Career
He is a regular contributor to The Nation and the Times Literary Supplement and currently lives in Arizona and Istanbul. Hawkes is the author of six books: Idols of the Marketplace: Idolatry and Commodity Fetishism in English Literature, 1580-1680 (Palgrave 2001), Ideology (Routledge 2003), The Faust Myth: Religion and the Rise of Representation (Palgrave 2007), John Milton: A Hero of Our Time (Counterpoint 2010), The Culture of Usury in Renaissance England (Palgrave 2011),and Shakespeare and Economic Criticism (Bloomsbury 2015). He has edited John Milton"s Paradise Lost (Barnes and Noble 2004) and John Bunyan"s The Pilgrim"s Progress (Barnes and Noble 2005).
In 2002 a lengthy correspondence in The Nation followed Hawkes" critical review essay on Stephen J. Gould"s final book
In 2012 a special issue of the journal Early Modern Culture was devoted to a discussion of his anti-materialist literary theory. In 2013 his 20,000 word article on Recent Studies in the English Renaissance for the journal Studies in English Literature angered critics with remarks on the contemporary economy that many found irrelevant to the topic.
Hawkes" work generally explores the connections between economics, literature and philosophy, showing a strong anti-capitalist bias. Hawkes took his Bachelor of Arts at Oxford University, and his Master of Arts, Master of Philisophy and Doctor of Philosophy at Columbia University.
At Oxford, Hawkes was a student of the left-wing literary critic Terry Eagleton and at Columbia of Edward Said.
Hawkes was associate professor of English at Lehigh University, and has held visiting appointments at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Bogazici University, Istanbul and North China University, Beijing. Hawkes, David, ‘How Noam Chomsky’s World Works,’ Times Literary Supplement, 8/29/12, pp. 3–5
Hawkes, David, ‘The Evolution of Darwinism,’ The Nation, 6/10/2002, pp.
29–34
Hawkes, David, ‘Milton and Usury,’ English Literary Renaissance 41:3, Autumn 2011, pp.
503–528
Hawkes, David, ‘Fiction Sets You Free,’ Times Literary Supplement, 10/24/2008, pp. 24–5
Hawkes, David, ‘Faust among the Witches: Towards an Ethics of Representation,’ Early Modern Culture 4, 2004.