Dr Ellen Redling

• Equivalent of a Master’s Degree (Joint Hons) English & German Studies, University of Heidelberg.
• PhD in English, University of Heidelberg. ‘The Vice at the Fair: Thackeray’s Secularised Allegories’, which analyses intersections between allegorical drama and the Victorian novel.

I joined the department in September 2016, after lecturing in English Literature, Culture and Drama at the University of Heidelberg. From April 2015 to April 2016 I conducted research at the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance, University of Royal Holloway, London. 

I have written numerous articles on contemporary theatre and performance, and co-edited a volume on Non-standard Forms of Contemporary Drama and Theatre (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2008). I have also published books on Victorian Literature as well as The Gothic (Allegorical Thackeray (Zurich: LIT, 2015); Gothic Transgressions (co-edited with Christian Schneider, Zurich: LIT, 2015). I am currently working on a new monograph project: Theatres of Disruption in 21st-Century Britain: Political Plays and Performances in Turbulent Times (under contract with Bloomsbury). 

I teach / have taught on the following modules:

Convenor of Performance: Theory, Practice, Critique (Year 1), Convenor of Engaging Performance (Year 1), Convenor of Politics, Crisis and Performance (Year 2), Convenor of Extended Essay (Year 3), Convenor of Theatre, Philosophy and Emotion (Year 3), Dramatic Medium (Year 1), Landmarks of Theatre and Performance (Year 1), Plays and Performance (English Literature Year 1).

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research in the following areas:

Contemporary socio-political theatre and performance (British and European)
Ancient Greek and Roman plays and their influence on British theatre
Medieval and Renaissance drama
Non-standard forms of contemporary drama and theatre
Drama and narration
Literary and cultural theory and networks
Ethics, theatre and performance
Beyond postmodernism
Intermediality and Interdisciplinarity
Physical theatre

Find out more - our PhD Drama and Theatre Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

I have written numerous articles on contemporary theatre and performance, and co-edited a volume on Non-standard Forms of Contemporary Drama and Theatre (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2008). I have also published books on Victorian Literature as well as The Gothic (Allegorical Thackeray (Zurich: LIT, 2015); Gothic Transgressions (co-edited with Christian Schneider, Zurich: LIT, 2015). I am currently working on a new monograph project: Theatres of Disruption in 21st-Century Britain: Political Plays and Performances in Turbulent Times (under contract with Bloomsbury). 

My current research interests are:

Contemporary socio-political theatre and performance (British and European)
Ancient Greek and Roman plays and their influence on British theatre
Medieval and Renaissance drama
Non-standard forms of contemporary drama and theatre
Drama and narration
Literary and cultural theory and networks
Ethics, theatre and performance
Beyond postmodernism
Intermediality and Interdisciplinarity
Physical theatre

Public lectures and conference papers

• “Fake News and Drama: National Identity, Immigration and the Media in Recent British Plays.” CDE Conference, University of Reading, 30 June 2017.
• “Taking a Stand: Calls for Radical Social and Political Change in Contemporary Drama in British Mainstream Theatre Houses.” Rediscovering the Radical: Theatre for Social Change. Liverpool, 2 September 2016.
• “Monstrous Darkness: The Gothic in British and German Literature and Art.” Guest lecture at North London Collegiate School, 25 February 2016.
• “Measure for Measure’s Vienna in a State of Exception: Shakespeare’s Ambivalent Ruler Figures.” Shakespeare and the State of Exception. Kingston Shakespeare Seminar, 19 December 2015.
• “Gothic Transgressions.” Guest Lecture, St. Mary’s University Twickenham, London, 8 December 2015.
• “Canonizing Youth in Mark Ravenhill’s Major Plays.” Public Lecture, University of Heidelberg, 26 January 2015.
• “The ‘Lived Experience’ of Reading and Writing (Neo-)Victorian Fiction in A.S. Byatt’s The Conjugial Angel.” Victorian ‘Structures of Feeling’ in Late 20^th  and 21^st-Century Cultural Products, University of Paderborn, 12-14 June 2014.
• “Genteel Pragmatism in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America.” Traveling Traditions: Nineteenth-Century Negotiations of Cultural Concepts in Transatlantic Intellectual Networks, University of Halle, 17-19 April 2014.
• “Graveyard Poetry.” Public Lecture, University of Heidelberg, 13 January 2014.
• “‘Freevill’ vs. Containment: The Social (Mis)fits in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan.” Diversity and Homogeneity: The Politics of Nation, Class, and Gender in Drama, Theatre, Film and Media, University of Lodz, Poland, 25 October 2013.
• “‘From the Top of Paul’s Steeple to the Standard in Cheap’: Urban Space, Narrativity and Mass Culture in Jacobean City Comedy.” Lecture at the Conference of the Deutscher Anglistenverband e.V. (German Society of English Studies), University of Constance, 19 September 2013.
• “The Bawdy in Motion: Recent Developments in the Use and Function of Obscene Language in Contemporary British Drama.” Mobile Stylistics: Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA) Conference, University of Heidelberg, 2 August 2014.
• “Life-Writing und Lyrik: Tony Harrisons autobiographisches Gedicht ‘Fireeater.’” Akademische Mittagspause (‘Academic lunchbreak’), University of Heidelberg, 16 July 2013.
• “Yes we can … think! An Aesthetics of Reflection in Contemporary British Political Drama.” Theatre and Politics: Theatre as Cultural Intervention: German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English (CDE) Conference, Charles University, Prague, 2 June 2013.
• “Victorian Psychomachias: The Secularised Battles Between Virtues and Vices in William Makepeace Thackeray’s Major Works.” Sins, Vices and Virtues, Lisbon, 13-15 March 2013.
• “Reception Theory.” Public lecture, University of Heidelberg, 12 November 2012.
• “Nature in Canadian Literature.” Public lecture, University of Heidelberg, 19 December 2011.
• “Insanity and Obsession ad extremum: Modernisations of Poe and Stevenson in the Gothic Cinema of Scorsese and Nolan.” Gothic Limits / Gothic Ltd: International Gothic Association (IGA) Conference, University of Heidelberg, 3 August 2011. 
• “Der Figur eine Stimme geben: Ein interkulturelles Trainingsprojekt auf der Basis von David Greigs 9/11-Drama The American Pilot (2005).” Learning 9/11: Teaching for Key Competences in Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Heidelberg, 3 September 2010.
• “Allegory: A Key Concept in Literary and Cultural Studies.” Public lecture, University of Heidelberg, 29 November 2010.
• “What is a Villain? Thackeray’s Play with the Reader’s Perception in Catherine and Barry Lyndon.” Villains and Villainy, University of Oxford, 14-16 September 2010.
• “Fortuna in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Public lecture, University of Heidelberg, 26 October 2009.
• “Allegory in Barry Unsworth and Michael Frayn.” Allegory in Theory and Practice, University of Toronto, 17-18 October 2008.

Conference organisation and proceedings

• Gothic Limits / Gothic Ltd, International Gothic Association Conference, University of Heidelberg, 2011.
• Conference Proceedings: Non-standard Forms of Contemporary Drama and Theatre, CDE Conference, English department, University of Heidelberg, 2007.