Alan Sinfield (17 December 1941 – 2 December 2017) was an English theorist in the fields of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

and

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

, modern theatre,

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field n ...

queer theory Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory that emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. The term "queer theory" is broadly associated with the study a ...

queer studies Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBTQ studies is the study of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoric, asexual, aromantic, queer, question ...

, post-1945

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

cultural theory Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rela ...

. He was a professor of English at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

, and the author of a dozen books, and is credited with a leading role in establishing queer studies in mainstream academic studies.

Early life

Alan Sinfield was born in Southgate, north London, on 17 December 1941 to Lucy (née Seabright) and Ernest Sinfield; they had one more son, Mark. Ernest Sinfield died serving in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

in 1944, and Lucy began experiencing

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

soon after, though she continued working, washing dishes in a cafe in difficult conditions.'Alan Sinfield', ''The Times'', 72433 (16 January 2018), 53. Growing up in a poor household "made Alan acutely aware of the limitations of the postwar promise to provide equal access to the nation’s resources", and he credited his mother's experience with shaping his political commitment to, in his own words, "disadvantaged people—those who are elderly, infirm, unemployed, black, queer, lone parents, and so on".

Education

Sinfield attended the

Royal Wolverhampton School The Royal School, Wolverhampton is a co-educational free school and sixth form for day and boarding pupils in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. It is the only state school of its type in the UK to have a Royal Charter and it has been a f ...

on a scholarship for children who had lost parents in the War. He learned the guitar and had a skiffle band, which also included his brother. This was followed by

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, from which he took a first-class BA in 1964, an MA in 1967 (which was the basis for his 1971 ''The Language of Tennyson's In Memoriam''), and a DLitt in 1987.

Career

Sinfield was appointed as a lecturer in English at the

in 1965, eventually becoming Professor of English and Cultural Studies in 1990. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', from the late 1970s, "Sussex now developed its reputation as the most exciting, theoretically informed English department in the country, pioneering wider changes in the way English is taught in universities, with Alan a key figure." Sinfield's ''Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain'', first published in 1989, is a revolutionary socialist interpretation of the postwar cultural settlement and its destruction. He pioneered the Sexual Dissidence programme at the University of Sussex with

Jonathan Dollimore Jonathan G Dollimore (born 1948) is a British philosopher and critic in the fields of Renaissance literature (especially drama), gender studies, queer theory ( queer studies), history of ideas, death studies, decadence, and cultural theory. He ...

and taught postgraduate students and research in the field of sexual dissidence at the

. Sinfield retired from Sussex in 2004. In 2016, Sinfield and his work were the subject of a special issue of the journal '' Textual Practice'', entitled ''On Alan Sinfield''.''Textual Practice'', 30 issue 6 (2016), http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtpr20/30/6?nav=tocList. Sinfield was himself the editor of the journal for a long period.

Personal life and death

Sinfield became the partner of

in the 1970s, and Sinfield purchased a cottage in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

in this period. Sinfield's partner from the mid-1990s was Vincent Quinn. Sinfield suffered from

, and Quinn became his full-time carer after the illness began to affect Sinfield's speech. Sinfield died on 2 December 2017.

Bibliography

* ''Shakespeare, Authority, Sexuality: Unfinished Business in Cultural Materialism ''(2006) * ''Literature, Politics and Culture in Postwar Britain'' (2004) * ''On Sexuality and Power'' (2004) * ''Out on Stage: Lesbian and Gay Theatre in the Twentieth Century ''(1999) * ''Gay and After: Gender, Culture and Consumption'' (1998) * ''Cultural Politics – Queer Reading'' (1994) * ''The Wilde Century: Effeminacy, Oscar Wilde and the Queer Moment ''(1994) * ''Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism'' (1994) (With Jonathan Dollimore) * ''Faultlines: Cultural Materialism and the Politics of Dissident Reading '' (1992) * ''Literature in Protestant England, 1560–1660'' (1983) * ''Dramatic Monologue'' (1977) * ''The Language of Tennyson's In Memoriam'' (1971)

References

External links

University homepage

University of Sussex, Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinfield, Alan 1941 births 2017 deaths 21st-century British LGBTQ people Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of University College London English gay writers English literary critics Gay academics People from Brighton People from Southgate, London