logo
School of English
   
   
  
 

Josephine Guy

Professor of Modern English Literature, Faculty of Arts

Contact

Expertise Summary

BA PhD (Birmingham) Areas of expertise - Victorian Studies; nineteenth-century intellectual and literary cultures; literary theory; history of English studies as a discipline; theories of the avant-garde; Oscar Wilde.

Research Summary

There are three main strands to my research. In the 1990s, and in collaboration with Ian Small, I wrote a number essays addressing the disciplinary status of English Studies, and, more particularly,… read more

Selected Publications

  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and IAN SMALL, 2011. The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature Routledge.
  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and IAN SMALL, 2012. The Textual Condition of Nineteenth-Century Literature Routledge.
  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and , 2012. '"The Chimneyed City": Imagining the North in Victorian Literature'. In: , ed., The Literary North Palgrave, Macmillan.
  • 2012. 'Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis" and Book History: Mute Manuscripts' English Literature in Transition. 55(4),

Current Research

There are three main strands to my research. In the 1990s, and in collaboration with Ian Small, I wrote a number essays addressing the disciplinary status of English Studies, and, more particularly, the consequences for the discipline of the introduction of critical theory; this body of research resulted in a jointly-authored monograph: Politics and Value in English Studies (CUP, 1993). I recently returned to this topic, contributing a piece on the late 19th century founding of the discipline to an essay collection on The Organisation of Knowledge in Victorian Britain (CUP, 2005). My second research interest concerns the relationship between nineteenth-century intellectual and literary culture. I have a particular interest in the ways in which we understand the politics of nineteenth-century literary works, and have published monographs on two overtly political genres and movements: The British Avant-Garde (Harvester, 1991) and The Victorian Social-Problem Novel (Macmillan, 1996). I have also edited a collection of 19th-century source documents which brings together contemporary materials on 19th-century social theory, economics, politics and aesthetics: The Victorian Age: An Anthology of Sources and Documents (Routledge, 1998, 2001). My third research interest is in the career of Oscar Wilde. I have published (in collaboration with Ian Small) 2 monographs on Wilde. The first of these--Oscar Wilde's Profession (2000)--examines his career as a professional writer, arguing that he was often driven by market forces and that an understanding of this has implications for the way we interpret the politics of his works. The second monograph, which draws on my interest in the disciplinary status of English Studies, examines the discrepancy between popular and academic appropriations of Wilde, focusing in particular on the utility of academic scholarship: Studying Oscar Wilde: History, Criticism, Myth (ELT, 2006). I am currently completing a variorum edition of Oscar Wilde's major critical writings--that is, the essays in Intentions, his graduate essay 'The Rise of Historical Criticism', and 'The Soul of Man Under Socialism'--which will be published as vol. IV in the Oxford English Text's Edition of The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde in 2007.

I have supervised a wide range of PhD topics, and welcome applications from students interested in: nineteenth-century literary and publishing culture; Oscar Wilde; the fin-de-siecle; the history of English as a discipline of knowledge; and text-editing.

  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and IAN SMALL, 2012. The Textual Condition of Nineteenth-Century Literature Routledge.
  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and , 2012. '"The Chimneyed City": Imagining the North in Victorian Literature'. In: , ed., The Literary North Palgrave, Macmillan.
  • 2012. 'Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis" and Book History: Mute Manuscripts' English Literature in Transition. 55(4),
  • JOSEPHINE M. GUY and IAN SMALL, 2011. The Routledge Concise History of Nineteenth-Century Literature Routledge.
  • GUY, J.M., ed., 2007. Scholarly edition of Oscar Wilde. The complete works of Oscar Wilde: Volume 4: Criticism: <i>Historical Criticism</i>, <i>Intentions</i>, <i>The Soul of Man</i> Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • GUY, J.M., 2007. Cultural value versus financial capital: defining literary value at the fin de siecle. In: O'GORMAN, F., ed., Victorian literature and finance Oxford: Oxford University Press. 173-191
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 2006. Studying Oscar Wilde: history, criticism, myth Greensboro: E.L.T. Press.
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 2006. Reading De profundis English Literature in Transition. 49(2), 123-149
  • GUY, J.M., 2005. Specialisation and social utility: disciplining English studies. In: DAUNTON, M., ed., The organisation of knowledge in Victorian Britain Oxford: Oxford University Press. 199-217
  • GUY, J.M., 2005. Oscar Wilde's 'self-plagiarism': some new manuscript evidence Notes and Queries. 52(4), 485-488
  • GUY, J.M., 2005. Allusion in Oscar Wilde's 'The Canterville ghost' Short Story Criticism. 77,
  • GUY, J.M., 2003. The soul of man under socialism: a (con)-textual History. In: BRISTOW, J., ed., Wilde writings: contextual conditions Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 59-85
  • GUY, J.M., 2001. Editing Wilde: intention, plagiarism and allusion Inbetween essays & studies in literary criticism. 10, 169-183
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 2000. The British 'man of letters' and the rise of the professional. In: LITZ, A.W., MENAND, L. and RAINEY, L., eds., The Cambridge history of literary criticism: modernism and the new criticism Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 377-388
  • GUY, J.M., 2000. 'Trafficking with merchants for his soul': Dante Gabriel Rossetti among the aesthetes Proceedings of the British Academy. 105, 171-186
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 2000. Oscar Wilde's profession: writing and the culture industry in the late nineteenth century Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • GUY, J.M., 1999. Aesthetics, economics and commodity culture: theorizing value in late nineteenth-century Britain English Literature in Transition. 42(2), 143-171
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1999. How many 'bags of red gold'?: the extent of Wilde's success as a dramatist English Literature in Transition. 42(3), 283-297
  • GUY, J.M., 1998. Self-plagiarism, creativity and craftsmanship in Oscar Wilde English Literature in Transition. 41, 6-23
  • GUY, J.M., 1998. The Victorian age: an anthology of sources and documents London: Routledge.
  • GUY, J.M., 1998. Allusion in Oscar Wilde's 'The Canterville ghost' Notes and Queries. 243, 224-226
  • GUY, J.M., 1996. The Victorian social-problem novel: the market, the individual and communal life Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1993. Politics and value in English studies: a discipline in crisis? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1991. Usefulness in literary history British Journal of Aesthetics. 31, 259-264
  • GUY, J.M., 1991. The British avant-garde: the theory and politics of tradition Brighton: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I, 1990. Rewriting re-reading English English. 29, 49-59
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1990. Critical opinion: English in crisis? II Essays in Criticism. 40, 185-197
  • GUY, J.M., 1990. The concept of tradition and late nineteenth-century British avant-garde movements Prose Studies. 13, 250-260
  • GUY, J.M., SMALL, I. and WALSH, M., 1990. The profession of English English Association Newsletter. 131,
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1990. Aestheticism, the 'literary' and the founding of English as a discipline English Literature in Transition. 33, 443-453
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1989. Critical opinion: English in crisis? Essays in Criticism. 39, 185-195
  • GUY, J.M. and SMALL, I., 1989. The French Revolution and the British avant-garde. In: CROSSLEY, C. and SMALL, I., eds., The French Revolution and British culture Oxford: Oxford University Press. 141-155

School of English

Trent Building
The University of Nottingham
University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD

telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 5900
fax: +44 (0) 115 951 5924
email: english-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk