Professor Cathy Shrank (she/her)
School of English
Professor of Tudor and Renaissance Literature; Faculty Director of Research & Innovation (Arts & Humanities)
+44 114 222 8485
Full contact details
School of English
2.19
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
-
My research focuses on early modern (or Renaissance) literature and culture (c.1500-1650), and the sixteenth century above all.
I study a wide range of works across that period – in poetry, prose, and drama; manuscript and print – and look at very canonical writers (like Shakespeare) as well as extremely obscure ones. During the early modern period, there wasn’t such a distinction between fictional and non-fictional writing as there is today, and many of the texts that I’ve written on – political treatises, medical handbooks, language-learning dialogues - wouldn’t count as ‘literature’ today.
My work sits at the intersection of History and Literature. I am interested in how texts are shaped by the context in which, and for which, they were written; how humanist education fashioned the style and ideological positions of its former pupils; how early modern writers adapted and translated texts from other linguistic traditions or earlier periods; and how they utilised generic conventions and the material forms in which their works appeared (an attention to material form that often comes under the umbrella of ‘Book History’).
I am also a scholarly editor. This involves textual detective work (for example, identifying and resolving errors in the text; or deciding which version of a text to base the edition on) and – through the annotation – unpacking references in the text so that they are explicable to twenty-first-century readers.My interest in early modern writing stems back to my undergraduate days at Cambridge, where a course on comparative literature introduced me to the poetry of the Henrician courtier Thomas Wyatt and his translations of Petrarch. I pursued this interest in early and mid-Tudor writing – an often neglected period of English Literature – through my Masters (with a dissertation on Wyatt’s lyrics and letters) and then my PhD, which looked at formations of English national identity in the decades after Henry VIII’s break with Rome. I moved to Sheffield in 2005, after holding lectureships at King’s College London and the University of Aberdeen.
- Qualifications
-
- PhD, University of Cambridge
- MPhil in Renaissance Literature, University of Cambridge
- BA (Hons) in English Literature, University of Cambridge
- Research interests
-
I have just completed a substantial book on dialogue (works written in the form of a conversation) in late medieval and early modern England. Current projects include editions of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline, the poetry of Thomas Wyatt, the works of the Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe, and William Tyndale’s Parable of the Wicked Mammon.
Current and former PhD students have worked on projects including: Drayton’s <i>Poly-Olbion<i>; citizenship in early modern drama; productions and adaptations of Shakespeare’s <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream<i> in post-World War 2 Poland; representations of Thomas Wolsey from Skelton to Shakespeare; Tudor women writers; a comparative study of the influence of Galen in England and Italy; and editions of a number of important early manuscripts (Burley; V&A Dyce MS 44; BL Harleian MS 7392(2); BL Additional MS 36529). In addition, I have supervised a BMedSci project on early modern ideas of remedy, cure, and palliative care, and a postdoctoral project on reconciliation after religious conflict.
I welcome PhD applications in any area of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature and culture.
- Publications
-
Books
- Writing the nation in Reformation England, 1530-1580. Oxford University Press on Demand.
Edited books
- The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia. Oxford University Press.
- The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature:1485-1603. OUP Oxford.
Journal articles
- Introduction for special issue on precarity. English: Journal of the English Association, 73(282), 107-110. View this article in WRRO
- Mirroring the “Long Reformation”: Translating Erasmus’ colloquies in early modern England. Reformation, 24(2), 59-75. View this article in WRRO
- What I am Reading. Reformation, 21(2), 128-130.
- Doing Away with the Drab Age. Literature Compass.
- Thomas Middleton, The Collected Works. European Journal of English Studies, 13(1), 110-112.
- Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture, A Companion to The Collected Works. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES, 13(1), 111-112.
- Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: John Benson and the 1640 Poems. Shakespeare, 5(3), 271-291.
- James Simpson,Burning to Read: English Fundamentalism and its Reformation Opponents. Reformation, 13(1), 230-232.
- 'But I that knew what harbred in that hed': Thomas Wyatt and his posthumous interpreters. Proceedings of the British Academy, 154, 375-401.
- "Matters of love as of discourse": The English Sonnet, 1560–1580. Studies in Philology, 105(1), 30-49.
- Trollers and Dreamers: Defining the Citizen-Subject in Sixteenth-Century Cheap Print. Yearbook of English Studies, 38(1/2), 102-118.
- Wayne A. Chandler, ed.,An Anthology of Commendatory Verse from the English Renaissance. Reformation, 11(1), 227-230.
- A Work by John Bale Identified?. Notes and Queries, 53(4), 421-422.
- "These fewe scribbled rules": Representing Scribal Intimacy in Early Modern Print. Huntington Library Quarterly, 67(2), 295-314.
- Civility and the City in Coriolanus. Shakespeare Quarterly, 54(4), 406-423.
- Andrew Borde and the Politics of Identity in Reformation England. Reformation, 5(1), 1-26.
- 'That Clytemnestra', 'that fatall Medea': the 'detectioun' of Mary Queen of Scots, 1567-1587. Huntington Library Quarterly, 73, 523-541.
Book chapters
- 13. Rewriting Robert the Devil: Thomas Lodge and Medieval Romance, Form and Power in Medieval and Early Modern Literature (pp. 241-258). Boydell and Brewer
- Making History: Poetry and Prosopopoeia, History in the Humanities and Social Sciences (pp. 286-305). Cambridge University Press
- Wyatt and Surrey, The Oxford History of Poetry in English (pp. 405-421). Oxford University Press
- Civil Instruction, The Cambridge Connection in Tudor England (pp. 232-251). BRILL
- 2.1 The Shakespeare manuscripts (pp. 53-70). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Mirroring the "Long Reformation": Translating Erasmus' Colloquies in Early Modern England*, Early Modern Literature and England's Long Reformation (pp. 7-23). Routledge
- The Bow and the Book: Ascham’s Toxophilus In Nicholas L & Law C (Ed.), Roger Ascham and His Sixteenth-Century World (pp. 208-225). Brill
- Legends, Shrines and Ruined Tombs, Memory and the English Reformation (pp. 334-350). Cambridge University Press
- Citing scripture in late medieval and early modern English morality drama, Enacting the Bible in medieval and early modern drama Manchester University Press
- ‘Masters of civility: Castiglione’s Courtier, Della Casa’s Galateo and Guazzo’s Civil Conversation in early modern England’ In Marrapodi M (Ed.), The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo-Italian Renaissance Literature and Culture (pp. 144-159). Routledge
- Answer Poetry and Other Verse “Conversations” (pp. 376-388). Wiley
- Shakespeare’s Sonnets, The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 269-623). Routledge
- ‘Let the Bird of Loudest Lay’, The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 251-267). Routledge
- Introduction, The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. xiii-xv). Routledge
- A Lover’s Complaint, The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 625-661). Routledge
- Mocking or mirthful? Laughter in early modern dialogue In Knights MJ & Morton A (Ed.), The Power of Laughter and Satire in Early Modern Britain: Political and Religious Culture, 1500-1820 Boydell and Brewer View this article in WRRO
- Cross Sections (I): 1516-1520 In Keymer T (Ed.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English, vol. 1 (pp. 46-54). Oxford University Press
- On Error In Loffman C & Phillips H (Ed.), A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Texts (pp. 139-146). Routledge
- Crafting the Nation, A Social History of England, 1500–1750 (pp. 19-38). Cambridge University Press
- Promising Eternity in the 1609 Quarto, Sonnets the State of Play (pp. 13-31).
- ‘Hoysted high vpon the rolling wheele’, <I>A Mirror for Magistrates</I> in Context (pp. 109-125). Cambridge University Press
- Poetry and the Commonwealth, Edmund Spenser in Context (pp. 176-184). Cambridge University Press
- Finding a Vernacular Voice: The Classical Translations of Sir Thomas Wyatt In Copeland R (Ed.), The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature: Volume 1: 800-1558 (pp. 583-600). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Disséquer le corps politique: la Couronne et le Parlement dans les dialogues politiques anglais du début du XVIIe siècle In Bouhaik-Girones M (Ed.), Usages et stratégies polémiques en Europe, XIVe-premier XVIIe siècle (pp. 155-166). Peter Lang
- Mise-en-page, “the Authors Genius”, “the capacity of the Reader”, and the ambition of ‘a Good Compositer’, In Archer C & Peters L (Ed.), Religion and the Book Trade (pp. 66-82). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- His sister's family: the Harts, The Shakespeare Circle (pp. 49-56). Cambridge University Press
- All talk and no action? Early modern political dialogue, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Prose (pp. 27-42). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Beastly Metamorpohoses: Losing Control in Early Modern Literary Culture In Herring J (Ed.), Intoxication and Society (pp. 193-209). Palgrave MacMillan
- Formation of Nationhood Oxford University Press
- 1553, Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Vol 1 (pp. 537-547). Oxford University Press
- Society In Kinney AF (Ed.), Elizabethan and Jacobean England Wiley-Blackwell
- Counsel, succession and the politics of Shakespeare's Sonnets, Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (pp. 101-118). Cambridge University Press
- The Politics of Shakespeare's Sonnets In Armitage D, Condren C & Fitzmaurice A (Ed.), Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (pp. 101-118). Cambridge University Press
- The Travails of Tudor Literature In Pincombe M & Shrank C (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature:1485-1603 (pp. 1-19). OUP Oxford
- 'Sir Thomas Elyot and the Bonds of Community' In Shrank C (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature (pp. 154-169). Oxford University Press
- Prologue: The Travails of Tudor Literature In Shrank C & Pincombe M (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature: 1485-1603
- Stammering, snoring and other problems in Early Modern dialogue In Blakeley J & Pincombe M (Ed.), Writing and Reform in Sixteenth-Century England (pp. 179-192).
- John Bale and reconfiguring the 'medieval' in Reformation England, READING THE MEDIEVAL IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND (pp. 179-+).
- Introduction to Thomas More’s Utopia, The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia (pp. 1-16). Oxford University Press
- Utopia in Sixteenth-Century Italy, The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia (pp. 231-247). Oxford University Press
-
E lyot,T homas Wiley
- Manuscript, Authenticity and 'evident proofs' against the Scottish Queen (pp. 198-218).
Book reviews
- Genesis of genius. Times Literary Supplement(5985), 12-12. View this article in WRRO
Conference proceedings
- Civil Tongues: Language, Law and Reformation (pp 19-34)
Scholarly editions
- The Complete Poems of Shakespeare. Routledge.
Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries
- Community. In Cultural Reformations Oxford University Press.
- Writing the nation in Reformation England, 1530-1580. Oxford University Press on Demand.
- Research group
-
I welcome applications from potential research students in any area of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature and culture.
Current and former PhDs include projects on Post-War Polish productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream; Drayton’s Poly-olbion; representations of Thomas Wolsey from Skelton to Shakespeare; Tudor women writers; a comparative study of the influence of Galen in England and Italy; and editions of a number of important early manuscripts (Burley; V&A Dyce MS 44; BL Harleian MS 7392(2); BL Additional MS 36529).
- Teaching interests
-
My teaching focuses on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature.
- Teaching activities
-
My teaching at undergraduate and Masters level mainly focuses on the period 1500-1800.
The modules I teach are:
- Renaissance to Revolution (Level 1)
- Hybrid Forms: Comedy and Tragedy (Level 1)
- Renaissance Literature, Modern Crises (Level 3)
- Dissertations (Level 3 and PGT)
- Shakespearean Transformations (PGT)
- Professional activities and memberships
-
- General Editor, Longman Annotated English Poets
- Period Editor (Early Modern Literature), Review of English Studies
- Fellow of the English Association
- Member of the AHRC Peer Review College