Nicholas Taylor-Collins
I am a lecturer in English literature at Cardiff Metropolitan, having previously lectured at Swansea University and taught at the University of Warwick. My specialisms include William Shakespeare and modern and contemporary Irish literature, as well as hyper-contemporary writing and book prizes. My book for Routledge, 'Judge for Yourself', examines the latter and how readers in a contemporary marketplace can accurately judge the quality of brand-new writing.
Biography
After studying literature at the University of Warwick (BA Hons) and The University of Manchester (MA), I returned to Warwick for my doctoral research. Under the supervision of Professors Thomas Docherty and Carol Rutter, I researched the continued and fraught influence of William Shakespeare on modern and contemporary Irish literature. This research will be published in 2021 with Manchester University Press, entitled 'Shakespeare, memory, and modern Irish literature'.I was appointed to my first lectureship at Swansea University where I taught for two years. In my second year I designed and taught a module that took for its reading list the International Dylan Thomas Prize longlist. This module eventually became my Routledge book, 'Judge for Yourself' (October 2020).
In September 2019 I was appointed to a lectureship at Cardiff Metropolitan University, where I continue to teach and research.
Education
-
University of Warwick, 2015
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
-
William Shakespeare; continental theory/philosophy; modern/contemporary Irish literature; hyper-contemporary literature.
Websites
Books
Articles
Ageing John Banville: from Einstein to Bergson
Published: Sep 21, 2020 by Brazilian Journal of Irish Studies
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
In this article I survey Banville's developing attitude towards ageing in his novels. From the early 'Birchwood', via 'Doctor Copernicus', and finishing with 'The Infinities', I establish that Banville's characters have shown a longstanding interest in both Albert Einstein's and Henri Bergson's theories of time. However, as the author has aged, his characters have shown an increased interest in Bergson's lived experience of 'durée', superseding an interest in Einstein's simultaneous 'nows'.
The city's hostile bodies: Coriolanus's Rome and Carson's Belfast
Published: Jan 01, 2020 by Modern Language Review
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
Exploring the importance of the culture of hospitality and the realities of civil war, this article offers a comparison of Shakespeare's 'Coriolanus' with Ciaran Carson's 'Belfast Confetti'. The conclusion is that, through literary history, the city becomes a hospitable space by enabling assault on citizens' bodies.
Moving the statue: myths of motherhood in Eavan Boland, Shakespeare, and early modern culture
Published: Sep 01, 2018 by Shakespeare and Contemporary Irish Literature
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
In this chapter I detail the importance of cultures of motherhood in early modern culture and in twentieth-century Ireland. These details allow me to compare Shakespeare's dramatic evocation of motherhood in 'The Winter's Tale' that is re-energised by the mother–daughter relationship, with Eavan Boland's own evocation of the myth of motherhood in her poetry. This allows Boland to counter the static myths of Mother Ireland. In both Shakespeare and Boland, the moving statue metaphor is central.
The Duke's hospitable return in 'Measure for Measure'
Published: Jan 01, 2018 by Notes and Queries
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
In this note I establish that continental theories of hospitality allow us to make better sense of the ways in which the Duke resumes power at the city gates in Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure'.
"Remember me": "Hamlet", memory and Bloom's "poiesis"
Published: Oct 01, 2017 by Irish Studies Review
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature, Philosophy
In this article I explore the importance of memory in and to Shakespeare's Hamlet and James Joyce's Leopold Bloom in 'Ulysses'. By focusing on the appearance of the Ghost in 'Hamlet', and Bloom's attendance at Paddy Dignam's funeral in 'Hades', I explain how the technological aspects of memory are crucial. To Hamlet, it is the Ghost's technical prostheses that predominate; for Bloom it is the photographic store and the wax record. Both characters venerate 'poiesis'.
"This prison where I live": Ireland takes centre stage
Published: Sep 01, 2015 by Cahiers Elisabéthains
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
In this article I explore the notable absence of Ireland from Shakespeare's drama. Whilst characters visit Ireland in 'Richard II' and '2 Henry VI', Ireland is never a depicted stage location. I argue that Ireland is nonetheless central to Shakespeare's English histories and, in its own way, becomes the prison for at least two monarchs. Richard II's reign is ended by an ill-fated trip to Ireland, while Henry VI's reign is cut short by the Duke of York's amassing his 'army of Irish' offstage.
"Like a shoal of fish moving within a net": "King Lear" and McGahern's family in "Amongst Women"
Published: Sep 01, 2014 by John McGahern: Critical Essays
Authors: Taylor-Collins, Nicholas
Subjects:
Literature
In this chapter I establish the overlaps between Shakespeare's 'King Lear' and John McGahern's novel 'Amongst Women'. The familial constructions—absent brothers, three daughters—are central to both, and a reading of Edgar's exteriority to the historical drama is paralleled by Luke's self-removal to England in McGahern's novel. Both absent brothers restore faith in the family. Rather than dominating fatherhood in these plots, we should now read them as fostering a sovereignty of brotherhood.