Evgeniia Ganberg, Trinity

Biographical Information

I'm a third-year PhD student in English at Trinity College. 

Before coming to Cambridge, I've gained a BA with honours in Comparative Literature at National Research University "High School of Economics" in St Petersburg (2019).

During the pandemic year of 2020-21, I completed the Cambridge MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance Literature, generously funded by Trinity College Eastern European Bursary. Under the guidance of Dr Jacqueline Tasioulas, I explored authorial self-positioning in medieval narratives of the Trojan War.

Moving forwards in time, for my PhD project, funded by Cambridge Trust, I've switched to early modern literature. Working with Dr Tania Demetriou, I am looking at comic transformations and reinterpretations of the myth of the Trojan War. My project spans roughly 150 years (mid-1550s to 1700s) and touches upon on a big variety of forms and genres. Orgnising the texts from my database thematically, I have been exploring such issues as the representation of a Trojan commoner (a favourite of early modern playwrights from Shakespeare to Heywood, from Shirley to Settle), how the myth's heroines are much less often subjected to comic treatment than the heroes (although, not without excpetions, Robert Greene being the star of this chapter), how anachronisms and antopisms of burlesque translations form an erudite response to the wide-spread practise of exemplarity.

Research Interests

early modern literature, classical reception, historical semantics, drama, Shakespeare, theories of humour, late medieval literature