Molly Bovett

Thesis Title: Queer Emotionality in Old Norse Saga Literature

Supervisor: Professor Gareth Evans

Research Interests:
Old Norse-Icelandic language and literature, emotions in literature, masculinities, queer and trans studies, medieval Iceland, memory studies, textual criticism

About:

I am a scholar of medieval Iceland and Old Norse-Icelandic literature, with a particular interest in the intersection of emotions, gender, and queerness in prose saga narratives. My doctoral research examines these subjects within a selection of Íslendigasögur (sagas of Icelanders) and konungasögur (sagas of kings), developing lexicons of emotion terms and closely analysing and unpicking the complex contexts in which they appear. My work draws especially from queer theory that centres asexuality and asexual perspectives on queerness.

I am originally from Devon and earned both a First Class BA and an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at St John's College, Cambridge. My undergraduate thesis (Models of Masculinity in the Old Norse Skáldasögur) and my MPhil thesis (Emotional Intimacies and Emotional Performance in Hallfreðar saga vandræðaskálds) directly informed my current thesis. I have also studied on the BA Icelandic as a Second Language programme at the University of Iceland, through the award of an Icelandic Government Scholarship. My DPhil is generously funded by a Vigfússon-Rausing Studentship.