PhD candidate and Visiting Lecturer, English
Thesis Title: 'Troubling women troubling genre: Shakespeare's unruly characters'
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Dr Emma Rees
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About
After graduating with a First Class degree in English from the University of Chester in 2008, I completed an MA in Renaissance and 18th-Century Literature at the University of Liverpool. I returned to Chester and began my PhD in October 2009; my research addresses the relationship between gender and genre in Shakespeare's plays.
My underlying theory is that Shakespeare's plays cannot be 'anaesthetised', and studied purely as specimens of 'comedy', 'tragedy', 'romance', etc. They are works for performance, and as such 'perform' their identities, just as people perform their gender. As Butler writes 'there is no ontology of gender', I intend to argue that there is no static ontology of genre. Using Judith Butler's work on performativity in gender as a framework, I demonstrate that dramatic works are subject to the same processes and interpretations.
My research has recently been published in 'The Problem of Literary Genres' journal (Winter 2011); my paper is titled '"Identity politics’: Dramatic genres, Shakespeare’s plays, and the Butlerian framework', which sets out the underlying theories of my research, and applying these premises to analysis of Shakespeare's 'comedies'.
Away from the Renaissance, I have an active research interest in eighteenth-century women writers in respect to their assertions of literary authority, particularly Charlotte Smith and Mary Wollstonecraft. I have a recent journal article, published in 'Diesis', addressing this secondary research interest; my paper, 'Charlotte Smith: "A Marginal Persona"', builds on my MA thesis. This article can be viewed here: http://www.diesisjournal.org/current-issue I am also interested in scholarly research into the body, and particularly how identities can be written, in a corporeal sense, through such modifications as tattooing and body piercing. I hope to conduct some research into this upon completion of the PhD; additionally, other post-PhD projects include an exploration of Renaissance resonances in 'Doctor Who', and applying my theories of gender and genre to Shakespeare's apocryphal works in the light of dramatic identities and ideas of canonicity.
I regularly write poetry, and co-founded a successful open-mic evening in Chester, entitled 'Inked'. My poetry has been published in various national and international periodicals including 'Anon', 'Krax', and 'Albatross'. My poetry has most recently been published in 'Still Life': an edited collection of poetry taken from the short-listed entrants for the Cheshire Prize for Literature competition, 2010. In 2008, I received the Harold Oakley award from the University of Chester for a collection of poetry.
I would welcome hearing from anyone with similar research interests: my email address is a.mackenzie@chester.ac.uk.
Contact Information
| Address: | English Department |
