University of Reading cookie policy

We use cookies on reading.ac.uk to improve your experience, monitor site performance and tailor content to you.

Read our cookie policy to find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Lucy Bending

photograph of Lucy Bending

Areas of interest

My research interests have been in the literature of the 1890s, but I am increasingly interested in the poetry of the 1870s.

My primary research interest is the exploration of ideas of growth and development in the late Victorian period. I also have an interest in late nineteenth-century journals and in the writings of Harriet Martineau. I continue to have an interest in representations of bodily pain and in writings about the body in general.

Postgraduate supervision

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the area of late nineteenth-century English culture and literature.

Teaching

Within the department I convene modules entitled:

  • Romantics to Decadents: nineteenth-century poetry
  • Decadence and Degeneration: literature of the 1890s
  • Perspectives on Slavery
  • War Poetry: from the Crimean to World War Two

I have also contributed to courses entitled:

  • Lyric Voices: lyric poetry from 1340-1650
  • Nineteenth-century novel
  • Restoration to Romantics: eighteenth-century literature
  • Women's Writing
  • Languages of Literature
  • What Kind of Text is This?

 

Selected publications

Recent publications reflect my interests and include:

  • '"Fishing in a Strange Element": Harriet Martineau and the Visible World', in Francesca Orestano, ed., Strange Sisters: Literature and Aesthetics in the Nineteenth Century, Peter Lang, forthcoming.
  • 'Falling over the Bannisters: Harriet Martineau and the Uneasy Escape from the Public', in Teresa Gomez, ed., Inside Out: Women Negotiating, Subverting, Appropriating Public and Private Space, Rodopi, forthcoming.

I have also published:

  • The Representation of Bodily Pain in Late Nineteenth-Century English Culture, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.

Publications