Research Interests
- Late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century British and Irish literature and culture
- Visual culture
- The novel
- Women writers
Research Areas
- 18th and 19th Century British Literature and Culture
- Cultural Studies
- Gender Studies
- The Novel
Educational Background
- Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 1995
- M.A., Texas A&M University, 1989
- B.A., Rice University, 1987
Awards & Honors
- Glasscock Internal Faculty Fellowship, Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, 2014-2015
- Association of Former Students, College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award, Texas A&M University, 2008
- American Council of Learned Societies—Center for the Contemplative Mind in Society Fellowship, 1998-99 (with Larry Reynolds)
Selected Publications
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Co-Editor, with Jessica Richard, Hilary Havens, and Robin Runia, Maria Edgeworth Letters Project, in progress digital edition of Maria Edgeworth’s complete correspondence <https://mariaedgeworth.org/>. 2019– .
The Maria Edgeworth Letters Project is a collaborative digital edition of letters written by Maria Edgeworth featuring a spreadsheet tracking the worldwide locations of the letters and a growing collection of digitized, transcribed and TEI-encoded letters. This digital archive of Edgeworth’s letters will allow scholars to map her correspondence network, identify her extensive reading practice, nuance our understanding of her engagement with political and intellectual trends over time, track verbal patterns, and expand knowledge of her writing and revision processes throughout her prolific career. -
Editor. Gods in the Western Midlands: The Immortal Achievements of Wedgwood, Woodall & Webb. College Station, TX: Forsyth Galleries, 2018. 61 pp.
Egenolf, Susan. Editor. Wives and Mothers—British Family Life, 1780-1914. Vol. 3. London: Pickering and Chatto / Routledge, 2013. xxvi, 396 pp.
The five volumes of this collection focus on various aspects of family life. Drawing on rare printed sources and archival material, this collection provides a balanced, contextualized picture of family life, during a period of intense social change. The readings in this volume trace a sea change in the possibilities that women could envision for themselves within or outside of marriage and motherhood; however, because of the view of marriage’s central role in the stability of the nation, those changes were to come slowly and to be viewed with skepticism.
Egenolf, Susan. Editor. Extended Families—British Family Life, 1780-1914. Vol. 4. London: Pickering and Chatto /Routledge, 2013. xxii, 352 pp.
The five volumes of this collection focus on various aspects of family life. Drawing on rare printed sources and archival material, this collection will provide a balanced, contextualized picture of family life, during a period of intense social change. In the final two volumes of this collection, we have sought to expand the notion of family to encompass constructions that move beyond the mother-father-children nuclear grouping to explore the dynamics of extra bodies housed under the same roof and interacting on a daily basis.-
Egenolf, Susan. The Art of Political Fiction in Hamilton, Edgeworth, and Owenson. Ashgate, 2009
Even as Romantic-period authors asserted the importance of telling the unvarnished truth, novelists were deploy-ing narrative glossing in particularly sophisticated forms. Susan Egenolf examines the artistic craft and political engagement of three major women novelists – Elizabeth Hamilton, Maria Edgeworth, and Sydney Owenson – whose self-conscious use of glosses facilitated their critiques of politics and society. All three writers employed devices such as prefaces and editorial notes, as well as alternative media, especially painting and drama, to comment on the narrative.
Article and Essays
- With Amanda Dyer. “Gods in the Western Midlands: The Immortal Achievements of Wedgwood, Woodall & Webb—A Collaborative Venture,” published in the Wedgwood International Seminar 2018. Ed. Anne Forschler-Tarrasch. (2019): 89-102, +2 pp. addendum [24 illustrations]. Invited.
- “The Cyclops in the Vale: Mythological and Fantastic Representations of Industry.” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 47 (2018): 53-70. Refereed.
- Introduction. Gods in the Western Midlands: The Immortal Achievements of Wedgwood, Woodall & Webb. College Station, TX: Forsyth Galleries, 2018. 6-25.
- “Expeditionary Wedgwood: Work in the Service of the Empire.” Wedgwood International Seminar 2015. Ed. Anne Forschler-Tarrasch. (2016): 117-28 [13 illustrations]. Invited.
- With Claudia Nelson and Julie-Marie Strange. General Introduction. British Family Life, 1780-1914. Vol. 1. London: Pickering and Chatto/Routledge, 2013. ix-xix.
- Introduction. Wives and Mothers—British Family Life, 1780-1914. Vol. 3. London: Pickering and Chatto/Routledge, 2013. ix-xxvi.
- Introduction. Extended Families—British Family Life, 1780-1914. Vol. 4. London: Pickering and Chatto/Routledge, 2013. ix-xxii.
- “Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson) and the Politics of Romanticism.” Ireland and Romanticism. Ed. Jim Kelly. Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 109-21. Invited and refereed.
- “The Role of the Political Woman in the Writings of Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson).” A Companion to Irish Literature. Ed. Julia M. Wright. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2010. 326-41. Invited.
- “‘Our Fellow-Creatures’: Women Narrating Political Violence in the 1798 Irish Rebellion.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 42.2 (2009): 217-34. Refereed.
- “Josiah Wedgwood’s Goodwill Marketing.” The Culture of the Gift in Eighteenth-Century England. Ed. Linda Zionkowski and Cynthia Klekar. Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 197-213. Refereed.
- “Revolutionary Landscapes: The Picturesque, Salvator Rosa and the Wild Irish Girl.” Land and Landscape in Nineteenth-Century Ireland. Ed. Úna Ní Bhroiméil and Glenn Hooper. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2008. 48-62. Refereed.
- “Elizabeth Ryves” [bio-critical essay]. Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period [full-text electronic archive]. Ed. Stephen Behrendt. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2008. 4, 470 words. Invited.
- “Charlotte Tonna” [bio-critical essay]. Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period [full-text electronic archive]. Ed. Stephen Behrendt. Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street Press, 2008. 5080 words. Invited.
- “Maria Edgeworth in Blackface: Castle Rackrent and the Irish Rebellion of 1798.” ELH 72 (Winter 2005): 845-69. Refereed.
- “Edgeworth’s Belinda: An Artful Composition.” Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 31 (April/May 2002): 323-48. Refereed.
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