Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson
Supervisors: Seamus Perry and Bysshe Coffey
Research interests: Long nineteenth-century English Literature, women writers, feminist recovery, (trans)nationalism studies, nineteenth-century Italy
Doctoral research: I generally study nineteenth-century women writers' involvement in the Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement.
My doctoral thesis is about Cornelia Turner, who wrote two pro-Risorgimento novels, but is mostly remembered for her relationships with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Giovanni Ruffini. I am expanding upon my MA thesis project, which constructed the first comprehensive biography of Turner, examined the author's literary and political influence on her contemporaries, and highlighted Turner's role in the Italian nationalist movement.
Publications:
- The Risorgimento of Christina Rossetti, The Pre-Raphaelite Society Review, Vol. XXXII, no. 2, Autumn/Winter 2024
- Provincial Setting in Middlemarch, formal essay, The Arden, Vol. XX, 2022
- “A Mirror Which Makes Beautiful:” Giuseppe Mazzini’s Love of Romantic Literature and its Effects on the Risorgimento, Momentum, 2020
- “An Unfortunate Governess Received:” Anne and Charlotte Brontë’s Portrayals of the Feminine Occupation, Momentum, 2020
Conference papers:
- Who cares about Cornelia Turner?, Victorians Institute Conference. Greenville, SC. 13-14 Sept. 2025.
- Aaron’s Rod and D.H. Lawrence’s Travel Writings in Liberal Era Italy, Lawrence in Mexico: Travel, Translation, and Transcultural Representation. Mexico City, Mexico. 11-15 Aug 2025.
- “The mosquito hovers”: D.H. Lawrence, Blood, and the Disappointment of Italy’s Liberal Era. Virtual Graduate Conference in D.H. Lawrence Studies. 18 May 2024.
- The Risorgimento of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, Victorians Institute Conference. Raleigh, NC. 6-8 Oct. 2023
