Dr Jane Bonsall BA, MSc, PhD

Dr Jane Bonsall

Department of English Literature
Teaching Fellow

Contact details

Email
j.bonsall@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of English
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

My teaching and research specialities are in medieval romance, children’s literature, and intertextuality. My work explores the intersectional reading facilitated by intertextual analysis, and the evolution of narrative patterns across periods and genres. Current research and teaching interests also include medievalism and the supernatural in children’s literature, and storytelling as pedagogy.

Qualifications

  • PhD in English Literature, University of Edinburgh
  • MSc (Hons) in Medieval Literatures and Cultures, University of Edinburgh
  • BA (Hons) in English Literature, Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, USA

Biography

I moved from the US to the UK in 2012 to begin my MSc in Medieval Literatures and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh, which I completed in 2013. My doctoral research, also undertaken at the University of Edinburgh, was completed in 2019. This research explored the role of gender and the supernatural in the corpus of Middle English romance, and the transformative feminist readings afforded by intertextual analysis of these texts.

Teaching

First Year:

  • Prose
  • Poetry
  • Discovering Children’s Literature

Research

My research interests are on the impact of emotion, intertextuality, and generic expectation on the reception of popular literature, particularly medieval English romance. I am interested in the intersectional reading facilitated by intertextual analysis (which is the subject of my forthcoming monograph) and in the evolution of narrative patterns across periods and genres. Current research and teaching interests also include medievalism and the supernatural in children’s literature, and storytelling as pedagogy.