Dr Jennifer Edwards
FAB 5.10
About
Dr Jen Edwards is Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. She joined the department in September 2023, and has taught at The Queen鈥檚 College, Oxford, Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe, and Royal Holloway, University of London.
Research
My research focuses on the intersections of early modern literature (primarily Shakespearean), medicine, and philosophy, with a particular interest in emotion and embodiment. More specifically, my work is concerned with altered states of mind in this period, including experiences of ecstasy, trance, fainting, and distraction.
My current book project, provisionally titled Ecstatic Subjects: Ecstasy in the Work of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, considers how ecstatic experience captured the early modern imagination. Informed and intrigued by 鈥榚cstasy鈥� as a word and state that encompasses a wide range of senses, this study explores what it meant to 鈥榮uffer ecstasy鈥� in early modern culture, and what is at stake for the Shakespearean subjects who encounter this altered state of consciousness. A connected research project on experiences at the edge of consciousness is also underway, which has been supported by The Huntington Library (California), the Osler Library of the History of Medicine (Montreal), and TORCH (Oxford).
I am also interested in issues of affect, environment, and embodiment in modern Shakespeare performance. Work on this topic underpins my recent book, This Distracted Globe: Attending to Distraction at Shakespeare鈥檚 Theatre, as well as an interdisciplinary project exploring the phenomenon of fainting and illness in this theatre, in collaboration with colleagues in the department of Biology at Oxford.
Other ongoing work explores Shakespeare鈥檚 narrative poems, including a new introduction to the Oxford World鈥檚 Classics edition.
Publications
鈥樷�淚 am 鈥� besides myself鈥�: Ecstatic Dispositions in The Comedy of Errors鈥�, in Shakespeare and Early Modern Madness, ed. Leslie Dunn and Avi Mendleson (Palgrave, 2026)
This Distracted Globe: Attending to Distraction in Shakespeare鈥檚 Theatre (Cambridge University Press, Elements in Shakespeare Performance: May, 2023)
鈥楾he Art of Medicine: Feeling Ecstatic in Shakespeare鈥�, The Lancet (2023)
鈥樷�淪uffering Ecstasy鈥�: Diagnosing Displacement in Othello鈥�, Shakespeare Survey, vol. 75 (2022)
鈥樷�淢ark how he trembles in his ecstasy鈥�: Space, Place, and Self in The Comedy of Errors鈥�, Shakespeare Studies, vol. 28 (2020)
鈥樷�淎morous pinches鈥�: Keeping (in)tact in Antony and Cleopatra鈥�, in Shakespeare/Sense: Contemporary Readings in Sensory Culture, ed. Simon Smith (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2020)
鈥楳etaphorically Speaking: Shakespeare and the Limits of Utterance鈥�, in Titus Andronicus: The State of Play, ed. Farah Karim-Cooper (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2019)
鈥楽hakespeare鈥檚 Textual Bodies鈥�, Discovering Shakespeare, British Library (2016) <https://www.bl.uk/shakespeare/articles/shakespeares-textual-bodies>