Hans Turley (died June 2008) was a literary scholar, known for advancing the role of queer studies within eighteenth-century English literature, especially queer readings of pirate fiction.[1]

Turley received his PhD in 1994 from the University of Washington.[1]:265 He taught briefly at Texas Tech University after graduation, then joined the faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1998.[1]:265

Turley is best known for his 1999 monograph Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality, and Masculine Identity, which Kathryn R. King describes as "one of the earliest works of eighteenth-century scholarship to introduce queer perspectives into the post-structuralist mix."[1]:266 The book studies homoerotic desire in eighteenth-century works, including Daniel Defoe's novels Robinson Crusoe and Captain Singleton, "opening the hatches" to an interpretation of pirate fiction that does not simply reinforce heteronormativity.[1]:266 The book was also notable for making unusually extensive work of primary sources not usually considered by literary scholars, and for highlighting the semi-fictionalized nature of the sensational pirate "histories" that influenced previous historical work on piracy.[1]:267

Turley was a founding member of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies' Queer Caucus in 1993.[1]:265 From 1997 to 2005, he served as an editor of the journal The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, including overseeing a special double issue in 2003 titled "Preposterous Pleasure: Homoeroticism and the Eighteenth Century."[1]:265

Turley died in June 2008.[1]:265 In 2012, a special issue of the journal The Eighteenth Century was published in his memory.[1]:265

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 King, Kathryn R. (2012). "Introduction: Hans Turley, Queer Studies, and the Open-Hatched Eighteenth Century". The Eighteenth Century. 53 (3): 265–272. ISSN 0193-5380. JSTOR 23365012.
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