Wendy Jane Little

• MPhil by Research (University College London)
• Diploma Superius in Lingua Latina (University College Cork)
• MA by Research in Classics (University of Warwick)
• BA (Hons) in English Literature (2:1) (University of Warwick)

From previous study, I have spent fifteen years working on English and Latin epic. During my MPhil research at University College London, I studied Virgil’s divine scenes in some depth in order to ascertain how the Virgilian intertext was used across the epic tradition. This study encompassed epics from the Silver Latin and Renaissance tradition and included Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica, Silius Italicus’ Punica, Maphaeus Vegius’ Thirteenth Book of the Aeneid, and, finally, Sannazaro’s De Partu Virginis. Prior to this, I undertook a year-long study of Iacopo Sannazaro’s De Partu Virginis (1526) whilst studying for a Diploma Superius in Lingua Latina at University College Cork. I also produced a translation of Maphaeus Vegius’ The Thirteenth Book of the Aeneid (1428) whilst undertaking my MA by Research in Classics at the University of Warwick. Prior to this, I gained a BA (Hons) in English Literature (2:1) at the University of Warwick.

• I spent two years teaching Latin to Complete Beginners at the Language Centre at the University of Warwick.

PhD title

An Exploration of the Virgilian Structure of the Aeneid and its Re-use in a Seiection of Earky Gunpowder Epics and Biblical Epic

Supervisors

Dr Philip Burton and Dr Jonathan Willis

Course

Classics and Ancient History PhD/MA by Research (On-Campus or by Distance Learning)

This thesis follows Feeney (1991: 148-9), and builds upon my earlier research. Now the attention will be focused on a series of Elizabethan epics produced in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These epics preceded the more major epics within the Gunpowder tradition (see Estelle Haan and Stephen Harrison). The epics under examination in the first chapter are George Peele’s Pareus, William Alabaster’s Elisaeis, & Thomas Campion’s Ad Thamesin. Analysis of these epics, so far, suggests that the classical narrative remains darkly obscure, whilst the biblical narrative is quite starkly brought to the foreground. The second chapter will examine John Milton’s Paradise Lost, published in 1667. The final chapter will be a literary comparison of Iacopo Sannazaro’s jeremiad, ‘De Morte Christi Domini Ad Mortales Lamentatio’ (Lamentation to Mortals on the Death of Christ our Lord), written in 1526, and John Milton’s Paradise Regained, first published in 1671.

• Society for Neo-Latin Studies (SNLS)
• Research Paper given at CREMS Conference and Annual Lecture on Monday 19 June 2023, entitled ‘Representations of Satan in the Biblical Intertext in Three Neo-Latin Epics: George Peele’s Pareus, William Alabaster’s Elisaeis, & Thomas Campion’s Ad Thamesin’.