Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Sophie Emma Battell
2022-2023
Home institution
University of Zurich
Country of origin (home institution)
Switzerland
Discipline(s)
Literature
Theme(s)
Cultural Studies
Performing arts
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Sophie Battell is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Zurich and NIAS Fellow from February-June 2023. She researches early modern literature and culture. As a NIAS Fellow, she is working on her second book, Sun Cultures in Early Modern England.
Research Project
Fiery Bodies: Staging Fire in Early Modern Drama
How did early modern dramatists stage fire? And how did this reflect cultural preoccupations with this unruly element?
Fire had a wide range of cultural associations in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. This project asks how early modern dramatists responded to the challenges, provocations, and inconsistencies of this element. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches from anthropology, philosophy, the medical humanities, and the cultural history of the emotions, I seek to understand our historic fascination with flames, reading for a poetics of fire in early modern literature.
Research Interests:
Early modern drama and performance; Material culture and representation; Historical emotional and symbolic systems