Professional Bio
Shalyn Claggett teaches courses on nineteenth-century British literature, science and literature, and literary theory. Her current book project, The Science of Character in Victorian Literature and Culture, explores how the popular nineteenth-century science of phrenology affected both narrative and scientific concepts of character. Her publications on nineteenth-century literature include “Harriet Martineau’s Material Rebirth” (Victorian Literature and Culture), “George Eliot’s Interrogation of Physiological Future Knowledge” (SEL), and “Narcissism and the Conditions of Self-Knowledge in ‘The Jolly Corner’” (Henry James Review).
Education:
Ph.D. 2005 Vanderbilt University
M.A. 2001 Vanderbilt University
B.A. 2000 Truman State University
Teaching Interests:
Nineteenth-century British literature, literary theory, science and literature
Recent Courses:
- Studies in English Literature 1832-1900: Victorian Crime
- Victorian Literature and Science (graduate)
- Victorian Prose and Poetry
- Selected Authors: Jane Austen
- Nineteenth-century British Novel
- History of Literary Criticism: From Plato to the Presentt
.
Publications:
Books:
The Science of Character in Victorian Literature and Culture
Articles:
“Turning the Corner of Interpretation: A Response to Elena Anastasaki.” Solicited by Connotations: A Journal of Critical Debate. Under review.
“George Eliot’s Interrogation of Physiological Future Knowledge.” Studies in English Literature 51:4 (2011). Forthcoming.
“Victorian Pros and Poetry: Science as Literature in William Acton’s Prostitution.” Prose Studies 33.1 (2011): 19-43. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01440357.2011.568779#preview.
"Putting Character First: The Narrative Construction of Innate Identity in Phrenological Texts." Victorians Institute Journal 39 (2011): 103-26. http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.msstate.edu/ehost/pdfviewer
/pdfviewer?vid=3&hid=104&sid=b98f6d7b-f215-4f3a-8d4c-c2f6ec2ee5a5%40sessionmgr113
“Harriet Martineau’s Material Rebirth.” Victorian Literature and Culture 38:1 (2010). http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&
pdftype=1&fid=7281084&jid=VLC&volumeId=38&issueId=01&aid=7281076
“Narcissism and the Conditions of Self-Knowledge in ‘The Jolly Corner.’” The Henry James Review 26.2 (2005): 189-200.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/henry_james_review/v026/26.2claggett.pdf
“‘One shape of many names’: Thomas Hardy’s Epigraph to The Well-Beloved.” The Thomas Hardy Yearbook 29 (2000): 47-50.
Professional Honors and Awards:
- Aden Award for Excellence in Graduate Writing. Vanderbilt University, 2002.
- Selected for the School of Criticism and Theory Summer Seminar “Body Matters,” led by Sander Gilman at Cornell University, 2002.
- Selected as participant in “The Dickens Project,” at the University of California at Santa Cruz, 2001.
Professional Service:
Referee Genre, Pickering and Chatto, North American Victorian Studies Association Conference Committee (2011).
