![Dr Syrithe Pugh Dr Syrithe Pugh](/img/200x200/staffpages/uploads/enl323/Syrithe_small.jpg)
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- About
-
- Email Address
- s.m.pugh@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 272623
- Office Address
Old Brewery F06
- School/Department
- School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture
Biography
Before coming to Aberdeen, I studied at Oxford and Princeton and taught at Leeds. My research focusses on the Renaissance reception of classical literature, and particularly how C16th and C17th English poets used classical imitation and allusion to reflect on contemporary events and political issues.
I have published two monographs exploring these questions in relation to the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser, the first focussing on his relation to the irreverent love poet and political exile Ovid, and the second (which received the Isabel MacCaffrey Award) on his nuanced and revisionary engagement with the Augustan laureate Virgil—both revealing a radically independent sense of poetry's social role and relation to power. A third monograph explores the use of classical imitation for political ends by royalist poets in the period leading up to the English Civil War. I have also edited interdisciplinary volumes on classical intertextuality and on euhemerism, and published articles on a wide range of Renaissance poets, and several chapters in handbooks from Oxford, Cambridge and Blackwells.
At Aberdeen, I am co-director of the Herbert Grierson Research Centre, which has hosted several international conferences on classical reception in recent years. Beyond the University, I am a member of the Councils of the Society for Renaissance Studies and the UK Classical Association, and Chair of the Classical Association of Scotland’s Aberdeen and North of Scotland Centre. I am a contributing editor for the online journal Spenser Review, and a member of the editorial board of Spenser Studies.
I welcome enquiries from students interested in postgraduate research on Renaissance poetry, especially anyone interested in focussing on poetry and politics, or classical imitation and intertextuality.
Latest Publications
The Road Not Taken: Dante’s First Eclogue and Virgil’s Career
International Journal of the Classical TraditionContributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-024-00670-4
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Human Resources: Class and Cannibalism in Herrick’s ‘The Hock-Cart’
English Literary Renaissance, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 62-99Contributions to Journals: ArticlesL. B. T. Houghton, Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue in the Italian Renaissance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 390, ISBN: 978-1108499927, £90
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, vol. 28, pp. 533-536Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-020-00583-y
Euhemerism and its Uses: The Mortal Gods
Taylor and Francis, London. 346 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksIntroduction
Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Forewords and Postscripts- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094760-1
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
- Research
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Research Areas
English
Research Specialisms
- English Literature 1200 -1700
- Classical Reception
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
- Publications
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Page 2 of 4 Results 11 to 20 of 34
Alex Wong, The Poetry of Kissing in Early Modern Europe
Spenser Review, vol. 48, no. 3, 7Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesJonson and the Cavalier Poets
A Companion to Renaissance Poetry. Bates, C. (ed.). Blackwell, pp. 325-338, 14 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118585184.ch24
Orpheus and Eurydice in the Middle Books of The Faerie Queene
Spenser Studies, vol. 31-32, pp. 1-41Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/695570
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/12131/1/Orpheus_for_Spenser_Studies.pdf
'Spenser and Ovid'
Edmund Spenser in Context. Escobedo, A. (ed.). Cambridge University PressChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Spenser and Virgil: The Pastoral Poems
Manchester University Press, Manchester. 350 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksLindsay Ann Reid, Ovidian Bibliofictions and the Tudor Book: Metamorphosing Classical Heroines in Late Medieval and Renaissance England
Spenser Review, vol. 44, no. 3, 63Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesReinventing the Wheel: Spenser's Virgilian Career
Spenser in the Moment. Hecht, P., Lethbridge, J. B. (eds.). Fairleigh Dickinson University PressChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Rebecca Helfer, Spenser’s Ruins and the Art of Recollection
Review of English Studies, vol. 64, no. 267, pp. 887Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/res/hgt012
Alpers, What Is Pastoral?
Spenser Review, vol. 43, no. 2Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesMarlowe and Classical Literature
Christopher Marlowe in Context. Bartels, E. C., Smith, E. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, pp. 80-89, 10 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139060882.011