Lee Edelman (born 1953) is an American literary critic and academic. He is a professor of English at Tufts University. He is the author of four books.
Lee Edelman was born in 1953.[1] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, and he received an MPhil and a PhD from Yale University.
Edelman began his academic career as a scholar of twentieth-century American poetry. He has since become active in the development, dissemination, and rethinking of queer theory. His current work explores the intersections of sexuality, rhetorical theory, cultural politics, and film. He holds an appointment as the Fletcher Professor of English Literature and has served as the Chair of the English Department.[citation needed] He gained international recognition for his books about queer theory, post-structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, and cultural studies.
Edelman is the author of four books. His first book, Transmemberment of Song: Hart Crane's Anatomies of Rhetoric and Desire, is a critique of Hart Crane's poetry. His second book, Homographesis: Essays in Gay Literary and Cultural Theory, explores the significance of gay literature. His third book, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, is a post-Lacanian analysis of queer theory.
Edelman's work has been contentious in queer theory, with José Esteban Muñoz's Cruising Utopia polemicizing against his "queer negativity." A 2005 Modern Language Association Conference held a special symposium on the subject, with participants Robert L. Caserio, Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, José Esteban Muñoz and Tim Dean debating the utility of the critique of reproductive futurism.[2]
Edelman is married to critic and fellow English professor Joseph Litvak.[citation needed]
