Elspeth Askew

Thesis Title: The Meaning of Nothing: Absence and Anthropocentrism in Last Man Art and Literature, 1800-1850

Supervisor: Professor Fiona Stafford

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

Doctoral Research: In my thesis, I focus on the visual and literary representations of the last man on earth, a subject that appeared to capture a specific mood in the first half of the nineteenth century. I consider whether within these last man works traditional anthropocentric attitudes are reasserted, undermined or both. I also ask whether it is possible to uncover the origins of the anti-anthropocentric perspectives that underpin modern forms of environmentalism. For answers to these questions, I look to the absences, which offer spaces for the expression of the interests of non-human parties. I hope to draw out the prophetic qualities and contemporary resonances of the works I analyse, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and revelations about the urgency of the climate crisis.