English Language and Literature

The following Impact Case Studies are linked to this UoA:

• Establishing the Gay Canon
• Recovering Labouring Class and Radical Writing
• The Literature of British Travel and Exploration

UoA Coordinator:

Professor Philip Leonard

Research in English at NTU includes:

• Literary criticism
• Cultural theory
• Textual history
• Creative writing

The team's interests stretch from the early Renaissance to the present day and our creative writers produce poetry, fiction, screen-writing and other genres.

The research strengths of NTU English are built on a shared ethos of political radicalism and scepticism about literary canons.

Areas of critical focus include:

• American literature
• Lesbian and gay literature
• Post-colonial literature and theory
• Travel writing
• Women’s writing

The team has long-established connections with external organizations, including galleries, arts centres, libraries and literary festivals. Research is published as single-authored books, journal articles, book chapters, and conference contributions; and our staff also talk about their research in the broadcast and print media, through online media and networks, at festivals and in open-access publishing forums.

We also run our own publishing house, Trent Editions, which aims to bring neglected writers back into print; and NTU English hosts two peer-reviewed academic journals, Studies in Travel Writing and Writing Technologies.

Research Projects

• Writing Technologies is an online, open access, and peer-reviewed journal which publishes research on the relationship between technology and textuality. It focuses on the place of technology in both established and emerging fiction, assesses recent critical and theoretical debates about writing's technological locations, and explores the forms of literary innovation that are made possible by new modes of articulation.
• Little Magazines Project Chief Investigator for project: Dr David Miller, Research Fellow in English. The Little Magazines Project is an online research project involving bibliographical details of UK little magazines (non-mainstream literary magazines) since 1945.
• Maria Graham Project: Chief Investigator for project: Dr Carl Thompson, Senior Lecturer in English. The first woman to forge a literary career specifically as a travel writer, Maria Graham (1785-1842) was an important early nineteenth-century intellectual who made noteworthy contributions across a range of disciplines and genres. This project, led by Dr Carl Thompson, aims not only to recover Graham's career, but also to explore more generally the conditions and opportunities available to women intellectuals in this period, and the cultural negotiations required of them.