Anne Stapleton

Late 18th- and 19th-Century
British Literature and Culture

My teaching, research, and writing explore the relationship between literature and culture of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Great Britain, with a particular focus on Scotland.  I am especially intrigued by literary representations of national and regional identities in poetry, songs, fiction, and autobiographical works.  Archival research in England and Scotland, a vital aspect of my work, uncovered a number of significant texts which led to my current project entitled Negotiating Nationalism:  Scottish Dance in Post-Culloden Literature.  By tracing the central motif of Highland dance as an outwardly conforming but covertly subversive expression of Scottish nationalism, I investigate Scottish musical traditions and literary forms developed between 1750 and 1830.