Rebekah Andrew

• BTh (Oxon)
• MA (Open)

I studied Theology at the University of Oxford for my undergraduate degree, before switching to English Literature for my MA with the Open University. I have taught both Poetry and Romanticism at the University of Birmingham as well as in the adult education sector for which I have a qualification in teaching. I am on the editorial board of Ad Alta: The Birmingham Journal of Literature and regularly organise events for the Birmingham Eighteenth Century Centre as one of their Postgraduate Representatives.  

My thesis examines the biblical references and theology in the novels of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fiedling with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of how authors choose to use the Bible in their works. Approximately 50% of biblical references in ‘Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded’ and ‘Clarissa’ by Samuel Richardson have previously been unobserved, and approximately 25% in ‘Shamela’, ‘Joseph Andrews’ and ‘Tom Jones’ by Henry Fielding have yet to be discussed. By appreciating an author’s use of sometimes subtle references, a reader can not only appreciate what an author wanted the reference to do but also the structured way in which these authors use the Bible. Knowledge of the Bible in the eighteenth century was far greater than it is today and a reader, who may have put down their Bible to pick up a novel, saw in these works different and enriching imagery and moral arguments that are often missed by a reader unfamiliar with the Bible.

Papers

2020 British Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Postgraduate Conference
• ‘”O that my Grief were Thoroughly Weighed”: Clarissa’s Meditations and Jeremy Taylor’s Holy Living’.

2020 British Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Annual Conference
• “Supernaturally Assisted in Writing”: Providence in Pamela and Clarissa.

2019 International Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Conference
• Samuel Richardson: Orthodox Anglican or Non-Conforming Dissenter?

2019 British Society for Eighteenth-century Studies Annual Conference
• Pamela’s Lincolnshire Isolation: Biblical Themes, Characters and Allusions in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela.