Dr Eleanor Lowe

Programme Lead for English Literature, Theatre and Creative Writing

School of Education, Humanities and Languages

Eleanor Lowe

Role

I studied at the University of Durham before taking an MA in Shakespeare Studies and PhD at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham) in Stratford-upon-Avon. Prior to working at Oxford Brookes I was post-doctoral research fellow for the Richard Brome Online project based in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London.

My research interests are divided between two main strands: editing and material culture. I worked on the Royal Shakespeare Company Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2008) and have published editions of George Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth (online with Digital Renaissance Editions, 2013), Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well Matched and The Love-Sick Court (online, as part of Richard Brome Online, 2013), John Ford's The Fair Maid of the Inn (with Martin Wiggins; OUP, 2017), as well as 'Accounts and Inventories of the Revels Office, 1541-1546' (The Malone Society, 2016).

My interest in material culture largely focuses on clothing, linen and cleanliness. I have written on this topic with reference to humours comedy (especially An Humorous Day's Mirth), and in relation to plays by Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton. I have also written about bookbinding and marriage in Brome's The Love-Sick Court and discussed Viscount Montague's 'Household Book', in particular the role of the steward in household management and its relevance to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I am currently working on a monograph on Cleanliness and Early Modern Drama as well as writing about Fletcher and genre.

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Modules taught

Undergraduate

  • Renaissance Tragedy & Comedy
  • Work Placement in Drama
  • Texts in Performance
  • Final Production
  • People, Plays and Places
  • Modern British Theatre in Performance
  • Shakespeare

Postgraduate

  • Shakespeare's Collaborators

Supervision

PhD and MA supervision in early modern literature and culture

Research

Eleanor's main research interests are in Early Modern drama, theatre practice, publishing culture, and editorial practices. Her research focuses on the cultural, social and political contexts of Renaissance dramatic texts and their performances, both historical and contemporary.

Research Interests

 

  • Early Modern drama
  • Jonson, Chapman, Middleton and Brome
  • Material culture
  • Stage properties
  • Textual studies
  • Cleanliness
  • Clothing

Further information

  • Richard Brome Online (2010): www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome

Groups

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • British Shakespeare Association
  • The Malone Society
  • Digital Renaissance Editions (General Textual Editor)

Conferences

Conference papers

  • 'Linen, Cleanliness and Early Modern Drama', London Renaissance Seminar on Clothing the Renaissance, January 2018.
  • '"The flux of apparel": Humours and Clothing in Every Man Out of His Humour', Ben Jonson's Workes and their Contexts: 400 years on, University of Sheffield, November 2016.
  • '"Scouring faults": Everyday Cleanliness in 1 and 2 Henry IV', Everyday Shakespeare seminar, World Shakespeare Congress, Stratford-upon-Avon and London, August 2016.
  • 'Page, Stage and Screen: Editing Early Modern Drama Online', Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, St. Anne's College, Oxford University, July 2015.
  • Panel member for 'Scholarly Digital Editing', Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, Wolfson College, Oxford University, July 2014.
  • '"Authority and obedience": Malvolio, Stewardship and the Cowdray Manuscript', British Shakespeare Association, Biennial Conference, University of Stirling, July 2014.
  • '"Cleane Linnen is my Mistris, and my Theame": Taylor, Brome and the Early Modern Laundry Basket', Early Modern Water Interdisciplinary Symposium, Landscape, Space, Place Research Group, University of Nottingham, May 2011.
  • 'Making a clean sweep: Brome, Cleanliness, Clothing and the Renaissance Stage', Renaissance Women's Performance and the Dramatic Canon, International Conference, The Queen's House, Greenwich, July 2010.
  • ‘Living History: The Experience of Authenticity’, Belfast, Filming and Performing Renaissance History 1500-1660 conference, April 2009.
  • ‘“In to my bed, and out o’ the world presently”: Richard Brome’s Final Years’, Renaissance Endings, Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies, Roehampton University, London, October 2006.
  • Prepared an editorial project on A Humorous Day’s Mirth for Editing for Performance workshop led by M. J. Kidnie and Sarah Werner, Shakespeare Association of America conference, New Orleans, USA, April 2004.
  • ‘Creative Clues: Textual and Performative Editorial Issues’, Constructing Knowledge Across the Humanities conference, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, April 2003.
  • ‘“Change for the Better”: Freezing and Falsifying Play Texts in the Hope of Enhancing Authorial Visual Art’, ‘Behold and See’: Meaning and Form in Shakespeare’s Visual Art, doctoral conference, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, November 2002.
  • ‘A Humorous Day’s Mirth: Or is it? Titular titillation in Chapman’s Comedy of Humours’, 4th International British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, June 2002.
  • ‘Editing: the “Instrument of Procreation” and Other Textual Problems’, postgraduate seminar, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, March 2002.

Conference Organisation

  • Oxford Brookes Early Modern research cluster symposium, 'Early Modern Women', June 2010.
  • Organisation of twice-yearly editorial conferences for the Richard Brome Online project, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2005-2008.
  • Richard Brome and Caroline Theatre, International Symposium, Royal Holloway, University of London, co-organiser with Richard Cave, June 2007.
  • ‘Richard Brome and Caroline Drama’, seminar co-organised with Lucy Munro (Keele University), Shakespeare Association of America conference, San Diego, USA, April 2007.
  • Committee co-ordinator, International British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2001 & 2002.

Further details

I studied for my BA in English Literature at the University of Durham before taking an MA in Shakespeare Studies at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham) in Stratford-upon-Avon. I was awarded my PhD on George Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth in 2005, fully funded by the AHRB.