Congratulations to Shelley Williams who has been awarded the Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize for her thesis on ‘Chaucer Pictures the Cosmos: Materiality, Science, and Astral Poetics'
Shelley Williams’ doctoral thesis examines astronomy and astrology in Geoffrey Chaucer’s works through an interdisciplinary lens engaging poetics, Middle English, art history, the history of science, and materiality. By collating every astral passage across Chaucer’s oeuvre Williams identifies five distinct literary modes: chronographia (depictions of time), adornment (rhetorical and ekphrastic), corporeality (the body and cosmos), play (creative invention), and direct translation. Each mode forms the basis of a chapter explored within the material and intellectual contexts of late medieval culture.
Shelley commented: "I am deeply honoured and thrilled to receive this prize, and grateful for this recognition of my scholarship and for the wonderful support of my supervisor, Marion Turner."
The Swapna Dev Memorial Book Prize honours the interest that Swapna Dev had in English literature and is awarded for the best doctoral thesis in English literature at the University of Oxford. The prize was established in 2018 according to the wishes of Swapna Dev's husband, and supported by his generous gift.
