Body politics research
Explore our English Literature research in body politics
Questions of national identity and political populism are more relevant than ever – and our body politics research explores the role of bodies in shaping the concepts which underpin these debates.
Changes in digital technology mean that bodies interact with cultural forms in new ways. Our research is exploring how cultural forms since the early modern period have conceptualised the body, giving valuable historical context for how the body might transform – and be transformed – by new media.
We look at a range of disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, linguistics, politics and sociology. We ask questions around the role that bodies play in the formation of identity, how the body is presented through performance, and how cultural representations of bodies have changed over time. We're also exploring the role that bodies play in the construction of concepts such as crime, celebrity, race, and the nation.
This area of research considers the body (and its representations) across a range of disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, linguistics, and sociology.
Our work covers the following key topics
- Understandings of literal and metaphorical bodies from the sixteenth century to the present day
- Cultural constructions of the body in relation to identity, gender, sexuality, race, crime, law, performance, food/consumption and celebrity
- Queer theory
- The relationship between time and the body
- Body and mind/soul/spirituality
- Corporeality and incorporeality
- Natural and supernatural phenomena
- The metaphorical bodies of the nation and the body politic
We use literary, medical, scientific, philosophical, legal, pictorial, photographic, digital and performance material, and look at how they influence and engage with each other.
Partnerships and funding
Our work has been used by Portsmouth City Council to inform their literary strategy – 'the home of great writing.' We've also created literary tourism resources in relation to Tennyson and the Isle of Wight.
We've collaborated with local museums and galleries. Being Human: Disappearing Acts saw us work with Wymering Manor Trust and the Dickens Birthplace Museum.
We also collaborated with Portsmouth City Council on the AHRC funded project Possession and Obsession (2013–16), working with the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection (Lancelyn Green Bequest).
We've received funding from the following:
- AHRC, Possession and Obsession, May 2013 — £58K
- Being Human Festival (AHRC/British Academy), c. £2000 between 2015–18
- AHRC, Emily Dickinson and Victorian Poetry, 2012 — £28,506
Recent publications
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Brexit and the Migrant Voice: EU Citizens in post-Brexit Literature and Culture edited by Christine Berberich
The book looks at Brexit through the eyes of Britain's European citizens ('Europe in Britain'), while also looking at European perceptions of Britain as a nation ('Britain in Europe'), via a geographical journey – from West to East – across Europe.
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Poles in Britain: History, Culture and Literature edited by Maggie Bowers and Ben Dew
This collection of essays focuses on the history and literature of Polish Britain, from the 18th century to the contemporary. It is the only book to date that examines the cultural presence of Polish British communities across disciplines and periods of time.
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Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic by Ben Davies, Christina Lupton, and Johanne Gormsen Schmidt
Drawing on an ethnographic study of novel readers in Denmark and the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic, this book shows what no historical account of books published during the pandemic will be able to capture: the movement of readers between new purchases and books long kept in their collections. The book follows readers who have tuned into novels about plague, apocalypse, and racial violence, but also readers whose taste for older novels, and for re-reading novels they knew earlier in their lives, has grown.
Discover our areas of expertise
Body politics is one of our four areas of expertise in our English Literature research area. Explore the others below.
Culture, community and heritage
We're examining how communities are formed — and sometimes disintegrated — through the sharing of writing, reading, performance and the literary dissemination of ideas.
Modern literature
We're studying literature written in or translated into English, from across the globe and within different genres, from the Renaissance to the present.
Time, space and environment
We're exploring representations of time, space and environment in literature and culture – from the eighteenth century to the present day.
Research groups
Centre for Studies in Literature
We're researching the history and culture of the English speaking world through literature.
We're researching the literal and metaphorical bodies from sixteenth century to the present day.
Interested in a PhD in English Literature?
Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Literary Studies postgraduate research degrees page.