Simmons College

Sheldon George teaches courses in both literature and theory. Concentrating primarily on American and African-American literature, his courses explore literary representations of American identity, as they are expressed in the writings of authors spanning from antebellum to contemporary America. His literary and cultural theory courses are aimed at granting students more nuanced and complex understandings of the interplay between literature, culture and identity. With a particular focus on psychoanalytic theory, Professor George's research and published work use Lacanian psychoanalysis to investigate the effects of slavery and racism on American racial identity. Some of his courses include the graduate seminar in Contemporary Critical Theory, Toni Morrison and American Literature, Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, and Race and Gender in Psychoanalytic Theory.

Recent Publications

Books and Edited Works

Trauma and Race: A Lacanian Analysis of African-American Identity. Contracted, September 2014, Baylor UP.

Psychoanalysis, African Americans and Inequality. Special Issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. Forthcoming Spring 2014.

Journal Articles

"Approaching the Thing of Slavery: A Lacanian Analysis of Toni Morrison's Beloved. African American Review 44.5. Forthcoming.

"The Performed Self in College Writing: From Personal Narratives to Argumentative and Research Essays." Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition and Culture 12.2 (Spring 2012): 319-341.

"Realism's Racial Glaze and Stephen Crane's The Monster: A Lacanian Reading." Experiments in/of Realism: Special Issue of Synthesis 3 (Winter 2011): 69-86.

Book Reviews

Freud Upside Down: African American Literature and Psychoanalytic Culture, by Badia Sahar Ahad. Symploke 19:1-2 (2011): 402-404.