April 13th
Dr. Anne Frey (English, Texas Christian University) will present “The National Tale and the Pseudonymous Author: ‘Rosalia St. Clair’ in England, Scotland, and Ireland.” Dr. Frey is the author of British State Romanticism (Stanford 2009), a highly original study of the ways Romantic authors sought to use their writing to assist the British state in forming individuals’ sense of ethics and national identity. This talk shares new research on the lesser-known Romantic-era novelist Agnes C. Hall, who wrote under the pseudonym “Rosalia St. Clair.” Hall’s novels, the talk argues, try to envision national identity as freely chosen and flexible. 