Thomas Prendergast

Thomas Prendergast is a Professor and Department Chair of English and Comparative Literature at the College of Wooster. He holds a B.A. from Marquette University (1981), an M.A. from the University of Virginia (1984), and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia (1992). His research focuses on Old and Middle English literature, with a particular emphasis on theories of medievalism and the interplay between historical texts and modern cultural interpretations.

Prendergast teaches courses such as *The Canterbury Tales and the Forms of Medieval Narrative*, *Gender, Sex and Texts (350-1500)*, and *Political Theater*. His scholarship includes seminal works like *Chaucer’s Dead Body: From Corpse to Corpus* (2004) and *Rewriting Chaucer: Culture, Authority and the Idea of the Authentic Text 1400-1602* (1999). Current projects include co-authoring *Medievalism and Its Discontents* with Stephanie Trigg and co-editing *Textual Agencies: Chaucer and the Subject of Form* with Jessica Rosenfeld.

His articles explore topics ranging from Chaucer’s literary legacy to the theoretical underpinnings of medievalism. Notable works analyze the anti-presence of Chaucer in early modern celebrity culture, the role of dissent in postmedieval thought, and the invention of propaganda in early modern religious texts. Prendergast’s work bridges medieval textual analysis with modern theoretical frameworks, emphasizing the dynamic relationship between historical texts and contemporary cultural narratives.