Professional Bio
Shalyn Claggett teaches courses on nineteenth-century British literature, science and literature, and literary theory. She is currently at work on two book projects. The first, tentatively titled 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. The second is a volume titled Strange Science: Investigating the Limits of Knowledge in the Victorian Age, which explores unconventional forms of scientific inquiry and its cultural representation in Britain during the Victorian period (co-edited with Lara Karpenko). 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 ““Victorian Pros and Poetry: Science as Literature in William Acton’s Prostitution” (Prose Studies).
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.
Strange Science: Investigating the Limits of Knowledge in the Victorian Age (Co-edited with Lara Karpenko).
Articles:
“Turning the Corner of Interpretation: A Response to Elena Anastasaki.” Connotations: A Journal of Critical Debate. 21.1 (2012): 72-85. http://www.connotations.de/pdf/articles/claggett02101.pdf.
“George Eliot’s Interrogation of Physiological Future Knowledge.” Studies in English Literature 51:4 (2011): 849-64.
“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
Professional Honors and Awards:
- Selected for the Project Narrative Summer Institute, led by Robyn Warhol and James Phelan at the Ohio State University, 2010.
- 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, Journal of Narrative Theory, and Victorians Institute Journal.
Professional conference committees: North American Victorian Studies Association Conference Committee (2011), International Society for the Study of Narrative Conference (2012).
