University News Last updated 30 July 2013
With funding from the Higher Education Academy, Birmingham City University will next week launch a new online teaching and learning resource for the study of literary theory.
Created and managed by Birmingham City University’s School of English, The Virtual Theorist is a free online tool, helping students and academics to better understand literary theory and its application by applying several theories to one specific poem in order to gain a better insight into the various interpretations that one piece of creative writing can have.
Users of The Virtual Theorist will find theories including New Historicism and Gender and Queer Theory applied to ‘Goblin Market’, a poem by Christina Rossetti.
Dr Serena Trowbridge, Lecturer in English Literature at Birmingham City University and Editor of The Virtual Theorist said: “The thinking behind The Virtual Theorist is that students often engage well with the ideas presented to them in the writings of Derrida, for example, or concepts of prosody, but find it difficult to integrate these ideas into their own literary criticism. The Virtual Theorist offers examples of how this might be done.”
The Virtual Theorist launches on Monday 5 August.