Graduate Student, English
Thesis Title: Flirting With Fame: Byron and Early Fan Culture
About
My thesis looks at the flirtatious dialogue between Byron and his female readers. Byron was the first British author to receive hundreds of letters from anonymous, mostly female, readers, declaring their love for a man they had never actually met. My project offers one of the first academic studies of these never-published letters, understanding them as providing insight not only into the way Byron was read in his time, but also into an emerging culture of fandom.
I have also studied a private collection of nineteenth-century commonplace books. These scrapbooks of poems and paraphernalia were personal objects passed around among close friends and family, who would in turn transcribe their favourite poems. Byron appears in the books more than any other author. I am interested in how each of Byron's readers felt they had a unique and intimate connection to the poet, and yet also operated within a community of like-minded readers. I believe that an investigation into this kind of fan activity in the early 19th century will help us understand our near obsession with celebrity in 21st-century culture.
My work was recently featured in a number of national and international newspapers, including The Independent, La Jornada, and the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2556955/Lord-Byrons-fanmail-uncovered.
Contact Information
Trinity Hall
Storey's Way
Cambridge CB3 0DZ
