Dr Cato Marks
Areas of interest
My research interests range from Romantic literature to Anglophone Caribbean literature.
My work in Romanticism focuses on the interface between radical and dissenting culture, and literary texts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition, I explore the ways writers like William Blake respond to and interpret artistically the political legacy of John Milton. I also work on the writings of Hannah More, situating her work within the broader context of loyalist responses to radical thought in the 1790s. I have published academic articles on William Blake, and on Hannah More. I am currently working on a chapter on William Blake’s The Four Zoas.
In terms of Anglophone Caribbean literature, I examine the ways authors explore the legacy of colourism/shadism through Caribbean Gothic tropes. I’m currently working on an article on the Jamaican author Marlon James.
Other research interests include contemporary fiction. I’m working on the African American writer Colson Whitehead, and Black British fiction.
Teaching
I teach a range of modules. These include: ‘Genre and Context’ (EN1CG); 'Poetry in English' (EN1PE); ‘Research and Criticism’ (EN1RC); ‘Contemporary Fiction’ (EN2CF); ‘Shakespeare’ (EN2SH); ‘The Romantic Period’ (EN2RP); and ‘Writing, Gender and Identity’ (EN2WGI). I convene and teach ‘British Black and Asian Voices’ (EN3BAV).
Background
I completed an MPhil in British Romanticism at the University of Oxford, and a PhD at Queen Mary, University of London. My PhD is entitled: ‘Forging a Political Aesthetic: The influence of John Milton’s Political Prose on the Later Prophetic Poems of William Blake’ (2008). Before coming to the University of Reading, I taught at Oxford Brookes University, the University of the West of England (UWE), Middlesex University, the Open University, Kingston University, and Queen Mary (University of London).