My research interests lie chiefly in the twentieth century, and chiefly in poetry. I have written extensively about T. S. Eliot, and was among the first to take account of a wealth of newly published primary material for my first book project, T. S. Eliot and the Making of Reputation (2027). I have also published on Eliot's theories of history, his letters, and, more recently, have offered a new reading of his social criticism. In addition to Eliot, I have written articles on Philip Larkin, Seamus Heaney, Matthew Arnold, and the American literary critic F. O. Matthiessen. More broadly, I am interested in the circumstances of literary production, especially the kinds of practical concerns that inform the development of style, including publishing history, archives, the relationship between literature and institutions, and the formation of literary estates. I have a secondary research interest in contemporary prose, which has been indulged in recent essays on Bret Easton Ellis and Zadie Smith.
My next projects include a critical history of the teaching of poetry composition in Britain since 1950, and an article on lecture tours by Anglo-American poets in post-war Germany.
For the undergraduate course at Oxford, I have taught Prelims Paper 1 (Introduction to English Language and Literature), Paper 3 (1830-1910), and Paper 4 (1910-Present). I have also supervised dissertations for the BA in English Language and Literature and the MSt in English (1900-present) on various topics in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature and culture. I frequently teach Visiting Students, and in the past I have devised courses on modernism, poetry and philosophy, 20th century Christian writing, Victorian novels, queer writing, and contemporary British fiction.
Books
Nicholas Smart, T. S. Eliot and the Making of Reputation (under contract with Oxford University Press)
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles and Chapters in Edited Collections
Nicholas Smart, 'Textbook Heaney', English [forthcoming]
Nicholas Smart, 'Bret/BRAT', Critical Quarterly 68.2 (2026)
Nicholas Smart, 'Anxious Attachments: Eliot's Enclosures to Emily Hale', in T. S. Eliot Studies Annual: Volume 8, ed. Kevin Rulo and Craig Woelfel (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2026), 183-205
Nicholas Smart, 'F. O. Matthiessen's New College Notebook', New College Notes 24.7 (2025), 1-12
Nicholas Smart, 'Larkin's Rented World', About Larkin 59 (2025), 6-15
Nicholas Smart, 'T. S. Eliot and the Problem of the Archive', ELH: English Literary History 90.3 (2023), 851-81
Nicholas Smart, 'Matthew Arnold, Zadie Smith, and the Function of Contempt at the Present Time', Winner of the Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize (2022)
