Approaches
to the Histories of Christianity and Same-Sex Desire, Birkbeck College, University of London. September 25, 2015.
“Unorthodox Judaisms: The Late Victorian Convert or Proselyte.” British Women’s Writers
Conference, Columbia University. June 26, 2015.
Roden, 6
“Wild[e] Religion: The Legacy of Oscar Wilde for Queer Theology.” Legacy of Oscar Wilde
Conference, Drew University. June 2, 2012.
“Wild[e] Theology: On Teaching Love.” More Than a Monologue conference, Union
Theological Seminary. October 1, 2011.
“The Holocaust, Mischlingkeit, and the Literature of Mixed Identity.” Lessons and Legacies XI
Conference, Florida Atlantic University. November 6, 2010.
Roundtable participant, Queer Pedagogy in Religious Studies, American Academy of Religion
Convention, Montreal. November 9, 2009.
“Homosexuals and the Holocaust,” Introductory remarks to Jason Mitchell’s The Red Box, AAR
Convention, Montreal. November 9, 2009.
“Marc-Andre Raffalovich: A Russian-French-Jewish-Catholic Homosexual in Oscar Wilde’s Irish London.” Religion and Sexuality 1870-1930 Symposium, University of British Columbia, Vancouver. August 29, 2009.
“Marc-Andre Raffalovich: Where Sexology Meets Aestheticism.” The Arts and Culture in
Victorian Britain, North American Victorian Studies Association Conference, Yale University. November 14, 2008.
“Jewish/Christian/Queer: Crossroads and Identities.” American Academy of Religion Convention, San Diego. November 18, 2007.
“Marc-Andre Raffalovich: A Russian-French-Jewish-Catholic Homosexual in Oscar Wilde’s
London.” Queer Exoticism Symposium, Hofstra University. October 11, 2007.
“Confessions of a Queer Religious Medieval Victorianist.” Drew University. March 21, 2007.
“Plagues Past and Present: AIDS and Anti-Semitism in Michael Arditti’s The Celibate.”
Queer People Conference, Cambridge University. July 28, 2006.
“Public Sex, Private Friendship: Homosexuality and Edwardian Catholicism.” Plenary, The
Edwardians Conference, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield. July 24, 2006.
“Michael Field, John Gray, and Marc-Andre Raffalovich: Re-Inventing Romantic Friendship
in Modernity.” Modern Language Association Convention, Philadelphia. December 28, 2004.
Participant, Teaching Roundtable on Religion in Victorian Literature. "The Sacred and the
Profane" Conference, Northeast Victorian Studies Association, Cornell University, Ithaca. April
18, 2004.
"Michael Field and the Challenges of Writing a Lesbian Catholicism." Michael Field and
Their World Conference, University of Delaware, Newark. February 29, 2004.
Roden, 7
"Eppie's Queer Daddy: Spiritual Fatherhood in Silas Marner." North American Victorian
Studies Association conference, Indiana University, Bloomington. October 18, 2003.
"Medieval Religion in the Victorian Historiography of Homosexuality." Interdisciplinary
Nineteenth-Century Studies conference, University of California, Santa Cruz. March 22, 2003.
"Staging Wilde in the Classroom: On Teaching Tolerance." Oscar Wilde Symposium,
University of London. June 25, 2002.
"Canine Catholicism: The Religious Poetry of Michael Field." Women's Poetry and the Fin
de Siècle Conference, Birkbeck College, London. June 14, 2002.
"Marc-André Raffalovich and Victorian Historicizations of Homosexuality." Northeast
Victorian Studies Association conference, Queens University, Kingston, ON. April 20, 2002.
Roundtable discussion on composition programs. "Conversations about Composition"
Conference, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven. October 20, 2001.
"For the Love of Mary: Devotional Homoerotics in Victorian Women Writers." Locating the
Victorians Conference, London. July 15, 2001.
"Queer Christian: The Catholic Homosexual Apologia and Lesbian/Gay Practice." SCMLA Convention, San Antonio. November 10, 2000.
"`What a Friend We Have in Jesus': Male Friendship in Victorian Devotional Literature."
The Future of the Queer Past Conference, Lesbian/Gay Studies Project, University of Chicago. September 17, 2000.
"Dorian Gray, John Gray: Transubstantiations and Conversions." Flesh and Word: Sacramentalism and Sexuality in British Literature and Culture, 1870-1930 session, MLA Convention, Chicago. December 29, 1999.
"Queer Theologies at the Fin-de-Siècle: Wilde, Raffalovich and Beyond." Sexual Controversies
of the Fin-de-Siècle program, Oscar Wilde and the Culture of the Fin-de-Siècle. UCLA Center for 17th and 18th Century Studies and William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. May 14, 1999.
"Medieval Spirituality and Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religion." Victorian Religions
session, MLA Convention, San Francisco. December 27, 1998.
"Queer Victorian Appropriations of Medieval Spirituality." Queer Middle Ages Conference,
CUNY. November 6, 1998.
Roden, 8
"Aelred of Rievaulx, Same-Sex Desire, and the Victorian Monastery." Religion and Masculinity
in Victorian England session, North American Conference on British Studies, Colorado Springs.
October 16, 1998.
"Canon John Gray and Queer Decadent Appropriations of Medieval Mystics." International
Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo. May 7, 1998.
"`Spiritual Friendship': Aelred of Rievaulx, the Victorian Monastery and
Male Same-Sex Desire." Victorian Seminar, CUNY. March 5, 1998.
"A Victorian Biography of Aelred of Rievaulx." International Congress on Medieval Studies,
Kalamazoo. May 10, 1997.
"Pray as Play: Liturgy as Performance in The Priest and the Acolyte." Victorian Studies
Conference, NYU. February 15, 1997.
"Hildegard von Bingen, Christina Rossetti, and Feminist Theology." International Congress
on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo. May 11, 1996.
"Sisters in Nunderland? Victorian Nun Poetry and the Landscape of Enclosure." Victorian
Studies Conference, NYU. February 23, 1996.
"Reading and Sleeping, Books and Dreams: Chaucer's Book of the Duchess and Parliament of
Fowls and Medieval Dream Theory." Zephirus Conference on Medieval Studies, SUNY at Stony Brook. April 29, 1995.
"The Prison Cell as Confessional." Victorian Studies Conference, NYU, February 24, 1995.
"Of Panthers, Priors, and Prelates: The Christ of Oscar Wilde." Conference on Catholicism in
Literature, University of Arkansas at Little Rock. May 5, 1994.
COURSES TAUGHT
English 109 Freshman Composition (2nd Semester)
English 1103 Western Literature: Renaissance to Modern
English 1616W Major Works of English and American Literature
English 2100 British Literature I
English 2101 British Literature II
English 2203 American Literature Since 1880
English 2401 Poetry
English 2407 The Short Story
English 2409 The Modern Novel
English 3111/W Medieval English Literature
English 3118W Victorian British Literature (Previously: Romantics and Victorians)
English 3501 Chaucer
Roden, 9
English 3509 Studies in Individual Writers: Jane Austen
English 3509 Studies in Individual Writers: Oscar Wilde
English 3509 Studies in Individual Writers: Julian of Norwich and Women’s Religious
Voices
English 3609 Women in Literature
English 3619 Topics in Literature and Human Rights
English 3623 Studies in Literature and Culture: Feminist Theory
English 3625 Literary Theory
English 3627 Studies in Literature: The Gay/Lesbian Individual in American Society
English 3629 Introduction to Holocaust Literature
English 3699 Independent Study. Topics include: mysticism and identity, religion and
politics, literature and the body, literature and healing, Holocaust studies, Oscar Wilde, Tennyson, gender theory, autobiography/memoir, fiction, music and 19th-century literature, LGBTQ studies/theories, fashion history, film adaptation, homophobia education, contemporary fiction, literature and philosophy, literature and technology. Includes Honors studies and conversions for Honors theses in English.
English 4101W Advanced Study: British Literature: The Fin de Siecle.
English 4600W Seminars in Literature: LGBT Literatures
English 4600W Seminars in Literature: Spiritual Autobiography/Literature and Spirituality
English 4613W Advanced Study: LGBT Literature: Queer Theory
English 4613W Advanced Study: LGBT Literature: Inventing Modern Sexuality
English 5345 Graduate Studies in Victorian Literature
English 6000 Graduate Independent Study: Homosexuality and British Literature 1870-
1930.
Associate advisor, Ph.D. diss.: Sarah Rasher (UConn, 2012), Tonya Moutray McArthur (UConn
2006), Lewis Whitaker (Georgia State, pending).
Associate advisor, M.A., Robert Crane (UConn, 2003).
Honors thesis mentor: Danilo Machado (2016), Shana Attar (2011), Benjamin Page-Fort (2011), Anna Lakomy (2010), Sarah Smegal (2007).
SERVICE
Programs at UConn
Book discussion, Recovering Jewishness. UConn English Department, Storrs. May 3, 2017.
Convener, English Tea: A Writers’ Event. April 20, 2017.
Convener, Interfaith Practitioners and Student Leaders’ Panel. April 13, 2017.
“Muslim in America Today: An Interview with Dr. Eboo Patel.” March 1, 2017.
Roden, 10
“America Imprisons Americans: An Interview on the 75th Anniversary of Japanese American
Internment.” Dr. Michael Ego. President’s Day, February 20, 2017.
Lecture on Recovering Jewishness: Modern Identities Reclaimed. Center for Judaic and Middle
Eastern Studies, UConn-Stamford. April 14, 2016.
Interfaith Panel Discussion. Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies, UConn-Stamford.
November 11, 2015.
Honors Seminar Presentation on Eboo Patel and Religion in American Culture. Globalization
Seminar. UConn-Stamford. November 11, 2015.
Faculty Colloquium Presentation on Gay/Religious Issues and Marc-Andre Raffalovich’s
Uranism and Unisexuality. UConn-Stamford. October 26, 2015.
Honors Seminar Presentation on Fashion Branding and Identity. UConn-Stamford. November
20, 2013.
“Converts and Proselytes to Judaism: 19th- and 21st-Century Perspectives.” Center for Judaic and
Middle Eastern Studies, UConn-Stamford. October 31, 2013. UConn-Storrs. March 26,
2014.
Panelist, Coming Out Discussion. UConn-Stamford. October 29, 2013.
Facilitator, Student Conversation with Monsignor David Jaeger, Vatican Rota. UConn-
Stamford. October 23, 2013.
Panel respondent and facilitator, “Religion and Secular Society.” UConn-Stamford. October 22,
2013.
Honors seminar presentation on Identity Construction in Jean Amery and David Halperin,
UConn-Stamford. September 25, 2013.
Honors seminar presentation on Wilde’s De Profundis, UConn-Stamford. November 14, 2012, October 29, 2014, November 9, 2016.
Panel respondent, discussion with Dr. Susannah Heschel on Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
UConn-Stamford. October 24, 2012.
Panel organizer and respondent, “Before Freud: Gay Men and Sexology in 19th-Century France.”
UConn-Stamford. October 23, 2012
Respondent, Yehuda Kurtzer, “The Holocaust, Israel, and the Future of Jewish Identity.”
UConn-Stamford. April 16, 2012.
Panelist in “Reading the Past: Writing Historical Fiction.” UConn-Stamford. March 28, 2012.
Roden, 11
Postcolonial theory lecture, UConn-Stamford Honors Seminar. October 26, 2011.
“Mixed Feelings: Holocaust Literature and Post-Holocaust Identities.” Understanding the Past,
Transforming the Future Humanities Institute Conference, UConn. April 7, 2011.
“Other Voices: Crises of Jewish Identity in Holocaust Literature.” Center for Judaic and Middle
Eastern Studies, UConn-Stamford. March 3, 2011.
Panelist on “Gay Rights, Religious Rites,” “What Would Martin Say?” Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Colloquium, UConn-Stamford. January 28, 2010.
Honors seminar presentation on Tennyson’s In Memoriam, UConn-Stamford. October 14, 2009.
“Jewish/Christian: Identities at the Crossroads.” UConn-Stamford Faculty Colloquium. October
12, 2009.
Presentation of Research, Women’s Studies Senior Seminar, UConn-Storrs. April 22, 2009.
“Marc-Andre Raffalovich: A Russian-French-Jewish-Catholic Homosexual in Oscar Wilde’s Irish London.” Out to Lunch Series, Rainbow Center, UConn. April 22, 2009.
Julian of Norwich presentation, UConn-Stamford Faculty Colloquium. February 2, 2009.
“Oscar and Me.” Guest lecture, Oscar Wilde graduate seminar, University of Connecticut,
Storrs. April 25, 2008.
“Where the Unspeakable Meets the Unimaginable: Reflections on the Sexual and the
Religious.” UConn-Stamford Faculty Colloquium. March 5, 2008.
Pre-talk on same-sex marriage, UConn-Stamford Human Rights Film Series. February 11, 2008.
Transnational Sexualities Discussion (with Serkan Gorkemli), Globalization & Culture Honors
Seminar, UConn-Stamford. September 28, 2007.
Honors Seminar Lecture, Michel Foucault’s Introduction to the History of Sexuality. UConn-
Stamford. October 13, 2006, September 26, 2008, April 6, 2009, October 27, 2010, April
13, 2012.
“Faith of Our Fathers as Blood Sacrifice: Judaic Recovery and the Broken Christian Body in
Michael Arditti’s The Celibate and Easter.” Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern
Studies, UConn-Stamford. March 16, 2006.
Honors Seminar Lecture on Tony Kushner, Angels in America. UConn-Stamford. November 11, 2005.
Roden, 12
Participant on Christianity, Lunchtime Panels on Religion. UConn-Stamford. “Intimate
Relationships with God and Men: Mysticism,” September 27, 2005; “Religion and
Sexuality,” November 1, 2005.
Facilitator, campus discussion of "The Laramie Project." UConn-Torrington, October 22,
2003. UConn-Stamford, October 18, 2005, November 16. 2009.
Discussion and reading, Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture. University of
Connecticut Co-op. February 26, 2003.
"Victorian Women Religious Writers: The Poetry of Eliza Keary." English Department
Faculty Brown-Bag Discussion, University of Connecticut. February 14, 2001.
"Adam and Steve: Same-Sex Biblical Couples in Victorian Literature." Out to Lunch GLBT
Lecture Series, University of Connecticut. October 4, 2000.
"Religious Homoeroticism, the Victorian Nun, and Eliza Keary's Christine and Mary."
Conference on Women and Gender, University of Connecticut. April 8, 2000.
"Sacrament and Sexuality: From Dorian Gray to John Gray." English Department Faculty
Brown-Bag Discussion, University of Connecticut. March 8, 2000.
"Where There's a Will, There's a Grace: Feminism and Queer Theory in the Classroom."
Feminist Pedagogy Forum, University of Connecticut. February 23, 2000.
Outreach Work and Presentations
Adult education class: “The Radical Legacy of Reform Judaism: Texts and Contexts for Today.” Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, NY, NY. Spring-Summer Term, 2017.
Oscar Wilde presentation, Learning in Retirement, Stamford CT. April 19, 2017.
Reader, Hartford Jewish Plays Project, Winter 2017.
“Modernity and New Jewish Identities.” Temple Emanu-El, NY, NY. December 11, 2016.
Victorian Poetry presentation, Learning in Retirement, Stamford, CT. November 2, 2016.
“Julian of Norwich and the Saints in Our Lives.” Church of Christ the Healer, Stamford, CT
November 2, 2013.
Committee Member: Programming, Cantorial Search, Liturgy/Worship; usher, reader. Temple
Emanu-El, New York City. 2012-.
Participant, The Israel Talks, New York City. 2013.
Roden, 13
Guest lecture on religion and homosexuality. "Policing Same-Sex Desire in the West" course,
Professor Joseph Portanova, New York University. Biannually 2002-2009.
Interview for documentary film on The Importance of Being Earnest. Jason Godbey, Rabbit
Productions. October 22, 2011.
Member, Academic Forum, Society for Classical Reform Judaism, 2011-. Board Member SCRJ, 2014-.
Board Member, Universalist Judaism Coalition, 2010.
“`All Shall Be Well’: The Mystical Theology of Julian of Norwich.” A.R.E. Center, New
York (July 19, 2008); St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Westfield, NJ (February 1, 2009);
Darien, CT (December 10, 2009); Metaphysical Center of NJ, Pompton Lakes, NJ
(November 13, 2010).
Respondent, Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Pearl Theatre Company, New
York. May 20, 2008.
Theology presentations, Gay/Lesbian Ministry, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York.
May 14 and June 25, 2007.
“Narrative and the Self.” “Betrayal, Rejection, and Healing” Conference, St. Joseph’s
Shrine, Stirling, NJ. March 26, 2007.
Masculinities Presentation, Triangle Community Center, Norwalk, CT. September 20, 2006.
Participant in “Body and Religion” Panel, Stamford (CT) Hadassah. October 20, 2005.
Guest lecturer, Jane Austen's Emma. Harwinton Library Book Club, Harwinton, CT.
November 18, 2003.
Interviews, "UConn-Torrington Faculty Forum," Cable TV5, Litchfield, CT. Literary theory, December 3, 2002; Oscar Wilde, January 25, 2001; adult education, February 24, 2000;
interviewer and moderator, lecture by James Monroe Smith on AIDS, health care, and
public policy, April 11, 2000.
Facilitator, Gay/Lesbian Reading Group, Church of St. Patrick and St. Anthony, Hartford,
CT. January 2000 to December 2002.
Professional Activities
Treasurer, GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association (MLA), 2008-2014.
(President, 2005; First Vice President, 2004; Second Vice President, 2003).
Roden, 14
Steering Committee Member, Queer Studies in Religion Consultation, American Academy of
Religion. 2007-2012.
Charter Member, Oscar Wilde Society of America (2002).
External Reviewer, Promotion (Full Professor), Muhlenberg College (2011).
External Reviewer, Tenure and Promotion: Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY
(2009), Hofstra University (2007).
External Reviewer, PSC-CUNY Research Awards (2001, 2005).
Reviewer, Longman Publishers (2001, 2003).
Book Manuscript Peer Review: University of Virginia Press (2016), Cambridge University Press (2013), Routledge (2013, 2016), Oxford University Press (2013), Anthem Press (2011), Ashgate Press (2007, 2008), Macmillan Press/Palgrave (2001, 2002, 2006, 2011), Ohio State University Press (2006).
Journal Article Peer Review: Victorian Poetry (2016), Aletheia (2016), HARTS & Minds (2014), Blackwell Press (2014), Victorian Studies (2013), Religion and Literature (2013, 2017), Mosaic (2013), Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (2012), Journal of Moravian History (2012), Children’s Literature Association Quarterly (2010), Journal of the History of Sexuality (2008), The Michaelian (2008), Genre (2001), International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies (2000), Victorian Literature and Culture (1997, 1998, 2004, 2010).
Conference Panel Organizer:
“Queers and Religious Rhetoric in Contemporary America,” MLA Convention,
Washington DC. December 2005.
“The Hymn in English: Affect, Politics, Identity,” MLA Convention, Philadelphia.
December 2004.
"Queering Religion, Religious Queers," Queer Matters Conference, Kings College,
London. May 30, 2004.
"Revising Victorian Religion," NEMLA Convention, Hartford. March 31, 2001.
"Queer Crossroads: Intersections of Queer Studies and Religious Approaches to
Literature," MLA Convention, San Francisco. December 29, 1998.
"Spirituality and Sexuality," Queer Middle Ages Conference, CUNY. November 6, 1998.
"Monks and the Body" roundtable. International Congress on Medieval Studies,
Kalamazoo. May 8, 1998.
"Later Writers' Interpretation and Appropriation of Medieval Spirituality." International
Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo. May 7, 1998.
Conference committee member:
Victorian Collaborations Conference, Northeast Victorian Studies Association, American
University. April 15-17, 2005.
Roden, 15
The Sacred and the Profane Conference, Northeast Victorian Studies Association, Cornell
University. April 16-18, 2004.
Nineteenth-Century Technologies and Media Conference, Northeast Victorian Studies
Association, MIT. April 4-6, 2003.
Victorian Breakdowns Conference, Northeast Victorian Studies Association, CUNY.
April 14-16, 2000.
Queer Middle Ages Conference, CUNY. November 5-7, 1998.
Graduate student conferences, Victorian Studies Group, NYU. February 1995, February
1996, February 1997.
Co-curator for exhibitions of archival material, Fales Library, NYU. Spring 1995, Spring 1996.
Department, University and Regional Campus Service
Stamford Campus English Curriculum Coordinator
Stamford Campus English Honors Advisor
Faculty Advisor, Muslim Students Association. Spring 2017-.
Faculty Advisor, Stamford Campus student newspaper, later 1 University Place. Fall 2010-
Spring 2016.
Faculty Advisor, Stamford Campus SPECTRUM (LGBTQ group). Fall 2016.
Faculty Advisor, Stamford Campus English Honors Society. Fall 2015-Spring 2016.
CLAS Teaching Excellence Committee. Spring 2016.
Holocaust Studies Committee. Spring 2016-.
UConn Reads Committee. Summer 2016-.
Instructor, UPals Summer Program, UConn-Stamford. Summer 2011, Summer 2014.
Stamford Campus Director of Writing, Fall 2004 - Fall 2006.
CLAS Teaching Excellence Committee. Spring 2016.
Co-convener, Feminist Pedagogy Forum. Spring 2000 - Spring 2001.
English Department Committee Memberships:
Diversity Committee. Fall 2016-Spring 2017.
Web/Digital Humanities Committee. Fall 2015-Spring 2017.
Ad Hoc Tenure Review Committee. Spring 2016.
Roden, 16
Graduate Long River Review Committee. Fall 2014-Spring 2017.
Stallman Prize Committee. Fall 2014-Spring 2015.
Search Committee, African-American (Stamford). Fall 2012-Spring 2013.
Aetna Nonfiction Prose Prize Committee. Fall 2012-Spring 2013.
Search Committee, Medieval (Storrs). Fall 2011-Spring 2012.
Aetna Graduate Student Essay Prize Committee. Fall 2011(Chair).
Hackman Prize Committee. Fall 2009-Spring 2011, Fall 2013-Spring 2016.
Assessment Committee. Fall 2007-Spring 2009.
Search Committee, Writing (Stamford). Fall 2006-Spring 2007.
Undergraduate Outreach Committee. Fall 2006-Spring 2007, Fall 2009-Spring 2010.
Committee for Undergraduate Writing and Instruction. Fall 2004 – Fall 2006.
Search Committee, Writing (Avery Point). Fall 2004-Spring 2005.
Search Committee, Writing (Tri-Campus). Fall 2003.
Search Committee, Composition/Rhetoric (Storrs). Fall 2001 - Spring 2002.
Merit Committee. Fall 2001 – Spring 2002, Fall 2003 - Spring 2004, Fall 2010-.
Undergraduate Curriculum and Courses Committee. Fall 2000 - Spring 2001.
Collins Prize Committee. Spring 2001.
Regional Campus Committee Memberships:
Faculty Advisory Council, Spring 2017-.
Advisement Committee, Spring 2017-
Scheduling Committee, Fall 2016-.
Faculty Recognition Award Committee. Summer 2016.
Search Committee, Stamford Campus Director. Fall 2015.
Regional Campus Student Welfare Task Force. Fall 2015-.
Academic Advisor Search Committee. Spring 2012.
Human Rights Committee. Fall 2006-Spring 2007.
Program Committee. Fall 2006-.
Academic Regional Campus Support Committee. Spring 2006.
Women’s/Genders/Sexualities Studies Advisory Committee. Spring 2005-.
Faculty Mentor. Fall 2004-.
Academic Advisory Committee, Interfaith Committee, Center for Judaic and Middle
Eastern Studies. Fall 2004-.
Committee on the Humanities, Tri-Campus. Fall 2002 – Spring 2004 (Chair).
Tri-Campus Advisory Committee. Spring 2003 – Spring 2004.
Tri-Campus Research Advisory Committee. Fall 2002-Spring 2004.
Committee for Diversity Programming. Fall 2002 - Spring 2003.
Women's Studies Advisory Group. Fall 2002 – Spring 2003.
Ad Hoc Committees on Scholarships, Enrollment Management, Discipline. Fall 1999 –
Spring 2004.
AWARDS
Faculty Recognition Award, Stamford Campus, UConn. 2015.
Roden, 17
Scholarship Facilitation Fund Award. Fall 2015 - Spring 2016.
Teaching Excellence in the Humanities Award, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UConn.
Spring 2014.
Club advisor of the year award, UConn-Stamford campus newspaper. April 2012.
Silberman Seminar participant, Center for Advanced Holocaust Study, US Holocaust
Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. June 2010.
Church and Society Seminar participant, Center for Advanced Holocaust Study, US Holocaust
Memorial Museum, Washington, DC. June 2009.
Distinguished Faculty Research Award, Rainbow Center, University of Connecticut, Spring
2008, Spring 2009.
AAUP Excellence in Teaching Promise Award, University of Connecticut, Spring 2004.
Junior Faculty Summer Fellowship, University of Connecticut, Summer 2001.
Faculty Small Grant, University of Connecticut, Summer 2001, Summer 2002, Summer 2004,
Summer 2006, Fall 2008.
Ph.D. with distinction, 1998.
B.A. Summa Cum Laude, 1992.
Phi Beta Kappa, 1991.
Drew Scholar (Full-Tuition Merit Scholarship), Drew University, 1988-1992.
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Print Marked Items
Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture
George Robb
Victorian Studies.
46.3 (Spring 2004): p529.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Indiana University Press
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu
Full Text:
Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture, by Frederick S. Roden; pp. ix + 282. Basingstoke and New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, [pounds sterling]47.50, $69.95.
In Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture, Frederick Roden uses queer theory cleverly and provocatively to
examine a great deal of Victorian Anglo-Catholic and Roman Catholic religious writings and practices. Exploring how
Catholicism opened spaces for the expression of same-sex desire, the book aims at being "as much social history as
literary analysis" (2). While building on the work of other scholars, such as Joy Dixon, Ellis Hanson, and John
Maynard, Roden nonetheless demonstrates how historians and literary critics have generally neglected the connections
between sexuality and religion. He argues convincingly that scholars have overemphasized the importance of the Greek
model for Victorians seeking to articulate or justify same-sex desire at the expense of the Christian model. The Bible,
Church history, saints' lives, and monastic practice offered rich homoerotic imagery as well as a long tradition of
homosocial life.
Nineteenth-century men and women who today might have a gay identity could express same-sex desire more safely
within the context of a religious tradition that honored the single life over marriage. The medieval monastic model in
particular provided Victorians an ideal "space for those who did not marry" (7). John Henry Newman and others were
especially drawn to the writings of the twelfth-century abbot Aelred of Rievaulx who idealized close friendships among
monks in language that strikes the modern reader as quite homoerotic. Roden argues that the Victorian monastery
likewise "may be deemed a queer space, a place where same-sex attachments could flourish without society's policing
of deviance" (23). Victorian religious communities offered opportunities for expressing same-sex desire through
friendship to other monks or nuns and through devotion to Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints. For example,
devotion to St. Sebastian, naked and pierced with arrows, might suggest "a homoerotic mystical experience of Divine
love" (16).
The centerpiece of Roden's work is a series of close readings of well-known Victorian writers like Gerard Manley
Hopkins, Newman, Christina Rossetti, and Oscar Wilde, as well as lesser known figures like John Dalgairns, "Michael
Field," and John Gray (the inspiration for Wilde's Dorian Gray). Roden does a fine job of recovering, for many of these
writers, a queer past that has been assiduously repressed by their biographers, editors, and literary executors. Yet Roden
is engaged in a far more nuanced project than merely "outing" certain historic and literary figures. He is less concerned
with defining certain individuals or expressions as "homosexual" than in analyzing "an erotic energy that might be
expressed as love, sublimated in friendship, used as a driving force for the creation of literary art, or embraced as
religious ecstasy" (4). Roden attempts to understand these various expressions of spirituality and desire on their own
terms rather than subsuming them within strict modern categories like hetero/homosexual.
The complexity and indeterminacy of people's innermost emotions cannot be avoided. Religion could serve to
sublimate, mask, justify, or celebrate desire in ways not always understood by the individuals involved. Victorian
Catholicism, both Anglican and Roman, certainly had a capacity to put forth homoerotic feelings in a variety of ways.
For some, this meant transforming same-sex desire into a longing for God. Devotion to Christ's body was often
expressed in highly eroticized language. In a sermon by Hopkins, for instance, Christ is admired thus: "How strong,
and yet how lovely and lissom in his limbs ... I look forward with eager desire to seeing the matchless beauty of Christ's
body in the heavenly light" (qtd. in Roden 94). In most cases, such language caused little or no suspicion.
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As the century progressed, however, possibilities for ambiguous representation diminished. By the late nineteenth
century, public discussions of homosexuality became more open, and the connection between high Church ritualism
and "deviance" was more boldly acknowledged both by Catholic homosexuals themselves and those who condemned
them. Roden argues that earlier the religious life had often served to disguise or sublimate same-sex desire. By the fin
de siecle, the queerness of Catholicism was actually embraced by a number of aesthetic figures like Wilde, Aubrey
Beardsley, and John Francis Bloxam, whose story "The Priest and the Acolyte" (1894) celebrated a priest's love for an
altar boy and was later cited against Wilde at his trial for "gross indecency." Wilde's downfall and the greater policing
of homosexual desire in the wake of the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act transformed "the queer religious space
into a closeted homosexual life" (256). The fact that priestly celibacy still masks sexual desire within the Catholic
Church demonstrates the continuing relevance of Roden's astute historical study.
GEORGE ROBB
William Paterson University
Robb, George
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Robb, George. "Same-Sex Desire in Victorian Religious Culture." Victorian Studies, vol. 46, no. 3, 2004, p. 529+.
General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
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Accessed 11 Aug. 2017.
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Jewish/Christian/queer; crossroads and identities
Reference & Research Book News.
24.4 (Nov. 2009):
COPYRIGHT 2009 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9780754673750
Jewish/Christian/queer; crossroads and identities.
Ed. by Frederick Roden.
Ashgate Publishing Co.
2009
249 pages
$99.95
Hardcover
Queer interventions
HQ1075
Using the term queer to convey dissonance generally as well as deviation from a sexual norm, scholars of Western
literature and religion during various historical periods explore violations of boundaries between conventional
categories. Their topics include the erotic adventures of rabbi Meir, the Queen Anne churches as queer spaces, queering
the Jews in Protestant Europe at the fin de siecle, A Russian-Jewish-Catholic homosexual in Oscar Wilde's London,
questions of morality and identity regarding Hitler's Jewish solders, and Judaic recovery and the broken Christian body
in Michael Arditti's Easter and The Celibate.
([c]2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Jewish/Christian/queer; crossroads and identities." Reference & Research Book News, Nov. 2009. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA211161223&it=r&asid=0ae746e0f4efe7580a85004cf86f00b4.
Accessed 11 Aug. 2017.
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Roden, Frederick S.: Recovering Jewishness:
modern identities reclaimed
G.R. Sharfman
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
54.2 (Oct. 2016): p262.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Roden, Frederick S. Recovering Jewishness: modern identities reclaimed. Praeger, 2016. 277p bibl index afp ISBN
9781440837746 cloth, $60.00; ISBN 9781440837753 ebook, contact publisher for price
(cc)
54-0802
DS143
2015-36698
CIP
Roden (English, Connecticut) discusses various authors' definitions of who is a Jew and to what extent, if any, Jews can
be fully accepted members of society while still proclaiming their Jewishness. His fascinating investigation of how the
definition of Jewishness has changed throughout time and place mixes works of fiction and nonfiction, with much of
the analysis directed toward the 20th century, especially Holocaust and post-Holocaust literature. The group of authors
Roden studies is not comprehensive, and he might have discussed more why some writers were selected and others
omitted, but his analysis of the complexities of Jewishness for both the authors and their works is excellent. Western
Jews after the French Revolution were offered the opportunity to assimilate, provided they relinquished some of their
past culture. Eastern European Jews had a more difficult time. This proposition of assimilation in some ways
exacerbated anti-Semitism while paradoxically also increasing acculturation into secular society. This tension not
surprisingly produced angst in the Jewish community, which found its way into various stories. The Nazis' rabid antiSemitism
and the horrors of the Holocaust provide a different context, with similar themes as the prewar works. Roden
writes clearly, explaining the literature and offering erudite commentary that will prompt readers to delve into the
primary sources. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.--G. R. Sharfman, Oglethorpe
University
Sharfman, G.R.
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Sharfman, G.R. "Roden, Frederick S.: Recovering Jewishness: modern identities reclaimed." CHOICE: Current
Reviews for Academic Libraries, Oct. 2016, p. 262. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479869022&it=r&asid=34a1f0d562f6899d9f521d78c09c2a49.
Accessed 11 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479869022
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Love's Trinity: A Companion to Julian of
Norwich
Brigid O'Shea Merriman
Theological Studies.
71.1 (Mar. 2010): p255.
COPYRIGHT 2010 Sage Publications, Inc.
http://www.ts.mu.edu/
Full Text:
LOVE'S TRINITY: A COMPANION TO JULIAN OF NORWICH. The Long Text by Julian of Norwich. Translated by
John-Julian Swanson, O.J.N. Commentary by Frederick S. Roden, A.O.J.N. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical, 2009. Pp.
xii + 336. $39.95.
Featuring the Long Text of Julian of Norwich's Revelations, this companion was translated by John-Julian Swanson,
who also provides the foreword. S. is the Episcopal founder of the Order of Julian of Norwich (O.J.N.) and has
pondered the mystic's message for almost three decades. His translation is lucid, elegant, and remarkably faithful to
Julian's Middle English. In chapter 51, for example, he wrestled successfully with the subtleties of Julian's lord and
servant parable. More than other translators, he has grasped what Julian writes of her early and later, much richer,
appropriation of the parable's meaning (189).
Frederick Roden's succinct commentary follows each chapter of S.'s translation, and provides pregnant pauses for
meditation. Whether or not intentional, the arrangement invites a lectio divina, a pondering of the word that it may take
flesh within one's mind and heart. The translator's and commentator's collaboration has much to recommend this
rendering. R. is well versed in English literature, yet his commentary is intentionally devotional and homiletic. He
keeps Julian's basic message alive, while addressing the spiritual hungers of 21st-century readers. Overall, the
commentary reveals R.'s careful reflection on the late-medieval mystic's message. As with Julian, R. has drunk deeply
of Scripture's wellsprings. Here lies the commentary's great strength.
I find only occasional difficulties with R.'s theological interpretation. For example, he overlooks Julian's rich trinitarian
perspective in chapter 56, which S. rightly translates: "From this essential nature of God, mercy and grace spring"
(220). Here, we have a reference to Father (essential nature), Son (mercy), and Holy Spirit (grace). Yet R. applies this
only to a human trinity (222); his interpretation then appears to occasion a loose use of terms such as nature and grace
in later chapters (e.g., 246). Nonetheless, the commentary is as challenging and uplifting as the translation, and merits a
careful reading.
BRIGID O'SHEA MERRIMAN, O.S.F.
Lourdes College, Sylvania, Ohio
Merriman, Brigid O'Shea
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Merriman, Brigid O'Shea. "Love's Trinity: A Companion to Julian of Norwich." Theological Studies, vol. 71, no.
1, 2010, p. 255. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA220559148&it=r&asid=d4c51033715f3b400c62e738e14e1773.
Accessed 11 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A220559148