Fictions of the Text: Fiction and Forgery in Early Modern Literature

Applications are invited for a funded PhD studentship at the University of Aberdeen to work on forgery within early modern literature. In the long history of forgery within western culture, attention has often focused upon hoaxes and forged histories, but in the early modern period forgery was both a widespread practice and a present anxiety, and it features widely in texts of the period. Discussions of forgery are part of a culture’s commentary on how texts are produced and the rules that govern them. They therefore offer a rich potential for theorising ideas of the text in early modern culture. With the advent of printing, the early modern period of course witnessed a revolution in the processes of textual reproduction and proposals might explore the relationship between forgery and cultures of textual copying and transmission. Much literature of the period puts forwards its own fiction of the text: from the poetry of Philip Sidney and Isabella Whitney to the prose narratives of Thomas Nashe and George Gascoigne. In drama, too, the authenticity of texts is a major preoccupation. The cultures of anonymity and narratives of the hand within manuscript culture offer further possibilities for investigation.

The successful candidate will be supervised by Andrew Gordon, whose research specialism encompasses textual transmission and the material text in early modern culture. Your research will benefit from the rich holdings of the University’s own special collections. You will be based in the interdisciplinary Centre for Early Modern Studies, which hosts a large postgraduate community and a vibrant research culture (http://www.abdn.ac.uk/cems). In addition to teaching opportunities, the successful candidate will benefit from an extensive programme of research training