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Professor Delia Da Sousa Correa

George Eliot, music and Victorian culture - cover

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Professor of Literature and Music
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Arts & Humanities
  • English & Creative Writing
  • delia.dasousa

Professional biography

I joined the English Department in 1998. Born in the UK, I grew up in New Zealand and was educated at Nelson College for Girls and at the Nelson School of Music, followed by the Universities of Canterbury (NZ), Kings College London and New College, Oxford, where I completed my D.Phil in 1993. Before joining the Open University, I taught at the University of Oxford and held a pastoral position as adviser to women students at Oriel College. I also taught briefly at the University of Worcester and as a visiting lecturer at the University of St Petersburg.

Contact Details

Department of English, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK76AA, United Kingdom.
Tel. 0044-(0)1908-652092
Email: delia.dasousa@open.ac.uk

Research interests

Phrase and Subject coverMy research focusses on connections between literature and music. I am co-convenor of the Open University Literature and Music Research Group and have helped to organise several conferences in this field, including the biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Word and Music (WMA) in London in August 2013. I have particular research interests in the writing of George Eliot and Katherine Mansfield. My monograph on George Eliot, Music and Victorian Culture was published in 2003. In 2009 I was the founding editor of the Katherine Mansfield Studies, an annual book series published by Edinburgh University Press. I previously edited Phrase and Subject, a collection of essays on literature and music published in 2006. I am currently editing The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music, a volume of 80 original research essays by literary scholars and musicologists charting relations between literature and music over nine centuries from the Middle Ages to the present day. I have supervised doctoral dissertations on interdisciplinary and literary topics and welcome applications from students wishing to undertake doctoral research in literature and music or in other nineteenth-century or modernist topics at the Open University.

Publications

For details of my publications follow this link.

Teaching interests

RealismsMy teaching interests are chiefly in Victorian literature and early modernism. I chaired the Open University’s MA English for 8 years from its intial production and was previously chair of The Nineteenth-Century Novel. I have also contributed teaching materials to Twentieth-Century Literature: Texts and Debates, Words and Music, and Reading and Studying Literature. I am currently on the production team for a new final-year course.

Impact and engagement

I have given talks at the Oxford Literary Festival, with the writer Kirsty Gunn, and at the South Bank Centre’sThe Rest is Noise festival where I convened a discussion of Woolf, Mansfield and music with Kirsty Gunn and Gabriel Josipovici. I am a founder member of the Katherine Mansfield Society which holds an annual birthday lecture and other public events in addition to academic conferences. I participated in a Gresham College symposium on ‘Debussy: Texts and Ideas’ and was academic consultant for the BBC4 television series In their own words on the history of the twentieth-century novel. I also contributed to a BBC Radio 3 programme on ‘Claiming Schubert’.

External collaborations

I currently serve on the executive of University English (formerly CCUE), the body that represents the interests of English in Higher Education.

Research groups

NameTypeParent Unit
Literature and Music Research GroupGroupFaculty of Arts

Publications

[Book Review] Allan W. Atlas, ed., A Wilkie Collins Songbook Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, 2023 (2024)
da Sousa Correa, Delia and Golding, Rosemary
Nineteenth-Century Music Review ((Early access))

From 'the great Handel chorus' to 'wild passion and fancy': Listening to Handel and Purcell in The Mill on the Floss (2020-03-20)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 0, Article 1934(29)

George Eliot and the 'Expressiveness of Opera' (2012-04)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
Forum for Modern Language Studies, 48(2) (pp. 164-177)

Introduction (2011-10)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kimber, Gerri and Reid, Susan
Katherine Mansfield Studies

Performativity in words: musical performance in Katherine Mansfield's stories (2011-09)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
Katherine Mansfield Studies, 3 (pp. 84-98)

Introduction (2010-10)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kimber, Gerri and Reid, Susan
Katherine Mansfield Studies, 2(1) (pp. 1-3)

Introduction (2009-11)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
Katherine Mansfield Studies, 1(1) (pp. 1-3)

Literature and music: Interdisciplinary research and teaching at the Open University (2009)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Chornik, Katia and Samuels, Robert
Working With English: Medieval and Modern Language, Literature and Drama, 5 (pp. 50-61)

'The music vibrating in her still': Music and memory in George Eliot's the mill on the floss and Daniel Deronda (2000)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
Nineteenth-Century Contexts, 21(4) (pp. 541-563)

George Eliot, music and Victorian culture (2003)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
ISBN : 333997573 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Basingstoke, UK

Fragmented Music, Fragmented Minds: Janet Frame's Faces in the Water (1961) (2021-07-16)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Bernhart, Walter and Englund, Axel eds. Arts of Incompletion: Fragments in Words and Music. Word and Music Studies (18)
ISBN : 978-90-04-46712-5 | Publisher : Brill | Published : Amsterdam

George Eliot, Schubert and the Cosmopolitan Music of Daniel Deronda (2020-07)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (pp. 437-446)
ISBN : 9780748693122 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press | Published : Edinburgh

Introduction: Part IV: Literature and Music in the Nineteenth Century (2020-07)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (pp. 383-394)
ISBN : ISBN 9780748693122 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press

Introduction (2020-07)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (pp. 1-15)
ISBN : 9780748693122 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press | Published : Edinburgh

Music (2015-08-15)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Felluga, Dino Franco; Gilbert, Pamela K. and Hughes, Linda K. eds. The Encyclopedia of Victorian Literature (pp. 1092-1101)
ISBN : 9781118405383 | Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell | Published : Chichester

Katherine Mansfield’s Germany: “these pine trees provide most suitable accompaniment for a trombone!” (2015-02-04)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Kaščáková, Janka and Kimber, Gerri eds. Katherine Mansfield and Continental Europe: Connections and Influences (pp. 99-113)
ISBN : https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137429964 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan | Published : Basingstoke

Voice and vocation in the novels of George Eliot (2014-02-28)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Bernhart, Walter and Kramer, Lawrence eds. On Voice. Word and Music Studies (pp. 105-116)
Publisher : Rodopi | Published : Amsterdam

Katherine Mansfield and Ninteenth-Century Musicality (2013-08)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Weliver, Phyllis and Ellis, Katharine eds. Words and Notes in the Long Nineteenth-Century (pp. 103-118)
ISBN : 978-1-78204-137-5 | Publisher : Boydell and Brewer

Music (2013-06)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Harris, Margaret ed. George Eliot in Context (pp. 206-213)
ISBN : 9780521764087 | Publisher : Cambridge University Press | Published : Cambridge

Musical performativity in the fiction of Katherine Mansfield (2012)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Bernhart, Walter and Halliwell, Michael eds. Word and Music Studies: Essays on Performativity and on Surveying the Field. Word and Music Studies (12) (pp. 71-86)
ISBN : 978-90-420-3463-1 | Publisher : Rodopi | Published : Amsterdam

Katherine Mansfield and music: nineteenth-century echoes (2011-04)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Kimber, Gerri and Wilson, Janet eds. Celebrating Katherine Mansfield: a Centenary Volume of Essays (pp. 84-98)
ISBN : 9780230277731 | Publisher : Palgrave MacMillan | Published : Basingstoke

'Wuthering Heights at home' (2011)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Watson, Nicola and Towheed, Shafquat eds. Romantics and Victorians (pp. 347-374)
ISBN : 9781849666237 | Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic | Published : London

'Wuthering Heights abroad' (2011)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Watson, Nicola J. and Towheed, Shafquat eds. Romantics and Victorians. Reading and Studying Literature (2) (pp. 375-408)
ISBN : 9781849666237 | Publisher : Bloomsbury Academic | Published : London

Literary research and other media (2010)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Da Sousa Correa, Delia and Owens, W. R. eds. The Handbook to Literary Research (pp. 148-166)
ISBN : 978-0-415-48500-5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Victorian Soundscapes and the potential for interdisciplinary exchange (2007)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Hewitt, Martin and Cowgill, Rachel eds. Victorian Soundscapes Revisited. Leeds Working Papers in Victorian Studies (pp. 9-36)
ISBN : 954015983 | Publisher : Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies | Published : Leeds

Introduction (2006)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. Phrase and subject: studies in literature and music (pp. 1-10)
ISBN : 9781904713074 | Publisher : Legenda: MHRA/Maney Publishing | Published : Oxford, UK

The stories of Katherine Mansfield (2005)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Brown, Richard Danson and Gupta, Suman eds. Aestheticism and Modernism: Debating Twentieth-Century Literature 1900-1960. Twentieth-Century Literature: Texts and Debates (pp. 68-116)
ISBN : 0 415 35168 5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK

The Portrait of a Lady and the “house of fiction” (2001-03-15)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Walder, Dennis ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Identities. The Nineteenth-Century novel (pp. 95-156)
ISBN : 9780415238274 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : UK

The Portrait of a Lady: identity and gender (2001-03-15)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Walder, Dennis ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Identities. The Nineteenth-Century Novel (pp. 116-136)
ISBN : 9780415238274 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : UK

The Portrait of a Lady: Henry James as critic (2001-03-15)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Walder, Dennis ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Identities. The Nineteenth-Century Novel (pp. 137-156)
ISBN : 9780415238274 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : UK

Jane Eyre and Genre (2000)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Realisms (pp. 87-116)
ISBN : 0-415-23826-9 | Publisher : Routledge

Jane Eyre: inside and out (2000)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Da Sousa Correa, Delia ed. The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Realisms (pp. 117-135)
ISBN : 0-415-23826-9 | Publisher : Routledge

Goddesses of Instruction and Desire: Ruskin and Music (1999)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Birch, Dinah ed. Ruskin and the Dawn of the Modern (pp. 111-130)
ISBN : 0-19-818454-9 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

George Eliot and the Germanic 'Musical Magus' (1997)
da Sousa Correa, Delia
In: Rignall, John ed. George Eliot and Europe. Warwick Studies in the European Humanities (pp. 98-112)
ISBN : 1859283349 | Publisher : Scolar Press

The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Music (2020-07-08)
da Sousa Correa, Delia ed.
Edinburgh Companions to Literature and the Humanities
ISBN : 9780748693122 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press

Katherine Mansfield and the (Post)Colonial (2013)
Wilson, Janet; Kimber, Gerri and da Sousa Correa, Delia eds.
Katherine Mansfield Studies
ISBN : 9780748669097 | Publisher : Edinburgh University Press | Published : Edinburgh

The Handbook to Literary Research (2010)
da Sousa Correa, Delia and Owens, W. R. eds.
ISBN : 978-0-415-48500-5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon

Phrase and subject: studies in literature and music (2006)
da Sousa Correa, Delia ed.
ISBN : 1904713076 | Publisher : Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing | Published : Oxford, UK

The Nineteenth-Century Novel: Realisms (2000)
da Sousa Correa, Delia ed.
ISBN : 0-415-23826-9 | Publisher : Routledge

Katherine Mansfield Studies 6: Katherine Mansfield and the First World War (2014)
Kimber, Gerri; Todd, Martin; da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kelly, Alice and Maddison, Isabel
Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Katherine Mansfield Studies 4: Katherine Mansfield and the Fantastic (2012-10)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kimber, Gerri; Reid, Susan and Walker, Gina
Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Katherine Mansfield Studies 3: Katherine Mansfield and the Arts (2011-10)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kimber, Gerri and Reid, Susan
Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.

Katherine Mansfield Studies 2 (2010-10)
da Sousa Correa, Delia; Kimber, Gerri and Reid, Susan
Edinburgh University Press