Four Notes for Beatrice Groves Fans out there! If you enjoyed Nagini Maledictus and ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ you’ll love these new posts —
(1) Oxford University Research Fellow and Lecturer in Renaissance Studies Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, has turned her significant learning and great love for Rowling’s work to the Galbraith murder mysteries. In two posts up now at MuggleNet.com, she explains the depths of the poems that bracket the action of The Cuckoo’s Calling, Rossetti’s A Dirge and Tennyson’s Ulysses.
In the first, ‘Literary Allusion in The Cuckoo’s Calling: Christina Rossetti’s A Dirge,’ Prof Groves opens up the mysterious and relatively obscure Rossetti poem that serves as epigraph to the first Strike novel and perhaps to the whole series. If you were left scratching your head about the ‘Cuckoo’ part of that book and its relationship to the poem, prepare your mind for illumination!
In the second, ‘Literary Allusion in The Cuckoo’s Calling: Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses,‘ she parses the closing reading from memory the peg-legged private eye makes to that poem and the meaning of ‘I am Become a Name.’ More after the jump —
(2) Not enough? Here are two more Groves Gems about the probable roots of Rowling’s thinking about censorship and how the books we read influence the way we think — and what Rowling writes:
“Books Are Not Absolutely Dead Things”: “Harry Potter”, Milton, and Censorship
“Books Are Not Absolutely Dead Things”: “Harry Potter”, Evelyn Waugh, and Censorship
(3) There’s more! Here is the review Professor Groves wrote of the British Library Exhibition, ‘Harry Potter: A History of Magic,’her first contribution to the LeakyCauldron.com website and fandom platform:
A Potter Expert’s Account of the ‘Harry Potter: A History of Magic’ British Library Exhibition
(4) And if you’re in the UK (or will be in late April!), Dr Groves will be speaking at LondonMoot in Torrington Place, London. Sign up for that here — London MOOT.com.
You can also keep up with her doings and writings via her Twitter handle. Woot!
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