Roynon, Dr Tessa

Job Title: Research Fellow in English; Associate Visiting Research Fellow, Rothermere American Institute

College: St. Peter's
Period/ Subject: American

Email address: tessa.roynon@spc.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests:

The reception of the classical tradition in transatlantic writing and culture. African-American writing and culture, especially fiction post-1900. American fiction post-1900, especially women’s writing. Toni Morrison. The reception of early modern English culture, eg Shakespeare or Milton, in American writing and culture post-1900.

For more details, please click here.

Teaching Areas:

Faculty lectures: African-American literature; Toni Morrison

Tutorials: on numerous American authors for FHS Papers 7 and 8  (since 2008);

Creative writing; Shakespeare; Milton - to Visiting Students (since 2009)

Undergraduate course at St Peter’s College: ‘Close Readings in Transatlantic Writings’ (2009-11)                        

MSt  dissertation supervision on:

Richard Wright (2008-09)

The American short story (2009-10)

The politics of hair in African-American culture (2010-11)

PhD supplementary supervision on Toni Morrison (2010-12)

Recent and Forthcoming Publications:

Books:

*African Athena: New Agendas.  Co-edited with Daniel Orrells and Gurminder Bhambra. (Oxford University Press, Classical Presences, December 2011. In production).

 OUP catalogue: http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199595006.do

*The Cambridge Introduction to Toni Morrison. (Cambridge University Press, 2012/13).

*Toni Morrison and the Classical Tradition: Transforming American Culture (Oxford University Press, Classical Presences, 2012/13).

Journal articles and book chapters:

*'A New "Romen" Empire: Toni Morrison’s Love and the Classics'. Journal of American Studies 41.1 (April 2007): 31-47.

*'Toni Morrison and Classical Tradition’.  Literature Compass 4.6 (2007): 1514-1537.

*‘Sabotaging the Language of Pride: Toni Morrison’s Representations of Rape’. Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives: Violence and Violation. Ed. Zoe Brigley Thompson and Sorcha Gunne (Routledge, 2009), 38-53.

*‘The Africanness of classicism in the work of Toni Morrison’. African Athena: New Agendas. Ed. Daniel Orrells et al. (Forthcoming, Oxford  University Press, 2011, as above).

*‘Miltonic Journeys in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy’. A Mercy: Critical Approaches. Ed. Holly  Stave and Justine Tally,  (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011).

*‘Aeschylus, Euripides and Toni Morrison: revenge, miasma and atonement’. The Toni Morrison 80th birthday Festschrift: Memory and Meaning: Essays in honour of Toni Morrison. Ed. Adrienne Seward and Justine Tally.   Private publication. (Washington DC, 2011). Invited submission.

*‘Her dark materials: Toni Morrison, John Milton, and concepts of “dominion” in A Mercy’.  African American Review 44.4  (winter 2011).  Actual publication date: summer 2012.

Reviews of Morrison novels and scholarship in:

  Journal of American Studies; European Journal of American Culture; Slavery and Abolition; The Times

Other Information:

On-going research

*‘Lobbying the reader?: Toni Morrison’s recent forewords to her novels’. Currently under consideration at Contemporary Women’s Writing

*Article on Toni Morrison’s new play Desdemona (dir. Peter Sellars, 2011) and Shakespeare’s Othello. In progress.

*Monograph on six modern American novelists’ engagement with the classical tradition: Willa Cather; F. Scott Fitzgerald; William Faulkner; Ralph Ellison; Toni Morrison; Philip Roth. In progess.

*Preparations for major research grant application for interdisciplinary project, ‘The Classical Tradition in Transatlantic Writing and Culture, 1500 to the Present’. In progress.

Links to media: 

Toni Morrison’s 80th birthday celebration at the Library of Congress:

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2011/110703_1.html

Expat magazine at St Peter’s College:

http://www.spc.ox.ac.uk/article/21/151/expat_magazine.html

The Oxford Times review

University of Oxford

msn news

The Expat launch podcast  Now on iTunes

Launch  event photographs click here

Teaching in Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education:

I have designed and taught four courses in American Literature for Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education weekly class programme (2007-2009). In 2010 I authored Oxford’s first on-line course in American literature: ‘The Modern American Novel: An Introduction’. Enrol via www.conted.ox.ac.uk

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