Event Archive
This is an archive of past events within the Department of English Studies. Please see our current events for forthcoming activities.
Some of our public events are recorded and are available as podcasts via our Research English At Durham blog.
Angels and Armed Women
In this Late Summer lecture, two speakers will share their research on the diverse depictions of women's and angel's bodies as seen on the British stage during the French Revolution and in the early modern literature of writers such as William Shakespeare, John Milton, and John Donne.
The Actress’s Body in the Audience’s Mind: Receptions of Armed Women in the British Theatre, 1789-1815
Dr Sarah Burdett (University of Warwick)
In the period of the French Revolution, the arms-bearing woman came to stand in Britain as a representative of extreme political and social disruption. Magnifying heroines who appear on stage brandishing daggers, and even firing explosives, this lecture makes a case for viewing the British theatre as an arena in which the significance of the armed woman is constantly re-modelled and re-appropriated to fulfil diverse ideological functions.
‘Banish the body from your mind’: Bodiless Angels in the Early Modern Imagination
Caitlin Rankin-McCabe (Durham University)
The existence of angels in early modern England was undisputed. However, people’s understanding of angels was certainly not clear or uniform. As idolatrous images of the Virgin Mary, saints and angels were taken down and removed from churches across England, how were writers responding to this removal of visual representation?
Contact latesummerlectures@gmail.com for more information about this event.
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READ Blog
Research in English At Durham (READ) blog showcasing the the literary research emerging from the Department of English Studies
Events
We host a large number of conferences, lectures and seminars each year, many of them open to the public. Find out more on our Events page.
Podcasts
Many of our public lectures, seminars and conferences are recorded, and can be listened to as podcasts.
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Next Event
- 20th January 2021
- Sensory Experiments in Nineteenth-Century Literature
- Online (Zoom)
- Dr Erica Fretwell (University of Albany) and Dr Shannon Draucker (Siena College)