News

Cholera in Middlemarch: George Eliot’s pandemic writing
10th September 2020
In this blog, Delia da Sousa Correa, Head of Department in English and Creative Writing at The Open University, explains how the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly enhanced her understanding of her favourite novel, Middlemarch
Michael Rodgers' monograph shortlisted for The European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) Book Award
27th July 2020
Michael Rodgers' (Honorary Associate and Associate Lecturer in English) monograph Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives (Bloomsbury, 2018) is one of three shortlisted for The European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) Book Award for junior scholars.
Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic conference
8th July 2020
As COVID-19 forces us to work from home and attend endless online meetings, our bookshelves are suddenly on public display. An online conference this November will be critically examining this particular cultural phenomenon
Spenser in the Lockdown: Means of Gladsome Solace?
7th July 2020
Richard Danson Brown is a Professor of English Literature at the OU. In this blog, he discusses the work of Edmund Spenser, written in the 16th century, during the height of the plague. Find out what his writing tells us about that experience
Reading for wellbeing on board the Torrens
29th June 2020
Helen Chambers is an Honorary Associate in English at the OU. She explores the role that reading played for those embarking on epic voyages to Australia in the late nineteenth century, namely those who travelled on the purpose-built passenger clipper the Torrens
Reading and Wellbeing revisited: surviving the pandemic
10th June 2020
Dr Shafquat Towheed, Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University, discusses the role that reading is playing in helping us to navigate lockdown and reminds us how 'the well-curated bookcase has become a manifestation of our mental state'
Doomscrolling: COVID-19 and Crisis Reading during lockdown
9th June 2020
In this article by Dr Edmund King, Lecturer in English at the OU, the concept of 'Doomscrolling' is explored - absorbing excessive, negative news via our digital devices - and highlights how our reading habits are changing to manage pandemic-induced anxieties
Working on a Creative Writing PhD during a pandemic lockdown: Cold Dark Matter
8th June 2020
Patrick Wright teaches Literature and Creative Writing at the OU and is currently working on a PhD; a poetry collection called Cold Dark Matter. In this piece, Patrick shares his experience of studying for a PhD during lockdown while also grieving the loss of a partner
Books for Travel in a Time of Crisis: the Word Deployed by Ward and Solnit
8th June 2020
In a series by the OU and Institute of English Studies, Professor Sara Haslam highlights the literature of Mary Ward and Rebecca Solnit, two authors who 'simultaneously appreciate the basic connectedness between members of this human race'
Why Christmas Ghost Stories Have Such Enduring Appeal
19th December 2019
Dr Sally O’Reilly, Lecturer in Creative Writing writes for The Conversation about the popularity of ghost stories at Christmas.