English literature

To explore English literature is to uncover the history of the English speaking world. Throughout history, literature has been a companion to the trials, tribulations, successes and achievements of our nation. Beyond entertainment, it has commented on corruption, taught lessons on love, war and justice, transported us to new worlds, and changed our views.

English literature can change the way we think about the world. It can shape opinion on cultures, communities and people. It can give power to unrepresented and marginalised voices, or be used as a weapon to repress and control through propaganda. In an increasingly globalised world, where rapid change is the norm, it is important to study how English literature provides insight and understanding into the lives of other individuals, communities and cultures.

For over a decade, the Centre for Studies in Literature has been home to our English literature research. Our researchers have expertise in early modern writing, nineteenth-century literature and culture, and twentieth-century British and American literature. We bring together scholars from different fields within literary studies to promote academic research and innovation in literary studies, and wider engagement with research through collaboration and dissemination.

Explore our English literature areas of expertise

Find out more about our English literature research – and learn more about our recent projects, the partners with whom we collaborate and the major funders who fund our work, in the areas of expertise below.

Body politics

We're exploring how bodies shape identity, how the body is presented through performance, and how cultural representations of bodies have changed over time.

Female protester raising her arms during a march

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.

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.

Group of women protesting dressed as characters from The Handmaids Tale

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.

Brexit and the Migrant Voice: EU Citizens in post-Brexit Literature and Culture

Berberich, C. (2022) "Brexit and the Migrant Voice: EU Citizens in post-Brexit Literature and Culture", Taylor and Francis Ltd
Poles in Britain, History, Culture and Literature, 1772 to the Present

Bowers, M., Dew, B. (2021) "Poles in Britain, History, Culture and Literature, 1772 to the Present", Palgrave Macmillan
Auratic encounters with posthumous literary celebrity in Henry James’s late Victorian tales: desiring the dead

Boyce, C. (2022) "Auratic encounters with posthumous literary celebrity in Henry James’s late Victorian tales: desiring the dead", Victoriographies
Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Davies, B., Lupton, C., Gormsen Schmidt, J. (2022) "Reading Novels During the Covid-19 Pandemic", Oxford University Press
Environment and Ecology in the Long Nineteenth Century Vol 1: Scientific and Professional Perspectives on Environment, 1780-1858

Frost, M. (2022) "Environment and Ecology in the Long Nineteenth Century Vol 1: Scientific and Professional Perspectives on Environment, 1780-1858", Routledge
“You’ll be the only Dickinson they talk about in two hundred years”: Queer Celebrity, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A Quiet Passion, Wild Nights with Emily, and Apple TV+'s Dickinson

Finnerty, P. (2022) "“You’ll be the only Dickinson they talk about in two hundred years”: Queer Celebrity, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, A Quiet Passion, Wild Nights with Emily, and Apple TV+'s Dickinson", The Emily Dickinson Journal

Research groups

Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

We're researching the relationship between literature and nineteenth-century culture.

Opening page of Late Victorian Gothic Tales

Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Literature and Culture

We're researching how culture and transnational identity is portrayed in twentieth and twenty-first century literature.

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Portsmouth Literary Map

Explore Portsmouth's rich literary heritage and contemporary literature scene through an interactive map and blog

Status of Charles Dickens in Guildhall square

Find out more

Lockdown reading

This project researches reading habits during the COVID-19 pandemic through surveys, publisher data and interviews.

Man in mask reading under COVID-19 lockdown

Read the Writing Literary Portsmouth blog

Writing Literary Portsmouth, the blog of the Portsmouth Literary Map, is here to stimulate discussions about the city, its incredible literary history, and its thriving creative scene.