Stephens, Walter 1949–

views updated

Stephens, Walter 1949–

PERSONAL: Born 1949. Education: Yale University, B.A., 1972; Cornell University, M.A., 1976, Ph.D., 1979; Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Ph.D., 1984.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Romance Languages, Gilman Hall 407, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, lecturer in Italian literature, 1978–79; University of Washington, Seattle, assistant professor of Romance languages and literature, 1981–83; Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, assistant professor, 1983–88, associate professor, 1988–93, Paul D. Paganucci Professor of Italian, 1993–98, professor of French, Italian, and comparative literature, 1998–2003. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, Charles S. Singleton Professor of Italian Studies and vice chair of Romance languages and literature, 1999–, director of Villa Spelman, Forence, Italy, 2001–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Sears foundation research grant, 1990–92; Humanities Research Institute fellowship, 1991; Mellon Foundation/National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 1997; National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 1999.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Kevin Brownlee) Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, University Press of New England (Hanover, NH), 1989.

Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1989.

Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2002.

Contributor to books, including, Mimesis in Contemporary Theory: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Volume 1: The Literary and Philosophical Debate, edited by Mihai Spariosu, John Benjamins (Philadelphia, PA), 1984; In Search of the Ancient Novel, edited by James Tatum, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1993; The Name of the Rose: Umberto Eco's Alternative: The Politics of Culture and the Ambiguities of Interpretation, edited by Norma Bouchard and Veronica Pravadelli, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 1998; Renaissance Transactions: Ariosto and Tasso, edited by Valeria Finucci, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 1999; Sparks and Seeds: Medieval Literature and Its Afterlife: Essays in Honor of John Freccero, edited by Dana E. Stewart and Alison Cornish, Prepols Publishers, 2000; and Monsters in the Italian Literary Imagination, edited by Keala Jewell, Wayne State University Press (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Contributor of essays, reviews, and bibliographies to periodicals, including Journal of Medieval Studies, International Schools Journal, Biblioteca e società, Traditio, and Annali d'Italianistica. Editorial reviewer, Renaissance Quarterly, Historian, University of Chicago Press, Duke University Press, National Endowment for the Humanities, Stanford University Press, University of California Press, Yale University Press, Columbia University Press, and University of Toronto Press.

SIDELIGHTS: Walter Stephens specializes in the study of Italian and French works of literature from the late Medieval through the Renaissance periods. His first full-length work examines the way French author Rabelais used giants in his fiction to comment upon the political aspirations of the French monarchy. In a review of Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism for Renaissance and Reformation, Philip R. Berk commended Stephens for presenting a "richly detailed and learned argument." Renaissance Quarterly contributor François Rigolot noted that Stephens "develops a devastating critique of traditional and modern views on Rabelais's giants."

Stephens's Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief closely observes the language in late Medieval and early modern treatises on witchcraft. The author demonstrates that, rather than misogynistic attacks on women, the essays and books attacking witchcraft reveal their writers' need to believe in the reality of demons as a correlative of belief in angels and God. As such, witch hunts existed to justify intellectuals' requirement of empirical evidence for both angels and demons. "This learned and fascinating book argues that witchcraft exists because Christianity finds it useful," wrote E. Ann Matter in Church History.

In Demon Lovers Stephens also suggests that certain clergy—both Catholic and Protestant—used witchcraft to explain the existence of evil in the world. The many people—men, women, and children—who were murdered for witchcraft sacrificed their lives to a growing anxiety about the actual existence of the Christian God. In her review for Comparative Literature, Claire Fanger found the book "provocative and original" as well as "historically engaging and intellectually substantial." Journal of the American Academy of Religion contributor Margaret R. Miles noted of Stephens: "His thesis is well supported, persuasive, and a welcome antidote to sensationalist accounts of witch persecution."

According to Stuart Clark in Shakespeare Studies, Stephens's Demon Lovers is part of a "scholarly seachange." The critic added that the book "loosens yet further the causal connection between witchcraft trials and witchcraft theory in order to stress that what witchcraft meant for intellectuals involved much broader vocabularies—much broader trials, indeed." Clark concluded: "No one will ever be able to consider the ingredients of a witch cauldron in the same way again." In his Booklist review of Demon Lovers, Bryce Christensen called the work a "stunning investigation … unsettling and compelling."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Baltimore Sun, October 31, 2002, John Rivera, "Witches Took Rap as World Got Wiser," review of Demon Lovers: Witchcraft, Sex, and the Crisis of Belief, p. 10.

Booklist, February 15, 2002, Bryce Christensen, review of Demon Lovers, p. 973.

Christianity and Literature, winter, 2003, R. D. Stock, review of Demon Lovers, p. 259.

Chronicle of Higher Education, October 25, 2002, Nina C. Ayoub, review of Demon Lovers, p. A17.

Church History, September, 2003, E. Ann Matter, review of Demon Lovers, p. 649.

Comparative Literature, fall, 2003, Claire Fanger, review of Demon Lovers, p. 355.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, September, 2003, Margaret R. Miles, review of Demon Lovers, pp. 720-723.

Modern Language Review, April, 1991, Kathleen M. Hall, review of Giants in Those Days: Folklore, Ancient History, and Nationalism, pp. 448-449; October, 1991, Piero Boitani, review of Discourses of Authority in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, pp. 975-975.

Renaissance and Reformation, winter, 1992, Philip R. Berk, review of Giants in Those Days, pp. 88-89.

Renaissance Quarterly, autumn, 1990, François Rigolot, review of Giants in Those Days, pp. 631-632.

Shakespeare Studies (annual), 2003, Stuart Clark, review of Demon Lovers, p. 296.

Washington Post Book World, June 9, 2002, Alice K. Turner, "Going to the Devil," review of Demon Lovers, p. 15.