Masha Raskolnikov
Associate Professor
Departments and programs
- Comparative Literature
- Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies Program
- Literatures in English
- Medieval Studies Program
Academic interests
- Gender and Sexuality
- Literary Theory
- Medieval
Links
Keywords
Middle English literature; allegory theory; medieval philosophy and rhetoric; contemporary critical theory; feminist and queer studies
Overview
After receiving her BA from the interdisciplinary College of Letters at Wesleyan University, Masha Raskolnikov went on to earn her MA and PhD at UC Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric; at the time she arrived at Cornell, she had never actually been, officially, a member of an English Department, but she finds herself quite comfortable in this one. She is primarily interested in critical theory as a project of unmaking “common sense,” and in working with medieval literature as a means of doing so; she is also interested in feminist, lesbian, gay and transgender/transsexual studies. She is the author of Trans Historical: Gender Plurality Before the Modern (Cornell University Press, 2021) and Body Against Soul: Gender and Sowlehele in Middle English Allegory (Ohio State University Press, 2009).
Research Focus
- Middle English literature
- Allegory theory
- Medieval philosophy and rhetoric
- Contemporary critical theory
- Feminist and queer studies