Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Foundation

• Previously: Nation and Identity 

Undergraduate

• Can Literature Help Save the World? Literature and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Advanced Stylistics
• The Culture of Modernity
• World Literatures
• Professional Practice
• Dissertation supervision
• Previously: Skills and Creative Strategies for English Studies, Approaching Poetry, Narrative and Narratology, Twentieth Century Writing, Interpretation: Cognitive Poetics, Narratological Stylistics

Postgraduate

• Twentieth Century Texts
• MA Dissertation
• Key Concepts and Methods for Research

 

Supervision

I have supervised MA dissertations and MA by Research projects in metafiction, adaptation, fanfiction and performance poetry, and have supervised and examined MPhils on 21st century fiction. 

My most recent publication is Discourse Deixis in Metafiction: The Language of Metanarration, Metalepsis and Disnarration (Routledge, 2019).

I co-edited Pronouns in Literature: Positions and Perspectives in Language (Palgrave, 2018)

Selected further publications are listed below.

Journal articles include:

• ‘Small stories in charity fundraising letters and the ethics of interwoven individualism’, Poetics Today (forthcoming).
• ‘Making and unmaking meaning in Alejandro Zambra’s Multiple Choice’, English Studies (2022) https://doi.org/10.1080/0013838X.2022.2043034
• 'Imagining differently: Relationships between reading and gaming habits, mental imagery construction, and perspective-taking when processing a fictional narrative scene', Anglistik 31.1 (2020): 155-181. https://doi.org/10.33675/ANGL/2020/1/11
• 'You and I, past and present: Cognitive processing of perspective', Diegesis 5.1 (2016): Empirical Approaches to Narrative. 
• ‘Enhancing the critical apparatus for understanding metanarration: Discourse deixis refined’, Journal of Literary Semantics 39.2 (2010), 119-142. https://doi.org/10.1515/jlse.2010.007

Book chapters include:

• ‘Social deixis in literature’, in Sorlin, S. (ed), Stylistic Manipulation of the Reader in Contemporary Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2019), 50-69.
• ‘Discourse analysis’, in The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Literary Theory (Oxford University Press, 2019)
• ‘Positioning the reader in post-Apartheid literature of trauma: 'I' and 'you' in Zoë Wicomb's David's Story’, in Gibbons A. and Macrae A. (eds), Pronouns in Literature: Perspectives and Positions in Language (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 55-74. 
• ‘Stylistics’, in Clayton, D. and Giovanelli, M. (eds), Knowing about Language (Routledge, 2016)
• ‘'You' and 'I' in charity fundraising appeals’, in Gardelle L. and Sorlin S. (eds), The Pragmatics of Personal Pronouns (John Benjamins, 2015), 105-124.
• ‘Literary Narrative’, in Jones, R.H. (ed), The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity (Routledge, 2015), 248-263.
• ‘Stylistics, Drama and Performance’, in Burke, M. (ed), The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics (Routledge, 2014), 253-267.

 Other publications include:

• Employability: A Review of the Literature, 2016-2021, co-authored with Roger Dalrymple, Maia Pal and Shirley Shipman (Advance HE, 2021)
• 'The use and misuse of Language', in The Commission on the Donor Experience report (2017).
• English Language and Literature A/AS Level for AQA Student Book, co-authored with Marcello Giovanelli, Felicity Titjen and Ian Cushing (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

Research group membership

Sustainable and Resilient Futures Network

Oxford Brookes Language and Discourse (OBLaDi) research group

London Stylistics Circle

Poetics and Linguistics Association

International Society for the Study of Narrative

European Narratology Network

Research grants and awards

Internal funding awarded (listing only funding over £1000):

• £3000, 2021, School of English and Modern Languages Research Impact Funding
• £6199, 2020, School of English and Modern Languages Research Funding Scheme, to fund a study investigating linguistic triggers of trust and distrust in charity fundraising letters. Outputs include two journal articles and a trade magazine article (in progress).
• £9000, 2012, Faculty Research Award, to fund a project on perspective-taking in literary reading, outputs of which included two journal articles: ‘Imagining differently: Relationships between reading and gaming habits, mental imagery construction, and perspective-taking when processing a fictional narrative scene’, Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies 31 (1) (2020), 155-181, and ‘You and I, past and present: Cognitive processing of perspective’, Diegesis 5 (1) (2016), 64-80.

 

External funding awarded:

• £7478, 2021, Principal Investigator, Enterprise Educators UK Research Project Fund, external collaboration (with two Co-Investigators from the University of Birmingham, Dr. Mircea Scrob and Helen Hook), ‘Increasing Engagement with Enterprise Education in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’.
• £4021, 2021, Co-Investigator, Advance HE, internal collaboration (with Dr. Roger Dalrymple as Principal Investigator and Dr. Shirley Shipman and Dr. Maïa Pal as Co-Investigators, all in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), ‘Advance HE Employability: A Review of the Literature, 2016-2021’ the output of which, the 113-page review, was published in September 2021, alongside a programme of engagement activities including a podcast series and two international workshops.
• £500, 2017, Principal Investigator, ‘Engaging with Government’ AHRC/Institute for Government grant, funding the cost of the three-day training course and associated travel. 
• £2,967, 2017, Principal Investigator, BA/Leverhulme Small Grant (SG170798), external collaboration (with two Co-Investigators, Prof. Billy Clark, Northumbria University and Dr. Marcello Giovanello, Aston University), ‘University English Programmes’ Response to the New English A Levels’, resulting in two co-authored articles in peer-reviewed journals - 'Responding to reform: How aware are HE English providers of A level reforms and how have they responded to them?', English in Education 52 (3) (2018), 248-262, and 'English after the post-2015 A level Reforms: HE Prerequisites and Perspectives', Changing English 25 (4) (2018), 384-395 - three conference presentations, and a presentation of the findings to University English.

Further information

www.integratingenglish.com - the website of a collaborative project, with Prof Billy Clark and Dr Marcello Giovanelli, including the undergraduate journal Mesh and the Lang-Lit Lab, a blog written for A level English teachers

www.whatthestudiessay.com - a website for people who work in charity communications, summarising useful academic research

www.everydaydeixis.com - a little web intro to deixis

Books

• Macrae A, Discourse Deixis in Metafiction: The Language of Metanarration, Metalepsis and Disnarration, Routledge (2019)
  ISBN: 9780367141240 eISBN: 9780429030352
  Abstract

  This volume advances scholarly understanding of the ways in which discourse deixis underpins the workings of metafictional novels. Building on existing scholarship in the field, the book begins by mapping out key themes and techniques in metafiction and puts forward a focused and theoretically coherent account of discourse deixis—language which points to a section or aspect of the discourse context in which that language is used—in written literary discourse, highlighting its inherent significance in metafiction specifically. Macrae takes readers through an exploration of discourse deixis as used within the techniques of metanarration, metalepsis, and disnarration, drawing on a mix of both well-established and lesser-known metafictional novels from the late 1960s and early 1970s by such authors as John Barth, Brigid Brophy, Robert Coover, John Fowles, Steve Katz, and B.S. Johnson. This comprehensive account integrates and develops a new approach to understanding discourse deixis and innovative insights into metafictionality more broadly and will be of particular interest to scholars in literary studies, postmodern literature, narratology, and stylistics.
  

  Website 
• Gibbons A, Macrae A, Ed., Pronouns in Literature: Positions and Perspectives in Language, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  ISBN: 9781349953165 eISBN: 9781349953172
  Abstract

  This edited collection brings together an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars who together offer cutting-edge insights into the complex roles, functions, and effects of pronouns in literary texts. The book engages with a range of text-types, including poetry, drama, and prose from different periods and regions, in English and in translation. Beginning with analyses of the first-person pronoun, it moves onto studies of the subject dynamics of first- and second-person, before considering plural modes of narration and how pronoun use can help to disperse narrative perspective. The volume then debates the functional constraints of pronouns in fictional contexts and finally reflects upon the theoretical advancements presented in the collection. This innovative volume will appeal to students and scholars of linguistics, stylistics and cognitive poetics, narratology, theoretical and applied linguistics, psychology and literary criticism.--Provided by publisher.
  

  Website 
• Giovanelli M, Macrae A,Titjen F, Cushing I, English Language and Literature A/AS Level for AQA Student Book, Cambridge University Press (2015)
  ISBN: 9781107465664
  

Journal articles

• Macrae A, 'Small Stories in Charity Fundraising Letters and the Ethics of Interwoven Individualism'
  Poetics Today: International Journal for Theory and Analysis of Literature and Communication 43 (2) (2022) pp.219-241
  ISSN: 0333-5372 eISSN: 1527-5507
  Abstract

  The explicit imperative to “tell a story” recently dominating UK and USA fundraising sector discourse refers specifically to the central compelling ‘story’ of the representative victim/beneficiary, and yet there are multiple stories at work in charity fundraising letters, with interdependent narrative trajectories. This article draws on small stories research (Georgakopoulou 2015), and on scholarship on storytelling and ethics (Meretoja 2018a; Shuman 2005), to explore the relative narrativity of the stories within charity fundraising letters and their marked contingence upon lack of resolution. This article also disentangles and investigates the interactions among the stories of the representative beneficiary, the addressee as potential donor, and the charitable organization. It discusses the affirmation and exploitation of Western neoliberal individualism in the selective spotlighting of an individual beneficiary, and in the individualized appeal to the addressee. It discusses the tensions between the charitable organization and the addressee as competing contenders for the archetypal role of the ‘hero’ in the narrative of the victim/beneficiary, and reflects on the ways in which the complex narratives of supra-individual social processes involved both in the causes of suffering and need and in their alleviation are downplayed in the service of more impactful individualistic narratives.

  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Making (and un-making) meaning in Alejandro Zambra's Multiple Choice'
  English Studies 103 (3) (2022) pp.447-470
  ISSN: 0013-838X eISSN: 1744-4217
  Abstract

  The metafictional form of Alejandro Zambra’s text Multiple Choice explicitly presents interpretative challenges to the reader. It strategically foregrounds the inferential processes and guided choices involved in deriving and deciding upon meaning, in such a way as to lead readers to infer thematic significance from this salience. Without intending text, he is nonetheless directly and deeply engaging with precisely the interpretative principles and processes which relevance theory attempts to account for and explicate. This article therefore uses relevance theory to analyse in depth how Zambra’s multiple choice questions can be made meaningful within the context of a work of fiction, in the hope that it can offer insights into the potential inferential processes of readers, the ways in which to suggest that Zambra is in any way consciously engaging with relevance theory in this they are guided by the workings of this text, and how they lead towards broader thematic interpretations. Additionally, this article reflects on the significance of second-person address and disnarration to the pragmatic processes which Zambra meaningfully exploits, foregrounds and subverts.   

  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Imagining Differently: Relationships between Reading and Gaming Habits, Mental Imagery Construction, and Perspective-Taking When Processing a Fictional Narrative Scene'
  Anglistik 31 (1) (2020) pp.155-181
  ISSN: 0947-0034
  Abstract

  This article discusses the results of an experiment which investigated relationships between participants' reading and gaming histories, their mental imagery construction, and their perspective-taking within that mental imagery construction, when reading a short fictional scenic narrative. Participants (n=106) read segments of a text, selected images corresponding with their visualisation of the scene, and completed a
  questionnaire probing reading and gaming habits. The resulting data suggest that reading habits may mediate text-prompted mental imagery construction and perspective-taking in two ways: participants who read frequently had a greater tendency to visualise the scene during reading than those who did not read frequently; and participants who read frequently had a greater tendency to visualise the scene from an
  internal perspective (i.e., the perspective of the character or character-narrator within the fictional scene) than participants who did not read frequently, irrespective of the person and tense of the text stimuli. The resulting data also suggest that computer game playing habits, in particular preferences regarding gaming mode, may mediate textprompted mental imagery construction and perspective-taking: participants who were allocated texts in the present tense and first or second person and who preferred subjective (i.e., 'first person') computer games were less likely to visualise the scene from an internal perspective than participants who did not prefer subjective computer games. This article discusses the possible reasons for these correlations, focussing on differences between experiences of imagery in response to textual and visual media and
  differences between experiences of absorption in reading and gaming.

  Website 
• Giovanelli M, Clark B, Macrae A, 'Responding to reform: How aware are HE English providers of A level reforms and how have they responded to them?'
  English in Education 52 (3) (2018) pp.248-262
  ISSN: 0425-0494
  Abstract

  In September 2015, students in secondary, sixth-form and further education began A-level courses in English (English Literature, English Language, and English Language and Literature), all of which had been newly modified as part of the educational reforms introduced by the coalition government in 2010. This recent modification process was part of a drive to reform school qualifications in England more generally and coincided with a range of other changes to the curriculum and assessment practices in English teaching from primary school upwards. For A level English specifications, the key changes were, in addition to revised content, a shift from a modular to a two-year linear system, the decoupling of AS- and A- level qualifications and a reduction in the weighting of coursework, now rebranded as Non-exam assessment (NEA) (see Ofqual 2015 for a summary of all changes following reform). This paper reports on a survey through which we explored how far undergraduate English course providers were first, aware of this latest round of reform, and second, had made or were making changes to their programmes in light of reform. In the context of discourse around the involvement of universities in reform and the need to develop meaningful links between school and university English, we were interested in the reality of higher education academics’ awareness of and interest in post-16 study. This paper begins by outlining the context and process of A level reform before examining the importance of higher education/school relationships with regards to the curriculum and transition. We then present the findings of the survey, and following this we offer some analysis and discussion of the implications for various stakeholders.

  Website 
• Macrae A, Clark B, Giovanelli M, 'English after the post-2015 A level Reforms: HE Prerequisites and Perspectives'
  Changing English 25 (4) (2018) pp.384-395
  ISSN: 1358-684X eISSN: 1469-3585
  Abstract

  This article reports the results of a survey of UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) providers of undergraduate degree programmes in English. The survey solicited HEI providers’ views on how well each of the A levels in English prepares students for degree programmes, and asked which of the three A levels are included in the entry requirements for those programmes. The survey also asked how far HEI providers were aware of the post-2015 reforms at A level, and what changes had been made to programmes in response to those reforms. After outlining the rationale and methodology of the survey, this article discusses the data, focussing on prerequisites and perceptions of relative usefulness. Findings include: a significant proportion of programmes for which no A level in English is required; mixed perceptions of the usefulness of the A levels; and a need for more cross-phase dialogue around A level content and teaching methods.

  Website 
• Macrae A, 'You and I, Past and Present: Cognitive Processing of Perspective'
  DIEGESIS 5 (1) (2016) pp.64-80
  ISSN: 2195-2116
  Abstract This article describes an experiment investigating the relationship between deic­tic elements of focalisation and readers’ perspective-taking within imaginative conceptualisations of a fictional narrative scene. The text variables tested here are whether the narrative is written in the first or second person, and whether the narrative is written in the present or past tense. The experiment tests the ex­istence and nature of a relationship between these person and temporal deictic elements of focalisation and the likelihood of a reader’s visual perceptual identi­fication with the position of a narrator, narrator-character and / or character focaliser within a fictional scene. Within the experiment, participants read one of four variants of a short fictional text identical but for the person or tense employed in the narration. Results of the experiment suggest that person and temporal deixis both impact upon conceptual perspective-taking. Specifically, the results corroborate predictions that the present tense is more likely than the past tense to elicit readerly conceptual identification with a narrator, narrator-character or character focaliser. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, the results also suggest that there is no significant difference between first and second per­son narration with respect to readers’ reported conceptual identification with the viewpoint of the narrator, narrator-character or character focaliser designated by that pronoun.
   
  Website 
• Clark B, Giovanelli M, Macrae A, 'English: Diverse but unified. Putting texts at the heart of the discipline.'
  Teaching English 6 (2014) pp.17-20
  ISSN: 2051-7971
  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Enhancing the critical apparatus for understanding metanarration: discourse deixis refined'
  Journal of Literary Semantics 39 (2) (2010) pp.119-142
  ISSN: 0341-7638
  Abstract This article explores the deictic functioning of metanarrative expressions in fiction. Current theoretical approaches to metanarration are reviewed, and classifying terminology revised. This critique enables the development of a more nuanced typology of metanarration, exposes the lack of linguistic analysis of the functioning of metanarrative expressions, and indicates the deictic contribution to this functioning. The role of deixis within metanarration is then further explicated. The category of discourse deixis is investigated and refined, and various subtypes of discourse deixis correlated with subtypes of metanarrative expressions. The analytical value of this approach is demonstrated through the study of discourse deixis in metanarrative extracts from Beckett's (Pan Books, 1979 [1959]) The unnameable, Federman's (Fiction Collective, 1976) Take it or leave it and Barth's (Random House, 1988 [1969]) Lost in the funhouse.Website 

Book chapters

• Macrae A, 'Piloting a multidisciplinary humanities and social sciences entrepreneurial module: Process and findings' in Stuart Norton, Andy Penaluna (ed.), 3 Es for Wicked Problems: Employability, Enterprise, and Entrepreneurship, Advance HE (2022)
  ISBN: 9781916359345
  Website 
• Clark B, Giovanelli M, Macrae A , 'Undergraduate Research in English' in Harald A. Mieg, Elizabeth L. Ambros, Angela Brew, Judith Lehmann, Dominique M. Galli (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Undergraduate Research, Cambridge University Press (2022)
  ISBN: 9781108835923 eISBN: 9781108869508
  Website 
• Macrae Andrea, 'Discourse Analysis' in Discourse Analysis, Oxford University Press (2020)
  eISBN: 9780190201098
  Abstract

  
  

  Website 
• Macrae, A, 'Social deixis in literature' in Sorlin S (ed.), Manipulating the reading in literature, Bloomsbury (2019)
  ISBN: 9781350062962 eISBN: 9781350062993
  Abstract

  This chapter explores manipulation of the reader through deictic positioning. It focuses in particular on the functioning of what is sometimes called ‘empathetic’, ‘social’ or ‘relational’ deixis (Lyons 1977; Levinson 1983; Stockwell 2002) . Grishikova (2018: 201) notes that some deictic terms, such as ‘this’ and ‘that’, and ‘here’ and ‘there’, while often primarily having demonstrative or spatial meaning, may also signal ‘empathy or sympathy, intimacy, intensive sensation, joint attention, familiarity, routine’. As Grishikova’s list suggests, neither ‘empathetic’ nor ‘social’ really cover or clarify the range of meanings that words such as ‘this’ and ‘that’ can signal, and this is before we bring honorifics into the mix. ‘Relational’, on the other hand, is perhaps too encompassing: all deixis is relational in the sense of conveying a relationship. This chapter briefly explores some of the main theoretical issues within previous descriptions and discussions of social deixis.
  

  Website 
• Clark B, Giovanelli M, Macrae A, 'Integrating English' in Eaglestone R, Marshall G (ed.), English: Shared Futures, D S Brewer (2018)
  ISBN: 9781843845164 eISBN: 9781787443297
  Abstract

  This chapter discusses the origins, activities so far, and future plans of the Integrating English project (http://integratingenglish.org). This project has aims that are very much in line with those of the English: Shared Futures project, since it seeks to celebrate the diversity of the discipline while also seeing the diverse range of activities it encompasses as unified. They are unified by their focus on how texts are produced, understood, circulated and evaluated. In this essay, we present a brief account of the origins and development of Integrating English, explain the project's approach to the nature of English as a diverse academic discipline and describe some of the activities we have carried out so far. We also highlight connections with English: Shared Futures, including some reflection on activities at the conference in Newcastle in 2017, and conclude with thoughts about how we see the future direction of the project. The main conclusions are that the view of English advocated by our project is timely, beneficial and suggests reasons for optimism about the futures of English.

  Origins and Development. 
  

  The project began in response to informal discussions with undergraduate students and university staff. Students approached more than one member of the project team asking about ‘lang-lit’ work. Some of these students had taken A-Level Language and Literature and moved on to BA programmes with titles such as ‘English’ or ‘English Language and Literature’. They had noticed that the modules they were now taking each focused either on aspects of language or on aspects of literature. Very few, if any, genuinely involved ‘lang-lit’ work understood as work that included integrated linguistic and literary study. These conversations suggested that students were used to doing integrated linguistic and literary work at AS and A-Level. We later discovered that this was not an accurate impression. At this stage, we discussed these comments with colleagues in other HE institutions who pointed out that many of their programmes were combinations or had ‘joint honours’ structures. Here too, there appeared to be no more connection between work on language and on literature than there would have been if they had combined one of these with any other subject.

  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Positioning the reader in Post-Apartheid literature of trauma: "I" and "you" in Zoe Wicomb's David's Story' in Gibbons A, Macrae A (ed.), Pronouns in Literature: Perspectives and Positions in Language, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)
  ISBN: 9781349953165 eISBN: 9781349953172
  Abstract This chapter investigates pronoun use in Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story (2001). The narrator is the amanuensis of David, emerging from his role as a guerrilla anti-apartheid fighter, searching for his identity and place in the new South Africa. Tasked with writing David’s story, the narrator finds, submerged within his narrative, the story of Dulcie, a female fellow Griqua guerrilla fighter. Dulcie, however, is missing, a gap in the narrative, silenced and erased by David and absent from history. The novel traces the ethics and politics of the narrator’s use of ‘I’ and ‘you’ in her attempts to recuperate David’s story and within it Dulcie’s voice and place in the narratives at play.Website 
• Macrae, A, 'Stylistics' in Knowing about Language: Linguistics and the secondary English classroom, Routledge (2016)
  ISBN: 9781138856233 eISBN: 9781315719818
  Abstract

  Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is an approach to language study developed by Michael Halliday, who from the early days had language education centrally in mind, and who still regards language education as one of most important applications of his work. SFL discusses a very large number of linguistic choices. The most recent account of SFL, Halliday and Matthiessen, runs to 786 pages. SFL recognises three main aspects of context of situation: field, tenor and mode. Field has to do with what the language is about and what kind of social activity is being enacted in the language. Tenor has to do with the participants in the language event, the speakers, writers, hearers, readers, the roles they are adopting and the relations between them. Mode has to do with the channel of communication, for example, whether the language is spoken or written. Mode has to do with channel of communication, the most obvious distinction here being between speech and writing.
  

  Website 
• Macrae A, '"You" and "I" in charity fundraising appeals' in The Pragmatics of Personal Pronouns, John Benjamins (2015)
  ISBN: 9789027259363 eISBN: 9789027267832
  Abstract The second person pronoun has become significantly more prevalent in UK charity fundraising discourse in the last five years. The effectiveness of ‘you’ in this context, to address and engage the reader and to elicit donations, is as yet under-researched. This chapter draws on theoretical developments and empirical research in literary narratology, linguistics and psycholinguistics to investigate the deictic functioning of ‘you’ and ‘I’ in fundraising mailshots. Deictic shift theory is used to explore the relative ease or difficulty with which the reader can conceptually adopt the position of the addressee in the light of Benveniste’s notion of the interdependence of ‘I’ and ‘you’. Herman’s categories of use of ‘you’ in fiction and Kacandes’ concept of the literary performative ‘you’ are drawn upon to explicate the nuances of the ontological issues involved. The chapter proposes a linguistic means by which the identificatory engagement effects of the ‘you’ in fundraising discourse may be better controlled and enhanced.Website 
• Macrae A, 'Literary narrative' in The Routledge Handbook of Language and Creativity, Routledge (2015)
  ISBN: 9780415839730
  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Stylistics, drama and performance' in The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics, Routledge (2014)
  ISBN: 9780415527903 eISBN: 9781315795331
  Abstract

  This chapter provides an overview of stylistic approaches to drama and performance, surveying methods of analysis of texts on the page and on the stage. The chapter begins by introducing past approaches taken to drama, particularly structuralist approaches to character and plot. The next section discusses two key critical issues in dramatic stylistics: the nature of communication and interpretation of dramatic discourse, and whether or not the performance of drama can and should be critically discussed beyond the (more stable) play text. This discussion is followed by an outline of current stylistic approaches to drama and performance, including socio-pragmatics, schema theory, deictic shift theory, historical and corpus stylistics, and research on multimodality. Socio-pragmatic and multimodal approaches are then employed in an illustrative analysis of an extract from Noel Coward’s (1930) Private Lives. Though the focus is predominantly upon drama and dramatic performance, the chapter indicates the value and possibilities of stylistic analyses of other kinds of literary performance.
  

  Website 
• Macrae A, 'Readerly deictic shifting to and through I and you: an updated hypothesis' in Texts and minds: papers in cognitive poetics and rhetoric, Peter Lang (2012)
  ISBN: 9783631622230
  Abstract Introduction : This chapter explores the readerly deictic shifting involved in processing the pronouns 'I' and 'you' in narrative literature. Within literary scholarship both pronouns are often noted to facilitate readerly identification with the textually inscribed position, and to evoke a sense of readerly conceptual immersion in the fictional world of the story. Cognitive poetics and cognitive narratology have employed deictic shift theory (DST), largely based on the work of Duchan, Bruder and Hewitt (1995), to attempt to offer a cognitive account of how these interpretative effects are created (see Stockwell 2002, 2009, McIntyre 2006, and Macrae forthcoming, together with Herman 2002 and Ryan 2001). However, this account remains limited and vague in places. This is partially due to omissions and ambiguities within the original theory. This chapter addresses problems within some recent critical commentaries on the interpretative effects of 'I' and 'you', and proposes some amendments to and extensions of DST to offer a more comprehensive cognitive poetic account of readerly processing of narratorial uses of these pronouns. This account is then demonstrated through an analysis of a brief extract of literary narrative. The chapter closes by suggesting some future lines of research with a view to further enhancing understanding of deictic shifting.

Other publications

• Dalrymple R, Macrae A, Pal M, Shipman S, 'Advance HE Employability: A Review of the Literature 2016-2021'
  

  Literature review

  (2021) Website 
• Macrae A, 'The Use and Misuse of Language'
  
  This is one of over twenty-five projects which was invited by and created as part of the Commission on the Donor Experience. It is a 12,000 word report summarising research and presenting recommendations on use of language to enhance the experiences of charity supporters. Leading Charity Consultant Chris Washington-Sare served as the project adviser. This a digital resource, available at the SOFII website (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) at http://sofii.org/article/cde-project-1-the-use-and-misuse-of-language
  (2017)
• Clark B, Macrae A, 'Lang-Lit from A to BA: Integrating Language and Literature Study at school and university'
  (2014) Abstract

  This report is based on a workshop held at Middlesex University on 7 July 2012, which focused on
  Lang/Lit provision at school in English, Wales and Northern Ireland, and at university across the UK. It presents anecdotal and more formal data which we gathered in preparing for the event, and some aspects of discussions that arose following the workshop. We hope that this report will be the beginning of a fuller investigation of issues about Lang/Lit provision. We plan to explore these further ourselves and hope that they will also be explored by other people and institutions involved in the provision of Lang/Lit work. Section 2 explains some of the informal background and motivation for this work. Section 3 considers integrated Lang/Lit provision at A-level (referring collectively to AS and A2 except where the distinction between the two is relevant), the views of students, teachers/lecturers and examiners, and problems and possibilities around this provision. Section 4 addresses the same for BA-level. Section 5 draws these aspects together and reviews transition between the two levels, investigating content, student and provider experience, and obstacles and opportunities for improving the relationships between A-level and BA-level study. Section 6 concludes the report with a summary and suggested avenues for progress.
  

  Website 

Membership of professional bodies

QAA English Subject Benchmark Statement advisory group member (2022)

Member of the Higher Education Committee of hte English Association (2019 to present)

Previously, Expert Panel member for AQA English Language and Literature (2014-2016)

 

Consultancy

I was the project lead for 'The use and misuse of language' project for the Commission on the Donor Experience, and have worked as a brand identity and/or communications consultant for various small businesses.

Conferences

Literary Stylistics

• Guest lecture, ‘Deixis from Weetabix to Winnie-the-Pooh’, Sheffield Hallam University (7 February 2020) 
• Invited keynote speaker: 'Graffiti as Storytelling', What the Plot conference, Munich, Germany (6 Sept 2019)  
• 'The textual geopolitics of Brigid Brophy’s In Transit (1969) and Steve Katz’s The Exagggerations [sic] of Peter Prince (1968)’, International Association of Literary Semantics conference, University of Reykjavik, Iceland (15-17 April 2019)

• 'Social deixis in literature', Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, Birmingham University, UK (25-28 July 2018)
• 'Empathetic / social / relational deixis: What does it do and how does it do it?' Manipulating the Reader in Fiction conference, Aix-en-Provence, France (28 April 2017)
• Guest research paper: 'Positioning the Reader in Post-Apartheid Literature of Trauma: I and you in Zoë Wicomb's David's Story', University of Leicester, UK (7 March 2017) 
• Guest lecture, ‘Stepping into The Hundred Acre Wood: A deictic shift theory account of the opening of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.’ Middlesex University, London, UK (10 March 2015)
• ‘Reading too much into it? Flash fiction and relevance theory.’ International Association of Literary Semantics bi-annual conference, University of Kent, UK (3-5 July 2014)
• ‘Teaching narrative, genre and point of view.’ Integrating English 2014, University of Nottingham  (19 June 2014)
• ‘Cognitive processing of perspective in fiction.’ Cognitive Futures in the Humanities annual conference, Durham University, UK, (24-26 April 2014)
• ‘The ethics of ‘You’.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (27-29 June 2013)
• Guest lecture, ‘Deictic shifting in literature: Experimental analysis.’ University of Westminster, London, UK (10 Oct 2012)
• ‘Towards a stylistics of performance poetry’, Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Malta (16-18 July 2012)
• ‘Shifting through pronouns: An empirical investigation into deictic shifting in literature’, UK Cognitive Linguistics Association annual conference, Kings College, London, UK (10-12 July 2012)
• ‘Deictic shifting to and through I, you, he and she: Priming, Prominence, and a pilot study.’ International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature conference, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (7-11 July 2010)
• ‘Readerly deictic shifting to and through I and you: An updated hypothesis.’ Cognitive Poetics and Rhetoric conference, University of Lodz, Poland (18-22 January 2010)
• ‘Enhancing the critical apparatus for understanding metanarration: Discourse deixis refined.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative annual conference, University of Birmingham, UK (4-6 June 2009)
• ‘Constructing 1867 in 2008, through 1969 and with a little help from 1685: Reading The French Lieutenant’s Woman.’ Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Sheffield, UK (23-26 July 2008)
• ‘Writing Dulcie in the dawn of the New South Africa: Narrative dynamics and discursive responsibility in Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative annual conference, University of Texas, Texas (1-4 May 2008)
• ‘How far have we come? A cognitive poetic study of interdiegetic deixis in John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman.’ Society for the Study of Narrative Literature annual conference, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (15-18 March 2007)
• ‘Why cognitive poetics can’t do metafiction (yet).’ Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Joensuu, Finland (26-29 July 2006)
• ‘To paint a water lily.’ Constructing Worlds Through Language conference, University of Sfax, Tunisia (29-30 April 2005)

The Language of Charity Fundraising Communications

• ‘Language and trust in charity fundraising letters’, Applied Stylistics symposium, Aston University (6-7 April 2021)
• ‘Testing, testing … one, two, … see?’, Institute of Fundraising convention, London, UK (3-5 July 2017)
• ‘Persuasive language: Writing words that work’, Psychology of Communications CharityComms conference, London, UK (29 May 2017)
• 'Changing streets into stories: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of the graffiti appeals of the homeless charity Depaul UK', International Association of Literary Semantics conference, University of Huddersfield, UK (10-12 April 2017)
• 'Anxieties of inauthenticity in charity fundraising communications', Poetics and Linguistics Association conference, Sardinia (July 2016)
• Panel member for 'Commission on the Donor Experience' workshop, Institute of Fundraising convention, London, UK (6 July 2016)
• Panel member for 'How do we create amazing supporter experiences?' workshop at Audience Strategy: Understanding and connecting with stakeholders, CharityComms conference (26 May 2016)
• 'Be a hero!' Givers vs. helpers in charity ads', Poetics and Linguistics Association conference, University of Kent, UK (July 2015)
• ‘Pronouns and related deictic positioning in charity advertisements: A cognitive poetic account of rhetorical effects.’ Rhetoric in Society III conference, Lessuis University, Belgium (26-28 January 2011)

Pedagogy

• Guest talk,'Insights and reflections on 'Employability: A review of the literature, 2016-2021'', University of Winchester (26 Jan 2022)
• Guest talk, 'Employability: A review of the literature, 2016-2021' report launch webinar, Advance HE (14 Oct 2021)
• ‘A cross-disciplinary humanities and social sciences entrepreneurship module: what we did and what we’ve learned. Advance HE Virtual Employability Symposium (22 April 2021)
• 'Creating accessible materials', Action on Teaching University English Online (03 July 2020)
• 'Entrepreneurship in English Literature', Action on Employability in HE English conference, Northumbria University, UK (16 Sept 2019)
• 'Designing a 'Literary Enterprise' module for English Literature students', IEEC Enterprise Educators UK conference, Oxford Brookes University, UK (4 Sept 2019)
• 'A new tool for diversifying assessment and extracting employability', Oxford Brookes Learning and Teaching Conference, Oxford Brookes University, UK (13 June 2019)
• Invited keynote: 'Connectivity and collectivity in the space/face/race of adversity/diversity/the university/academy', Networks and Connections Exclamation conference, University of Exeter, UK (13 June 2018)
• ‘Sharing pedagogies’, English: Shared Futures conference, Newcastle, UK (5-7 July 2017)
• ‘What do we do when we analyse texts?’ English: Shared Futures conference, Newcastle, UK (5-7 July 2017)
• Guest lecture: 'Masterclass in Close Reading', University of Oxford Forum for English, Drama and Media, Oxford, UK (24 April 2017)
• 'Integrating English: Two outreach case studies', Academics in the Classroom conference, Oxford University, UK (16 August 2016) 
• 'Teaching Language', New Aspects of A Level English, English Association conference, London, UK (3 Oct 2015)
• 'What do we do when we do close reading?', with Billy Clark (Middlesex University) and Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), National Association for the Teaching of English conference, Newcastle, UK (June 2015) 
• 'Rethinking English: Impact on A levels and teaching', with Billy Clark (Middlesex University) and Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), iMean conference, University of Warwick (April 2015) 
• ‘A pedagogical pitch for undergraduate interdisciplinary stylistics.’ Stylistics Across Disciplines conference, Leiden University, Netherlands (15-17 June 2011)
• ‘Flash fiction and textual intervention as narratological teaching tools.’ Teaching Narrative and Teaching Through Narrative conference, University of Tampere, Finland (26-28 May 2011)

 

 

Other publicity

Podcast 'Student Success: Entrepreneurship and work-integrated learning', from four part podcast series sharing insights from 'Employability: A Review of the literature, 2016-2021' (Advance HE, 2021): https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/student-success-entrepreneurship-and-work-integrated-learning

Further information

An interview on narratives and storytelling: http://www.local-legends.org/people/2017/8/13/you-need-to-have-a-set-of-conventions-in-order-to-rebel-against-them