Faculty Member, School of Humanities
Lecturer in English
About
Born 1954. BA (English), Bristol, 1975. PhD (English), Warwick, 1979 (Thesis on the drama of Samuel Beckett).
1977-84: taught at Warwick University (part-time); 1982-4: Open University (part-time). Since 1984: Rolle College (Exmouth) - Polytechnic South West (Exmouth) - University of Plymouth.
For many years I have been writing about the drama and fiction of Samuel Beckett. Latterly I have become interested in the connections that can be perceived between Beckett and other writers, both earlier and later. My research almost always stems from my teaching, in the sense that the continuous attempt to rethink and rearticulate, which teaching necessarily involves, helps to refresh the perception when one returns to the texts which are one's chief preoccupation. I teach as wide a chronological range of texts as possible: alongside modules on modern drama and contemporary Irish drama, which bear an obvious relation to my research interest, I teach seventeenth and eighteenth century literature, Romanticism and tragedy. I also teach a module on reading poetry. Although I have devoted my professional life to the work of one writer, I would distrust a specialism that is exclusive.
Contact Information
School of Humanities
4 Portland Villas
Drake Circus
Plymouth PL4 8AA