Lauren Berlant papers (Ms.2015.009)

Biographical/Historical Note

Lauren Berlant (1957-2021) was born on October 31, 1957, in Philadelphia and grew up in suburban Penn Valley. They graduated from Oberlin College in 1979 with an AB in English and went on to earn a master's degree in 1983 and then a Ph.D. in 1985, both in English and from Cornell University.

Berlant joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1984 and served as the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English, Gender Studies and the Humanities. Their scholarship focused on what sentimentality means in American culture for gender, sexuality and politics. Specifically, they sought to define the desires and emotions that compel people to create forms of life that support a sense of belonging, and the complex ways in which gender, race, citizenship, class and sexuality affect and mold those attachments.

Berlant's career-defining entry to national sentimentality and affect theory began through the study of historical novels during their doctoral studies at Cornell University. At that time, their scholarship focused on how a historical novel produces a story that moves between history and subjectivity, often entwining a law plot and a love plot. Berlant recognized how structural, functional, and political norms synergize and shape subjectivity.

Notable books authored by Berlant include The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture (2004); The Anatomy of National Fantasy: Hawthorne, Utopia, and Everyday Life (1991); and The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Essays on Sex and Citizenship (1997).

Berlant passed away on June 28, 2021, from a rare form of cancer at the age of 63.

The information cited in this section was retrieved from The University of Chicago in 2021. https://news.uchicago.edu/story/lauren-berlant-preeminent-literary-scholar-and-cultural-theorist-1957-2021