Professor Simon Palfrey

Shakespeare (language, writing in parts, actors, metaphysics, politics), Spenser, Renaissance drama; dramatic phenomenology; Kierkegaard; literary-critical creativity; Romantic poetry. My recent work explores the unique kinds of life generated by dramatic, poetic, and fictional forms, and the opportunities this opens up for more philosophically adventurous and formally imaginative criticism. Current projects include a critical fiction, Macbeth, Macbeth (Bloomsbury, 2016, written with Ewan Fernie), Demons Land: a poem come true, a collaborative multi-media exhibition and book inspired by Spenser's Faerie Queene, and a semi-autobiographical exploration of romantic poetry, The Mental Travellers. I am also the curator (with Emma Smith) of the major 2016 Bodleian Library exhibition, Shakespeare's Dead.