David Goldstein
Associate Professor
Coordinator, Creative Writing Program
Office: Atkinson Building, 542
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 22087
Email: dgolds@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
David Goldstein’s teaching and research interests include sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British literature, food studies, poetry writing and translation, contemporary poetry and poetics, literary and cultural theory, and book history. He is the author of a book of literary criticism, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England, which won the 2014 Shakespeare's Globe Book Award; three co-edited collections of criticism relating to Shakespeare, cuisine, and hospitality; and two volumes of poems, Lost Originals and Laws of Rest. He has published articles on the politics of soil in Paradise Lost, the Scottish context of The Merchant of Venice, food in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Titus Andronicus and American cannibalism, Martha Stewart and domestic labour, and Robert Duncan as a translator of Rilke, among others. His poetry and translations have appeared in journals and anthologies across North America. A former restaurant critic and journalist, his food writing has graced the pages of SAVEUR, The New York Sun, Time Out, and numerous other publications. From 2017-2021 he served as as a co-director of "Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures," the inaugural project of the Mellon Institute in Collaborative Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is currently Coordinator for the York Creative Writing Program. Before joining the faculty at York, he was an assistant professor of English at the University of Tulsa.
Degrees
Ph.D. in English, Stanford UniversityM.A. in Writing, The Johns Hopkins University
B.A. in English, Yale University
Appointments
Faculty of Fine ArtsResearch Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
From 2017-2021 I was one of three co-directors for the inaugural project of the Mellon initiative in collaborative research, based at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.
Description:"Before 'Farm to Table'" used the pervasiveness of food in everyday life as a window into early modern culture. In the course of this project, participants investigated big questions about the way food participates in and actively shapes human knowledge, ethics, and imagination. We explored such issues as the unevenness of food supply, the development and spread of tastes, and the socially cohesive rituals of eating together. With fresh understandings of a pre-industrial world, this project also gave us purchase on some post-industrial assumptions, aspirations, and challenges.
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2017
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2021
Collaborator Institution: Folger Shakespeare Library
-
Summary:
In his essay “On Experience,” the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne asserts, “We should not so much consider what we eat as with whom we eat.” My next monograph, With Whom We Eat: Literature and Commensality, explores the concept of commensality—the relationships produced by acts of eating, the “with whom” of food—in imaginative literature from the ancient, early modern, and contemporary periods. The project seeks to define commensality as fundamental to a cultural understanding of food, to explore the centrality of the concept in literary texts, and to demonstrate the importance of literary criticism to the burgeoning discipline of food studies—a discipline in which the study of imaginative writing is often marginalized. The project views literary history from the perspective of food in order to divine what we can learn from them in the context of our own relationships to eating.
-
Summary:
This monograph maps the connections between lyric poems and recipes in early modern England. I argue that culinary and medical recipe writing formed a chief model for poetic form and production for authors from Skelton through Milton, while recipe book authors developed new techniques for asserting individual authority in a genre formerly marked by anonymity.
-
Summary:
A book of poetry that uses the language of space science to explore the nature of fatherhood.
Early Modern Hospitality (edited collection). Marco Piana, co-editor. Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (Essays and Studies Series), 2021.
Culinary Shakespeare (edited collection). Amy Tigner, co-editor. Duquesne University Press, 2016.
Shakespeare and Hospitality (edited collection). Julia Reinhard Lupton, co-editor. Routledge, 2016.
Lost Originals (poetry book). Toronto: BookThug, 2016.
Object Permanence (poetry chapbook). Ugly Duckling Presse: 2015.
Laws of Rest (poetry book). BookThug: 2013.
Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England (scholarly monograph). Cambridge University Press: 2013.
“Liquid Macbeth.” Renaissance Personhood: Materiality, Taxonomy, Process. Ed. Kevin Curran. Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp.163-185.
“Eating with Shakespeare: Timon of Athens.” Shakespeare On Stage and Off. Ed. Ken Graham and Alysia Kolentsis. McGill-Queens University Press, 2019, pp. 123-138.
“Commensality.” Food and Literature. Ed. Gitanjali Shahani. Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 39-58.
“Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’” Of Levinas and Shakespeare: “To See Another Thus.” Ed. Moshe Gold and Sandor Goodhart with Kent Lehnhof. Purdue University Press, 2018, pp. 237-258.
“Poetic Form as Experimental Procedure: An Historical View.” Writing Creative Writing: Essays from the Field. Ed. Rishma Dunlop, Daniel Scott Tysdal, and Priscila Uppal. Dundurn Press, 2018, pp. 151-166.
“Manuring Eden: Biological Conversions in Paradise Lost.” Ground-Work: Renaissance English Literature and Soil Science. Ed. Hillary Eklund.Duquesne University Press, 2017, pp. 171-193.
Winner of the the James Holly Hanford Article Award for best article on John Milton, Milton Society of America, 2018.
“Facing King Lear.” In Shakespeare and the Power of the Face. Ed. James Knapp. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2015, pp 75-91.
“Woolley’s Mouse: Early Modern Recipe Books and the Uses of Nature.” In Ecofeminist Approaches to Early Modernity. Ed. Jennifer Munroe and Rebecca Laroche. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 105-128.
“Recipes for Living: Martha Stewart and the New American Subject.” Ordinary Lifestyles: Popular Media, Consumption and Taste Cultures. Ed. David Bell and Joanne Hollows. London: Open University Press, 2005.
“Eats Well with Others: Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’” Criticism 59.4 (2017), pp. 639-660. Reprint of “Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’”
“The Price of Pork: Jews, Scots, and Pigs in The Merchant of Venice.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 54.2, Spring 2014, pp. 315-348.
“Emmanuel Levinas and the Ontology of Eating.” Gastronomica, Summer 2010, pp. 34-44.
“Shakespeare and Food: A Review Essay.” Literature Compass 6:1, January 2009, pp. 153-174.
“The Cook and the Cannibal: Titus Andronicus and the New World.” Shakespeare Studies 37, Fall 2009, pp. 99-133.
“The Lure of the God: Robert Duncan on Translating Rilke.” John Felstiner, co-author. Jacket magazine 31: October 2006.
Approach to Teaching
Methods of learning have changed greatly since the Elizabethan schoolmaster John Ascham wrote that “the scholehouse should be counted a sanctuary against feare,” but the essence of his statement remains fresh. In every class I teach, my goal is to spark the enthusiasm of my students both for the subject at hand and for the learning process. I view my classroom as a space for experimentation without fear of recrimination. I encourage students to explore unfamiliar ideas to the greatest possible extent, while developing a clear understanding of the space’s boundaries. By creating a supportive, exciting environment for the pursuit of knowledge, I hope to imbue in my students a general love of learning and to help instill in them the curiosity and inspiration to continue the journey.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/EN4002 6.0 | A | Food and Writing | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/CWR4620 6.0 | A | Senior Poetry Workshop | ONLN |
David Goldstein’s teaching and research interests include sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British literature, food studies, poetry writing and translation, contemporary poetry and poetics, literary and cultural theory, and book history. He is the author of a book of literary criticism, Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England, which won the 2014 Shakespeare's Globe Book Award; three co-edited collections of criticism relating to Shakespeare, cuisine, and hospitality; and two volumes of poems, Lost Originals and Laws of Rest. He has published articles on the politics of soil in Paradise Lost, the Scottish context of The Merchant of Venice, food in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Titus Andronicus and American cannibalism, Martha Stewart and domestic labour, and Robert Duncan as a translator of Rilke, among others. His poetry and translations have appeared in journals and anthologies across North America. A former restaurant critic and journalist, his food writing has graced the pages of SAVEUR, The New York Sun, Time Out, and numerous other publications. From 2017-2021 he served as as a co-director of "Before 'Farm to Table': Early Modern Foodways and Cultures," the inaugural project of the Mellon Institute in Collaborative Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library. He is currently Coordinator for the York Creative Writing Program. Before joining the faculty at York, he was an assistant professor of English at the University of Tulsa.
Degrees
Ph.D. in English, Stanford UniversityM.A. in Writing, The Johns Hopkins University
B.A. in English, Yale University
Appointments
Faculty of Fine ArtsResearch Interests
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
From 2017-2021 I was one of three co-directors for the inaugural project of the Mellon initiative in collaborative research, based at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.
Description:"Before 'Farm to Table'" used the pervasiveness of food in everyday life as a window into early modern culture. In the course of this project, participants investigated big questions about the way food participates in and actively shapes human knowledge, ethics, and imagination. We explored such issues as the unevenness of food supply, the development and spread of tastes, and the socially cohesive rituals of eating together. With fresh understandings of a pre-industrial world, this project also gave us purchase on some post-industrial assumptions, aspirations, and challenges.
Project Type: FundedRole: Co-director
Start Date:
- Month: Sep Year: 2017
End Date:
- Month: Jun Year: 2021
Collaborator Institution: Folger Shakespeare Library
-
Summary:
In his essay “On Experience,” the sixteenth-century philosopher Michel de Montaigne asserts, “We should not so much consider what we eat as with whom we eat.” My next monograph, With Whom We Eat: Literature and Commensality, explores the concept of commensality—the relationships produced by acts of eating, the “with whom” of food—in imaginative literature from the ancient, early modern, and contemporary periods. The project seeks to define commensality as fundamental to a cultural understanding of food, to explore the centrality of the concept in literary texts, and to demonstrate the importance of literary criticism to the burgeoning discipline of food studies—a discipline in which the study of imaginative writing is often marginalized. The project views literary history from the perspective of food in order to divine what we can learn from them in the context of our own relationships to eating.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
-
Summary:
This monograph maps the connections between lyric poems and recipes in early modern England. I argue that culinary and medical recipe writing formed a chief model for poetic form and production for authors from Skelton through Milton, while recipe book authors developed new techniques for asserting individual authority in a genre formerly marked by anonymity.
-
Summary:
A book of poetry that uses the language of space science to explore the nature of fatherhood.
Project Type: FundedAll Publications
“Liquid Macbeth.” Renaissance Personhood: Materiality, Taxonomy, Process. Ed. Kevin Curran. Edinburgh University Press, 2020, pp.163-185.
“Eating with Shakespeare: Timon of Athens.” Shakespeare On Stage and Off. Ed. Ken Graham and Alysia Kolentsis. McGill-Queens University Press, 2019, pp. 123-138.
“Commensality.” Food and Literature. Ed. Gitanjali Shahani. Cambridge University Press, 2018, pp. 39-58.
“Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’” Of Levinas and Shakespeare: “To See Another Thus.” Ed. Moshe Gold and Sandor Goodhart with Kent Lehnhof. Purdue University Press, 2018, pp. 237-258.
“Poetic Form as Experimental Procedure: An Historical View.” Writing Creative Writing: Essays from the Field. Ed. Rishma Dunlop, Daniel Scott Tysdal, and Priscila Uppal. Dundurn Press, 2018, pp. 151-166.
“Manuring Eden: Biological Conversions in Paradise Lost.” Ground-Work: Renaissance English Literature and Soil Science. Ed. Hillary Eklund.Duquesne University Press, 2017, pp. 171-193.
Winner of the the James Holly Hanford Article Award for best article on John Milton, Milton Society of America, 2018.
“Facing King Lear.” In Shakespeare and the Power of the Face. Ed. James Knapp. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Press, 2015, pp 75-91.
“Woolley’s Mouse: Early Modern Recipe Books and the Uses of Nature.” In Ecofeminist Approaches to Early Modernity. Ed. Jennifer Munroe and Rebecca Laroche. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 105-128.
“Recipes for Living: Martha Stewart and the New American Subject.” Ordinary Lifestyles: Popular Media, Consumption and Taste Cultures. Ed. David Bell and Joanne Hollows. London: Open University Press, 2005.
Early Modern Hospitality (edited collection). Marco Piana, co-editor. Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies (Essays and Studies Series), 2021.
Culinary Shakespeare (edited collection). Amy Tigner, co-editor. Duquesne University Press, 2016.
Shakespeare and Hospitality (edited collection). Julia Reinhard Lupton, co-editor. Routledge, 2016.
Lost Originals (poetry book). Toronto: BookThug, 2016.
Object Permanence (poetry chapbook). Ugly Duckling Presse: 2015.
Laws of Rest (poetry book). BookThug: 2013.
Eating and Ethics in Shakespeare's England (scholarly monograph). Cambridge University Press: 2013.
“Eats Well with Others: Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’” Criticism 59.4 (2017), pp. 639-660. Reprint of “Culinary Skepticism in As You Like It and Montaigne’s ‘Of Experience.’”
“The Price of Pork: Jews, Scots, and Pigs in The Merchant of Venice.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 54.2, Spring 2014, pp. 315-348.
“Emmanuel Levinas and the Ontology of Eating.” Gastronomica, Summer 2010, pp. 34-44.
“Shakespeare and Food: A Review Essay.” Literature Compass 6:1, January 2009, pp. 153-174.
“The Cook and the Cannibal: Titus Andronicus and the New World.” Shakespeare Studies 37, Fall 2009, pp. 99-133.
“The Lure of the God: Robert Duncan on Translating Rilke.” John Felstiner, co-author. Jacket magazine 31: October 2006.
Approach to Teaching
Methods of learning have changed greatly since the Elizabethan schoolmaster John Ascham wrote that “the scholehouse should be counted a sanctuary against feare,” but the essence of his statement remains fresh. In every class I teach, my goal is to spark the enthusiasm of my students both for the subject at hand and for the learning process. I view my classroom as a space for experimentation without fear of recrimination. I encourage students to explore unfamiliar ideas to the greatest possible extent, while developing a clear understanding of the space’s boundaries. By creating a supportive, exciting environment for the pursuit of knowledge, I hope to imbue in my students a general love of learning and to help instill in them the curiosity and inspiration to continue the journey.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/EN4002 6.0 | A | Food and Writing | ONLN |
| Fall/Winter 2023 | AP/CWR4620 6.0 | A | Senior Poetry Workshop | ONLN |
Keele, Glendon and Markham Campus
Contact
(416) 736-2100
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