How are stories told, and how do they interact with the time in which they are written? These questions ended up being at the front of my mind as I was finishing my PhD on the role of the family in the novels of Walter Scott and Jane Austen. Having begun my research by looking at how the novels interact with the social and historical contexts in which they were written, I soon found myself equally as interested in the ways in which both authors undermine all and any forms of authorial authority.
Subsequently, my research has explored this in more depth, looking at the way Scott, in particular, refuses closure by playing with his reader’s expectations. I have done deep dives into how he uses the supernatural and oral storytelling to destabilise his narratives. I am now in the process of opening up these questions to other Romantic authors: at a time when the novel was beginning to take a standardised and recognisable form, how did writers express their reluctance to be categorised and understood? And how can we, as twenty-first century readers, use their work to understand ourselves better?
Public engagement
I strongly believe that academic research shouldn’t take place in a vacuum, and that is why I share my knowledge with the public whenever I can. I give talks on different aspects of literature at venues that range from local community guilds to the National Library of Scotland.
I have also created resources to help students engage with Romantic literature. I developed a toolkit for teaching Walter Scott: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/llmvc/research/walter-scott/scott-for-schools/ And I was involved in developing a similar toolkit for the Books and Borrowing project.
I have published a learning resource on Scott and the historical novel for Gale, and I am the Associate Editor for the Romanticism section of The Year’s Work of English Studies.
Tutoring
I tutor people of all ages in literature and English as a second language. Contact me if you would like more information.
