Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

English Literature

Summary of research interests and expertise:

I am Emeritus Professor of English, Birkbeck, University of London, a Fellow of the British Academy and International Scholar of the American Academy. My research interests comprise the long nineteenth century, particularly women’s poetry and experimental poetry of the twenty first century. Indicative publications are Victorian Poetry. Poetry, Poetics and Politics (1993, second revised edition, 2019), The Radical Aesthetic (2000), Victorian Glassworlds: Glass Culture and the Imagination,1830-1880 (2008), Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century Fiction (2016). Victorian Glassworlds received the John Russell Lowell Prize in 2009. I am currently working on women’s 19thC poetry and illustration (the steel plate, woodblock, photogravure), an essay on the poetics of the caesura and a collection of essays for Edinburgh University Press.

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
01-Oct-2022	Christina Rossetti’s Sing-Song: Three Illustrators, Three Readings of Image and Text ‘Christina Rossetti’s Sing-Song: Three Illustrators, Three Readings of Image and Text’, Victorian Poetry, Fall, 2022, pp. 1-31.
01-Sep-2022	Salomé Elegies Salomé Elegies, Veer Press, 2022 (September publication date).
01-Aug-2022	What We Do: The New This and the New That Chapters What We Do: The New This and the New That’, in George Levine, ed., The Question of the Aesthetic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022, pp. 117-136
01-Jul-2020	“Dear Professor”: Lou Andreas Salomé and Freud – a not-quite love story Articles ‘ “Dear Professor”: Lou Andreas Salomé and Freud – a not-quite love story’. Lorna Sage Memorial Lecture, University of East Anglia, 13 June 2019. Critical Quarterly, July 2020 (Vol. 62), pp. 9-36.
01-May-2020	Stained Glass: An Afterword Articles ‘Stained Glass: An Afterword’, 19, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, issue 30, May, 2020
01-Mar-2020	George Eliot, Hegel and Middlemarch Articles ‘George Eliot, Hegel and Middlemarch’, 19, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, issue 29, March,  2020.
01-Aug-2019	Afterword: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry in the Field of Vision Chapters ‘Afterword: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry in the Field of Vision’, Victorian Women’s Poetry, ed. Linda K. Hughes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 266-276.
01-Aug-2019	Jane Eyre: A Teaching Experiment Chapters ‘Jane Eyre: A Teaching Experiment’, The Brontës and the Idea of the Human, ed. Alexandra Lewis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 226-250.
01-Jan-2019	Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Politics and Poetics Monographs Victorian Poetry: Poetry, Politics and Poetics. London: Routledge, 1993, pp.553.  Second, revised edition, 2019. With an additional chapter, ‘Alternative Fin de Siècles. Rudyard Kipling, Michael Field, Thomas Hardy, Alice Meynell’, pp. 440-468, and Bibliography, pp. 509-530.
01-Aug-2018	The Traffic in Representations: the case of Kipling’s Kim Papers ‘The Traffic in Representations: the case of Kipling’s Kim’, Commodities and Culture in the Colonial World, ed. Josephine McDonagh. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2018, pp. 199-210.
01-Dec-2016	Novel Politics. Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth- Century Fiction Monographs See  discussion forum, 2018: ‘Isobel Armstrong’s Novel Politics; four responses and a reply from the author’. (George Levine, Josephine McDonagh, David Russell, Amanda Anderson) Textual Practice,  Vol. 32 (7-8), 2018, pp. 1050-1093.
01-Jan-2016	Towards a Perlocutionary Poetics? Chapters ‘Towards a Perlocutionary Poetics?’ Nineteenth-Century Radical Traditions, eds. Joseph Bristow, Josephine McDonagh. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 187-201.
01-Jul-2014	Steve Connor’s Lightness of Being  ‘Steve Connor’s Lightness of Being’, Critical Quarterly, 56 2 (July 2014), 86-88.
01-Jan-2014	Anna Letitia Barbauld: A Unitarian Poetics Edited Book  ‘Anna Letitia Barbauld: A Unitarian Poetics?’, Anna Letitia Barbauld: New Perspectives, ed. William McCarthy, Olivia Murphy. Lewisburg: Bucknall University Press, 2014, pp. 59-81.
01-Sep-2013	George Eliot, Spinoza and the Emotions Edited Book  ‘George Eliot, Spinoza and the Emotions’, A Companion to George Eliot, ed. Amanda Anderson, Harry E. Shaw, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, pp. 294-308.
01-Sep-2013	Syntax’, Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry Edited Book  ‘Syntax’, Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry, ed. Mathew Bevis, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 112-129.
01-Sep-2013	19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century Edited Book  19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, No 17, 2013, Birkbeck’s Online Journal.‘Theories of Space and the Nineteenth-Century Novel’, pp. 1-21.
02-Aug-2013	Syntax Articles  ‘Syntax’, Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry, ed. Mathew Bevis, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 112-129.
01-May-2013	'George Eliot, Spinoza, and the Emotions' Articles A Companion to George Eliot. Ed. Amanda Anderson and Harry E. Shaw. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. Pp. 294-308.
01-Jan-2013	Form and Feeling in Modern Literature: Essays in honour of Barbara Hardy Edited Book Ed, with William Baker. London: Legenda, 2013.
01-Jan-2013	'Abjection and the Nineteenth-Century Novel: When is Human Not a Human?' Chapters Form and Feeling in Modern Literature: Essays in Honour of Barbara Hardy. Ed. Isobel Armstrong and William Baker. London: Legenda, 2013. pp. 145-151
01-Jan-2012	'Spaces of the Nineteenth Century' Articles Kate Flint, ed. The Cambridge History of Victorian Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. pp. 757-597.
01-Jan-2012	'The Pre-Raphaelites and Literature' Articles Elizabeth Prettejohn, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. pp. 15-31
01-Jan-2012	'Sally Ledger' Research aids Dictionary of National Biography. May 2012.
01-Jan-2011	'Meter and Meaning' Chapters Jason David Paul, ed. Meter Matters: Verse Cultures of the Nineteenth Century. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2011. pp. 26-52
01-Jan-2010	Poems in Infinite Difference, Other Poetries by UK Women Poets, ed. Carrie Etter, Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2010, 17-25.
01-Jan-2010	‘Harriet Martineau and India: On not writing accusatory history’ Chapters Chapter in: Harriet Martineau. Authorship, Society, and Empire, ed. Ella Dzelzainis, Cora Kaplan, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010, 214-30.
01-Jan-2009	‘Transatlantic Scholarship in Victorian Literature and Culture’ (Journal article) 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 5, 2009, 1-9.
01-Jan-2009	Review of Herbert Tucker 'Epic' Victorian Studies, 51, 2 (2009), 387-90.
01-Jan-2009	‘Introduction’, The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter ‘Introduction’, The Life and Poems of Anne Hunter. Haydn’s Tuneful Voice, ed. Caroline Grigson, Liverpool English Texts and Studies, 56, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009, 1-11.
01-Jan-2008	Victorian Glassworlds. Glass Culture and the Imagination OUP, 2008. James Russell Lowell Prize, awarded by the Modern Language Association, December, 2009, for the best Book published during 2008
01-Jan-2003	'"Casa Guidi Windows": Spectacle and Politics in 1851' Chapters '"Casa Guidi Windows": Spectacle and Politics in 1851' in Unfolding the South: Nineteenth-century British Women Artists in Italy, ed. by Alison Chapman and Jane Stabler ( Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2003)
01-Jan-2000	The Radical Aesthetic Blackwell Publishers, Oxford
01-Jan-2000	Technology and Text: Glass Consciousness and Nineteenth-Century Culture?, Culture, Landscape, and the Environment ed. Kate Flint, Howard Morphy, Oxford University Press
	Introduction to Form and Feeling in Modern Literature: Essays in Honour of Barbara Hardy Chapters Ed. Isobel Armstrong and William Baker. London: Legenda, 2013. pg. 2-10

Relevant Events

Related events:

Date	Details
01-Oct-2022	The Civic Value of the Arts and Humanities Organiser: ‘The Civic Value of the Arts and Humanities’, Round Table for Engagement Week, British Academy, October, 2022
01-Oct-2021	Thinkers for our Times With Marina Warner, workshop for the British Academy on ‘Thinkers for our Times’: W E B DuBois, October, 2021.
01-Apr-2021	Complexities of Glass April, 2021, Lecture (Zoom), Rhode Island School of Art, Glass Section, ‘Complexities of Glass’.
01-Jun-2020	British Academy ten Minute Lecture: Elizabeth Barrett Browning June, 2020 British Academy ten Minute Lecture: Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (On YouTube).
10-Jun-2018	Director of ‘Nineteenth-Century Study Week’ May 21-25, 2018: Director of ‘Nineteenth-Century Study Week’ (George Eliot), Institute of English Studies, a graduate school. (Two further weeks, on the Brontés, Dickens (2019, 2021)
01-Jun-2014	The Work of Gaston Bachelard  June 2014, Psychoanalysis Seminar, University of London (IES), Convener, Emma Francis. ‘The Work of Gaston Bachelard’.
01-Nov-2013	Twenty Years of Victorian Poetry  Seminar on my Victorian Poetry. Poetry Politics and Poetics.‘Twenty Years of Victorian Poetry’, Birkbeck, November 2013: Convener, Ana Parejo Vadillo. Respondents: Gregory Tate, Richard Cronin.
01-Nov-2013	University of Chicago, November 2013, conference on the English Novel  University of Chicago, November 2013, conference on the English Novel: ‘Where William and Henry Meet: The Golden Bowl’.
01-Nov-2013	Towards a Perlocutionary Poetics  University of Chicago Center for Poetics, November 2013. Discussion of my unpublished essay ‘Towards a Perlocutionary Poetics’.
01-Aug-2013	Unbuilt Britain Participation in Channel 4 Documentary, ‘Unbuilt Britain’, August 12, 2013
01-Apr-2013	Northeast Victorian Studies Association Northeast Victorian Studies Association (NVSA), ‘1874’, April 2013. Plenary Panel on Conference theme, 1874.
01-Apr-2013	'1874' NVSA (Northeast Victorian Studies Association), Boston, USA. Plenary Panel.
13-Mar-2013	'Browning's Modernity and Optical Culture' INCS (Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference), Charlottesville, University of Virginia, USA. Panel.
01-Mar-2013	Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association  Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (INCS), March 2013, ‘Browning’s Modernity and Optical Culture’.
01-Mar-2013	'The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Reading for a Democratic Imagination?' Johns Hopkins University, Department of English, USA. Public lecture.
15-Dec-2012	'Browning's Modernity and Optical Culture' Browning Anniversary Seminar. Birkbeck, University of London.
01-Dec-2012	'The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the Democratic Imagination' University of Sheffield, Department of English. Lecture.
19-Nov-2012	'The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the Democratic Imagination' University of Southampton, Department of English. Lecture.
15-Nov-2012	'Browning's Modernity and Optical Culture' Browning Centenary conference. Baylor University, USA.
15-Jul-2012	'Browning's Generic Plenitudes' Robert Browning and Victorian Poetry at 200. Royal Holloway, University of London.
01-Jan-2012	‘Anna Letitia Barbauld and Joanna Baillie: A Unitarian Poetics?’ Anna Letitia Barbauld in Twenty Hundred and Twelve. Chawton House Library. May 2012.
01-Jan-2012	‘Browning’s Generic Plenitudes’ Re-assessing the Dramatic Monologue in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Royal Holloway University of London, June 2012.
01-Jan-2012	‘The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the Democratic Imagination’ University of Sussex Graduate Lecture. February, 2012.
01-Jan-2012	‘George Eliot and Spinoza’ Reading and Reception Studies Seminar. Institute of English Studies, University of London. May, 2012.
01-Jan-2011	‘Many-coloured Glass, Aerial Images and the Work of the Lens: Romantic Poetry and Optical Culture’ Warton Lecture on English Poetry. British Academy. May, 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘The Ninteenth-Century Novel and the Democratic Imagination’ Kathleen Banks Lecture. November 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘The traffic in representation: the case of Kipling’s Kim’ Commodities and Migration project conference. New York University. December, 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘Reflections on Glass’ What is to become of the Crystal Palace? The Crystal Palace after 1851. University of York. June, 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘Abjection and the Nineteenth-Century Novel’ Re-Imagining the Brontës. University of Warwick with Institute of English Studies. November 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘George Eliot and Spinoza’ Wandering Feelings: The Transmission of Emotion in the Long Nineteenth Century. Queen Mary University of London. November, 2011.
01-Jan-2011	‘The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the Democratic Imagination’ Conference in Honour of Professor Joanne Shattock. November 2011.
01-Jan-2010	‘Many Coloured Glass: Romantic Poetry and Mediation’ Haverford College Mellon Symposium, ‘Mediums, Media, and Mediation’, March, 2010.
01-Jan-2010	‘Optical Media and Poetry in the Nineteenth Century: the Phantasmagoria and the Photograph’ Lisbon University, 2010.
01-Jan-2009	Round Table on Victorian Glassworlds. Glass Culture and the Imagination 1830-80, Journal of Victorian Culture, 14, 1 (Spring 2009). Participants: Clare Pettit, Marcia Pointon, Bruce Robbins, Isobel Armstrong.
01-Jan-2009	‘Sense and Sensibility: William James and Henry James and The Golden Bowl’ (Plenary Lecture) Harvard University Cognitive Studies and British Literature Seminars, October, 2009.
01-Jan-2009	‘Metre and Meaning: Hegel’s Theory of Metre’ (Principal speaker) Rushton Seminar, University of Virginia, November, 2009.
01-Jan-2003	Chair, Eighth British Council Seminar, 'Places and Spaces' Chair, Eighth British Council Seminar, 'Places and Spaces', Delphi. Greece (September 6-13, 2003)

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