Lincoln English

Some good news...

The University of Lincoln is proud to have been named Modern University of the Year in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021.

Find out more: lncn.ac/times

We are delighted to learn that English at the University of Lincoln has been ranked 8th in the country for overall satisfaction according to the 2020 National Student Survey!

The first Nineteenth-Century Research Group session of 2020 is a topic to which surely none of you can relate: hangovers.

More specifically, Dr. Jonathon Shears from Keele University will be talking to us on 'Penitents and Egotists: Hangover Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century'. The session takes place in MB2204 (Minerva Building, 2nd Floor) on Weds 5th Feb. Refreshments are at 4pm and the paper is due to start at 4.15pm. All are welcome. Please find Jon's abstract and biography below:

Abstract

While research into the hangover is now a subfield of medicine and psychology, the topic has rarely featured in the field of drinking studies in the humanities, which has preferred to focus on drinking cultures and customs, particularly male and female sociability. Yet, hangover literature has much to tell us about the ways in which drinking is governed not only by physiology but also ‘cultural beliefs and social practices’ of the sort that Jonathan Herring has identified as central to understanding the representation of alcohol. In this paper, I will explore the presence of the hangover in literature of the long nineteenth century, considering what it tells us about the relationship between an individual and their environment, the politics of controlling alcohol consumption and the complex ways in which alcohol affects our perception of body and mind.

Biography

Jonathon Shears is Senior Lecturer in English at Keele University. He has recently completed work on a monograph on the hangover in literature (published by Liverpool University Press in March 2020). He has also published books on Milton and the Romantics, Lord Byron, The Great Exhibition and Victorian bric-à-brac. He was Editor of The Byron Journal from 2012-2019. He is currently editing the Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron.

C19 Research Group: 4pm Weds 4th Dec in MB3201, Dr. Renée Ward on ‘The Earliest Beowulf for Victorian Children’.

Details in the link - staff, students, and members of the public are all welcome!

https://c19group.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2019/11/26/weds-4th-dec-dr-renee-ward-on-the-earliest-beowulf-for-victorian-children/

Weds 4th Dec, Dr. Renée Ward on ‘The Earliest Beowulf for Victorian Children’ | The Nineteenth-Century Research Group

Literature at the press of a button, now on campus!

Vending machines dispense Dickens and Carroll The machines print a few lines taken randomly from a database of 100,000 titles.

Tomorrow!

10th April: Dr. Richard Salmon on Walter Besant and Henry James

You are invited to the final paper of the Nineteenth Century Research Group this Wednesday 10th April, 4pm (for a 4.15pm start), in MB1019. Refreshments will be provided. We hope that you’ll be able to join us for our last meeting of the academic year, for the following paper by Dr Richard Salmon (University of Leeds):

Transforming the Art of Fiction: Walter Besant, Henry James and the Society of Authors


Abstract:

Founded in 1884 by the novelist and historian Walter Besant (1836-1901), the Incorporated Society of Authors went on to become the most successful and long-lasting professional association organized by and for the benefit of authors in Britain. Established in the belief that collective action was necessary in order to defend authors’ ‘trade interests’ and to express a long-held grievance against exploitative publishers and inadequate laws of copyright, the Society of Authors presents a valuable case-study of the wider transformation of the arts in modern professional society. Though Besant’s influence on the early development of the Society is well-documented, the conception of professional identity which shaped his activity during its first two decades remains under-explored.

This paper considers two distinct, but interrelated, aspects of Besant’s work for the Society of Authors during its early years. Firstly, it examines the various models of professional association and their functions, envisaged by Besant and other leading members of the Society, ranging from the pragmatic to the utopian. How did members of the Society conceive of its role in providing professional services in relation to the wider field of the literary market? Secondly, the paper explores the Society’s professional ethos in relation to the emerging genre of the literary manual – or ‘how to’ guide to professional authorship -, a connection which in 1884 sparked a memorable debate on the ‘art of fiction’ between Besant and his fellow novelist, Henry James. In what ways was this well-known late-Victorian debate on the aesthetic and moral dimensions of the novel shaped by the formation of collective professional identities for authors?

Biography:

Dr Richard Salmon is a Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature in the School of English, University of Leeds. He is the author of Henry James and The Culture of Publicity (1997), William Makepeace Thackeray (2005), and The Formation of the Victorian Literary Profession (2013). He has recently edited The Reverberator for the Cambridge Edition of the Complete Fiction of Henry James (2018), and is currently developing a new collaborative project on literary professionalism and the early history of the Society of Authors.

Information about a public conference taking place at the University of Lincoln 18th & 19th July. If you are interested in volunteering on the day(s), please email [email protected] . Volunteers can access all sessions on both days of the conference for free.

Representing Homelessness – A British Academy Conference at the University of Lincoln: 18th-19th July 2019 About the conference Assisted Self-Portrait of Yolanda Bath from Assembly (2013 – 2014) by Anthony Luvera Conference organisers: Owen Clayton, Katie Dorr, Nigel Horner, Peter Somerville Where: University of Lincoln, UK. When: 18th-19th July 2019. Summary: Homelessness is routinely captured in diff...

Here is the Semester B programme for Lincoln's Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Research Group. There’s lots to look forward to, so we hope to see you there!

Season's Greetings from us all!

Christmas Card | University of Lincoln

MA Nineteenth Century Studies Symposium 2018

Wednesday 27th June 12.30-6pm in MB3203

12.30 Lunch

1-3.30 Student presentations

On dissertation topics including: feminist utopian fiction, gothic masculinities, country house gardens, common land usage in Beverley, and witchcraft in folklore and literature

3.30-4 Break

4pm Guest speaker:

Professor Rosemary Mitchell, Leeds Trinity University

‘Fallen Fathers and Cavalier Children: Restoring the Nation through Royalist Family Fictions’

* * *

Postgraduate students and colleagues from English/History/Art History are welcome to attend, for all or part of the day.

Lunch is provided but for this please register your attendance with Rebecca Styler before 20th June: [email protected]