English
Research in English Language and English Literature spans a variety of distinctive areas of the subjects, and is marked by an openness to other disciplines, and an interest in emergent areas of study. We have internationally recognised expertise in critical, theoretical and applied research.
- English Literature: postcolonial writing, animal studies; literature and theories of culture, gender and twentieth-century women’s writing, science fiction, Renaissance literature and ideas; nineteenth- and twentieth-century book and publishing history; film and literature
- English Language and Linguistics: pragmatics; stylistics; sociolinguistics; language and gender
English literature research includes literary theory from the Renaissance to the present day, as well as a range of literary and non-literary genres including science fiction, postcolonial writing, technology and literature, and women’s writing.
Interdisciplinarity is an approach shared by several English researchers in animal studies, cultural theory, publishing theory, postcolonial writing, and studies in language and gender. These variously have strong affinities with history, philosophy, politics, and cultural studies.
English research at Middlesex University has particular strengths in the following areas:
Postcolonial writing
Colonial and postcolonial literature and culture of southern Africa; cosmopolitanism and the culture of cities; cultural and media theory: Dr James Graham
Twentieth-century literature; processes of engagement between Buddhism and western modernity in popular and elite literature, especially between the wars; theory of religion: Dr Lawrence Normand
Animal studies
Renaissance literature; historical (mostly Renaissance) and contemporary animal studies; cultural and intellectual history; literary and cultural theory: Dr Erica Fudge
Gender and women’s writingPostmodern writing; gender theory and women’s writing in twentieth-century; genre fiction including fairy tale and detective fiction; Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Agatha Christie: Dr Merja Makinen
Science fiction and fantasy
Fantasy literature; science fiction and children’s science fiction; science fiction theory and criticism; Diana Wynne Jones, Ursula le Guin: Dr Farah Mendlesohn or Dr James Brown
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century publishing practices
Book history, nineteenth-century novel and its publishing and reading contexts; intertextual theories; genre and intertextuality; theories of reading; twentieth-century non-canonical British women writers: Dr Rachel Malik
Film and literature
British Romantic literature; Shakespeare and film; film and literature theory; technology and literature: Dr James Brown
Pragmatics
Experimental and other approaches to the study of linguistic meaning: Dr Billy Clark
Sociolinguistics
Language, power and authority in spoken and written discourse; discourse analysis: Dr Sylvia Shaw
Stylistics
Applications of linguistics to the analysis of literary and other texts: Dr Billy Clark
Language and gender
Language and gender in professional contexts: Dr Sylvia Shaw; ESRC research project ‘Gender, Language and Political Participation in the Devolved Parliaments of the UK’
