Subject
English
Research Interests
Renaissance poetry and drama. My first book, Male Friendship in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries (2007), deals with the dramatic problems and opportunities created by the overly idealistic emphasis on perfect friendship in Renaissance thinking, and I have published further articles dealing representations of friendship in other kinds of Renaissance writing. My most recent book, Poetry and Paternity in Renaissance England (2010), explores the way in which poets conceive of themselves as fathers to their poems, and how this affects their representation of selfhood. I have recently co-edited a new edition of the most important Tudor verse anthology, Tottel’s Miscellany (2011, with Amanda Holton), and I am now completing work on a book about fathers in Shakespeare and other Renaissance drama. My future research plans include editions of neglected Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, and a general study of the English Renaissance.
Teaching
Tutorials and classes on English literature 1509-1642, Shakespeare, English literature 1642-1740, English literature 1740-1832. Students are free to choose any authors within the period papers (which are covered in the second year), and are encouraged to explore the full range of poetry, drama, fiction and expository prose between the Renaissance and the Romantic periods. I give background classes relating literary texts to the political, artistic, and intellectual culture of the periods. I also often teach American literature options for the final-year extended essay.
For the faculty, I give lecture courses on Renaissance poetry and drama, and on some later literature and its relation to the visual arts.
Department Information
Contact Information
Email: Dr Thomas MacFaul
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