Rebecca Yearling

Biography

I studied English language and literature at Worcester College, Oxford University, and stayed on at Oxford to do an M.Phil and a D.Phil. I completed my doctorate on Renaissance drama in 2007 and then taught at the universities of Sussex and Bristol before coming to Keele in September of 2013.

Research and scholarship

My main research interests are in Renaissance literature, and particularly in the drama of that period.  My doctoral thesis explored the development of dramatic satire in the early years of the 17^th century, looking at why dramatic satire was so popular at this time, how it worked on stage, and the kinds of relationships it established between playwrights and theatregoers. My monograph Ben Jonson, John Marston and Early Modern Drama: Satire and the Audience was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016. I am now working on a new project on depictions of violence in Shakespeare.

I am interested in Renaissance satire, early modern drama on stage both in the Renaissance and in modern productions, Shakespeare on film, theatrical violence, and early modern psychology and medicine.  I also have interests in 20^th century drama and in the works of Edmund Spenser. 

Teaching

I convene and teach on the modules Reading Literature, Playing Parts, The Renaissance: Shakespeare and Beyond, and Violence and Death in Shakespeare's Theatre. I also teach sessions on the MA modules Canon, Anti-Canon, Context and Reflective Practice in the Humanities. I welcome undergraduate, MA and PhD dissertation and thesis proposals on all aspects of Renaissance literature.