Of Influence has been published as a special issue of the journal Textual Practice, and is edited by Lewis Roberts, Jacob Ridley (Oxford), and Roddy Howland Jackson (Oxford). Born of an international conference held in Oxford in 2023, 50 years after Harold Bloom published The Anxiety of Influence, these essays ask what Bloom can do […]
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Prof Sarah Dillon takes part in Royal Society event marking the 75th anniversary of Alan Turing’s paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’
Published in October 1950, Alan Turing’s seminal paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’ proposed a test to determine whether machines could think and speculated whether they might eventually compete with humans in all intellectual fields. But it is a very strange piece of writing indeed, one that has long intrigued and puzzled readers in equal measure. […]
Continue ReadingJuliette Bretan participates in a panel discussion on the literary works and life of Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska, Wednesday 1 October
Writer and researcher Juliette Bretan will participate in an exploration of the literary works and life of Polish-born writer, Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska (1872-1925) and the launch of a new anthology of her writings, Of Bitterness, Doubt and Neglect: Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska, Kettle’s Yard and history’s shadows. The discussion takes place on Wednesday 1 October, 6pm-8pm, at Kettle’s […]
Continue ReadingDr Bonnie Lander Johnson speaks at the Cambridge Literary Festival about her new book, ‘Vanishing Landscapes’
Dr Bonnie Lander Johnson will speak at the Cambridge Literary Festival about her new book, Vanishing Landscapes, on Saturday 22 November at 2pm. Link to further information and to book tickets: https://www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/events/bonnie-lander-johnson-vanishing-landscapes/
Continue ReadingLouis Klee publishes ‘The Constellational Novel’, Oxford University Press, August 2025
The Constellational Novel aims to shed light on the field of contemporary literature by offering a definitive theory of the constellational novel. A constellational novel is a novel that has an associative, essayistic, digressive, and densely patterned prose form. Beginning with Marcel Proust, the argument focuses on novels published over roughly the last two decades […]
Continue ReadingAnthony Bale’s ‘A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages’ published in Spanish, September 2025
Anthony Bale’s book, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages, will be published in Spanish as Guía de Viajes por la Edad Media: El mundo visto por los viajeros medievales (Madrid: Ático de los Libros) on 22 September 2025. A programme of talks and signings will also take place in that week in Barcelona and […]
Continue ReadingProf Sarah Dillon delivers Keynote Address at Anglistiktag 2025
Professor Sarah Dillon is to deliver the keynote address at Anglistiktag 2025, the annual conference of the German Association for the Study of English (literary studies, cultural studies, linguistics, and EFL). This year’s conference theme is ‘Anglophone Studies and the Public: Past, Present and Future Debates and Interventions’ and Prof Dillon will deliver a talk […]
Continue ReadingClaire Watt awarded William St Clair Fellowship
Claire Watt has been awarded the William St Clair Fellowship at the Institute of English Studies, University of London. This Early Career Fellowship honours the life and work of William St Clair by helping to support the research and professional development of early career researchers in languages, literatures and cultures. As the William St Clair […]
Continue ReadingThe Medieval Ideas Creative Lab hosts ‘Telling Stories from Medieval England and Ireland, Thursday 16 October
The Medieval Ideas Creative Lab hosts two innovative spoken word performances using medieval sources: Debbie Cannon, ‘Green Knight’ and Lara McClure, ‘Oral Tradition: Iron Age Ulster in the 11th-Century imagination’. October 16th at Judith E Wilson Drama Studio. Places are free but very limited so booking is essential. Further details and tickets here.
Continue ReadingAnthony Bale in conversation with Getty manuscripts curator Larisa Grollemond
On 4 September Anthony Bale will be in conversation (online) with Larisa Grollemond at the Getty, Los Angeles, as part of their ‘Art Break’ series, talking about ‘Pilgrimage, War, Trade: Travel in the Middle Ages’. Link to further details: https://www.getty.edu/calendar/art-break-middle-ages-travel/
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