Research English At Durham

Space, choreography and royal iconography at the English court

For diplomats coming to the court of Charles I, it was more than a case of knocking at the door and being shown in. In this Late Summer Lectures podcast, Kimberley Foy uses the experience of visiting ambassadors to show how attending the court of Charles I involved a carefully choreographed set of moves, through particular spaces. For more information and an accessible transcript, visit our blog.

Rousing the vox populi in James Shirley’s The Politician

In this podcast from our Late Summer Lectures series, Kathleen Foy from Durham University explains how James Shirley’s 1639 tragedy The Politician reflected the court and politics of Charles I. For more information and an accessible transcript, visit our blog.

Birds and Embodiment in Shelley and Keats

In this podcast from our Late Summer Lectures series, Dr Amanda Blake Davis of the University of Sheffield takes us on a flight through birds and embodiment in the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. For more information, and an accessible transcript, visit: https://readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/?p=30434

The Autobiographical Pursuit of Happiness in Eighteenth-Century Literature

In this podcast from our Late Summer Lectures series, Alex Hobday (University of Cambridge) examines how eighteenth-century culture sought to answer that eternal question: what is happiness, and how can we achieve it? For more information, and an accessible transcript, visit: https://readdurhamenglish.wordpress.com/?p=30441

In Conversation with Jane Smiley

In a wide-ranging interview, Pulitzer-prize-winning novelist Jane Smiley explains how literary characters take on a life of their own, reflects on the representation of the body in literature, and examines her own status as a female novelist emerging in the 1970s. This conversation between Dr Jennifer Terry and Jane Smiley was recorded at the Literary Dolls conference in 2014. Find out more at READ: Research English At Durham.