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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
