Laura Varnam
Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature
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Contact information
Teaching
I teach Medieval Literature and Linguistics to the English undergraduates at Univ. In the first year, students learn to read Old English poetry, such as听Beowulf 补苍诲听The Wanderer, in the original language and to think about the connections between the early medieval period and the present day, via Tolkien鈥檚听Lord of the Rings听and modern translations of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney and Maria Dahvana Headley.听In the Linguistics course we examine how the English language has changed over time and we explore concepts such as Standard English and dialect; the relationship between language and identity (e.g. gender, sexuality, and race); and the impact of social media and the internet on modern English. Close textual analysis is at the forefront of my teaching and in the second year, students study Middle English literature from the fourteenth and fifteenth-centuries, including named authors such as Chaucer, the Gawain-poet, Thomas Hoccleve, and Margery Kempe, and an array of anonymous texts such as lyrics, romances, and biblical plays. I am a great believer in the importance of reading aloud and I run a regular Chaucer Reading Group during which we read听The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer鈥檚 masterpiece听Troilus and Criseyde. I use visual art and material culture as part of my teaching and regularly arrange hands-on sessions at the Ashmolean Museum to study Anglo-Saxon objects and late medieval devotional aids such as pilgrimage badges. More recently I have experimented with creative writing in both my teaching and research and I am writing a poetry collection inspired by the women of听Beowulf and a creative-critical monograph on The Book of Margery Kempe which includes my own poetry as a mode of critical inquiry.
Research
My medieval research focuses on fourteenth and fifteenth-century religious literature and my first book,听The Church as Sacred Space in Middle English Literature and Culture, was published by Manchester University Press in January 2018. The book explores the church as a building, a community, and an idea and thinks about how medieval Christians were taught to understand the church as a consecrated space by examining a range of texts including sermons, architectural allegories, and a church foundation legend.
I also work on the fifteenth-century mystical text听The Book of Margery Kempe听and in April 2018 I co-organised a landmark conference on听The Book at Univ with Dr Laura Kalas. At the conference we launched the听Margery Kempe Society,听which promotes and supports scholarship and teaching on The Book, and we have edited a new and innovative essay collection, Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe, forthcoming from Manchester University Press in November 2021.
I am one of the co-founders of the Guild of Medievalist Makers (with Eleanor Baker and Kristen Haas Curtis), an organisation designed to bring together medievalists who are also creative practitioners to explore how 鈥榤aking鈥� might illuminate our scholarly research.
With my other research 鈥榟at鈥� on, I am an expert on the life and works of Daphne du Maurier and I am working on a book which argues that du Maurier should be redefined as a major twentieth century literary talent. In 2017 I was interviewed as part of a new documentary on du Maurier for the European culture channel Arte, Daphne du Maurier: Sur les traces de Rebecca (鈥榠n the footsteps of Rebecca鈥�) and in 2024 Suntup Editions in the US published a collectors edition of Rebecca for which I wrote the Afterword.
Selected Publications
Books
Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Laura Kalas and Laura Varnam (Manchester University Press, forthcoming November 2021)
The Church as Sacred Space in Middle English Literature and Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018).
Articles and Chapters
鈥楻eading the books of Margery Kempe and Alice Pyett: Attachment and Feminist Restoration in Michelle Paver鈥檚听Wakenhyrst鈥�,听Medieval Feminist Forum,听59.1 (2023), 79-115
鈥楶oems for the Women of听Beowulf: A 鈥楥ontemporary Medieval鈥� Project鈥�,听postmedieval 13 (2022), 105-121
鈥樷�滱 Booke of Hyr Felyngs鈥�: Exemplarity and Margery Kempe鈥檚 Encounters of the Heart鈥�, in听Encountering The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. Laura Kalas and Laura Varnam (Manchester University Press, 2021), pp. 140-159.
鈥楽acred Space, Memory, and Materiality in听St听Erkenwald鈥�, in听Old St Paul鈥檚 and听Culture,听ed. Shanyn Altman and Jonathan Buckner, Early Modern Literature in History series (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), pp. 73-95.
鈥楢 Revelation of Love: Christianity, Julian of Norwich and Medieval Pity in the Harry Potter Series鈥�, Studies in Medievalism, 29 (2020), 155-82
鈥楥oarseness, Power, and Masculinity in Daphne du Maurier鈥檚 The Infernal World of Branwell Bront毛鈥�, Bront毛 Studies, 44.1 (2019), 109-22
鈥樷�溍瀍 葷atez stoken watz neuer 葷et鈥�: London, the New Jerusalem, and the Materiality of 鈥淓ntre鈥� in Pearl and The Pilgrimage of the Lyfe of the Manhode鈥�, in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 40 (2018), 401-21
‘The Importance of St Margaret鈥檚 Church in The Book of Margery Kempe: A Sacred Place and an Exemplary Parishioner鈥�, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 61 (2017), 197-243
鈥楽ynne to shewe, vs to frame: Representing the Church in Robert Mannyng鈥檚听Handlyng Synne鈥�,听Leeds Studies in English, 48 (2017), 89-104
鈥楾he Crucifix, the Piet脿, and the Female Mystic: Devotional Objects and Performative Identity in The Book of Margery Kempe鈥�, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 41.2 (2015), 208-37
鈥楥hurch鈥�, in A Handbook of Middle English Studies, Blackwells Critical Theory Handbooks, ed. Marion Turner (Blackwells: 2013), pp.299-314.
鈥�The Book of the Foundation of St Bartholomew鈥檚 Church: Consecration, Restoration, and Translation鈥� in Sacred Text, Sacred Space: Architectural, Spiritual, and Literary Convergences in England and Wales, ed. Joseph Sterrett and Peter Thomas (Brill: 2011), pp.57-75.
鈥楽anctity and the City: Sacred Space in The Life of St Werburgh鈥�, in Mapping the Medieval City: Space, Place, and Identity in Chester c.1200-1500, ed. Catherine A. M.Clarke (University of Wales Press: 2010), pp.114-130.
鈥楥丑补耻肠别谤: The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde鈥�, in The Cambridge History of English Poetry, ed. Michael O鈥橬eill (Cambridge University Press: 2010), pp. 81-95.