Elspeth Askew

Thesis Title: The Transatlantic Last (Hu)Man: Anthropocentrism and Human Extinction in British and American Periodicals, 1816-1848

Supervisor: Professor Fiona Stafford

Research Interests: Romanticism; the Gothic; the relationship between literature and art; animal poetry; silence/absence

Doctoral Research: I am exploring literary representations of human extinction in British and American periodicals in the first half of the nineteenth century to consider whether traditional anthropocentric attitudes are reasserted, undermined or both. In my analysis, I hope to draw out the prophetic qualities and contemporary resonances of the texts I analyse, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and revelations about the urgency of the climate crisis.