Professor Helen Barr

I've just finished writing a book that explores the transport of ‘Chaucer’ back and forth between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Instead of source and analogue study, it examines intratextual and intratemporal relationships, especially the transport of names, bodies and sounds.  Drawing on the work of the British sculptor Antony Gormley, the book explores the consequences of finding Chaucer in places where we would not ordinarily expect him to be. Written texts keep company with a variety of visual artefacts that include medieval architexture, obscene pilgrim badges and mouldy bread. I'm currently writing on queer blood in medieval Canterbury and pursuing connections between Chaucer and early modern drama and poetry.

Old English, Middle English,  Shakespeare, The English Language, Introduction to Literary Studies

Publications