The defining goal of academic research is to create new knowledge. In literary studies, I’ve taken it as pretty much a given that there’s very little in the way of new facts to be discovered from scratch, though there is plenty of work to be done in assembling the many facts into sensible shape to […]
Category Archives: Conferences
Mummy peas in Tennyson’s garden?
Earlier this year, I suggested that “Victorian laughter” would be a good theme for a conference. This was partly because the adjective “Victorian” is often synonymous with an austere lack of humor — “we are not amused,” etc. — despite the evidence that the people of nineteenth-century Britain enjoyed a laugh as much as anyone […]