Dr Min Wild

Biography

Lecturer in English

Qualifications

Min has a first degree in English Literature (first: hons.), an MA in Criticism and Theory (with distinction) and a PhD from the University of Exeter.

Professional membership

British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Roles on external bodies

Min is the external examiner for the University of Derby's English undergraduate and postgraduate provision

Teaching

Teaching interests

Min teaches first year students about eighteenth-century literature on the 'Writing the Modern World' module, and also 'Rakes, Rascals and Rudeness', a more focused second-year eighteenth-century module on eighteenth-century politeness (and its opposite). She also teaches a level three module on the history and practice of satire, called 'Laughing Matters': in this we study literary name-calling from ancient Rome to Jonathan Pie. She also convened the first-year theory module for some years, and with her interest in rhetoric and philosophy, teaches the MA module 'Poetry and the Modern Self', beginning with Hobbes and the wicked Lord Rochester and heading towards twenty-first century neo-materialism and ecocriticism. Min is happy to be contacted about the supervision of doctoral study in eighteenth-century print culture and literature from high to low. She is also keen to supervise work on significant intersections between philosophy and literature, in any era from the early modern to the present day. Min has supervised as Director of Studies two doctoral dissertations, and has acted as second supervisor on three other successful doctoral projects: she has also been External Examiner for one doctoral thesis and Internal Examiner for three.

Staff serving as external examiners

Min is External Examiner for the University of Derby's English undergraduate and postgraduate programmes

Research

Research interests

Min researches in the eighteenth century, with special interests in periodicals and print culture, in satire, and in criticism. Her monograph, published by Ashgate in 2008, is a study of The Midwife, Christopher Smart's irreverent magazine of 1750-1753, in which the poet takes on the persona of a critical and opinionated elderly lady called Mrs Mary Midnight.

She is also, though, interested in the workings of rhetoric: under this heading comes the tradition of learned wit, and also personification - known to tie up tongues, since the Greek word for it is 'prosopopoeia'... Her long term research is about the phenomenon she calls 'making words human', when words and texts get personified, and discussed as though they were human, from classical Greece to the present day. She is still working in the eighteenth century too, and a chapter is forthcoming on Christopher Smart's quarrel with a rival magazine writer, 'Sir' John Hill-- the book about him is due out soon. Her latest article is on a rich conjunction of literature and geography, where Mrs Midnight introduces a map of Europe in the shape of an 'Old Woman' - not a fantasy map, but a real one. Min is happy to be contacted about the supervision of doctoral study in eighteenth-century print culture and literature from high to low. She is also keen to supervise work on significant intersections between philosophy and literature, in any era from the early modern to the present day.

Publications

Key publications

Key publications are highlighted

Journals

Articles

Wild G (2018) 'Christopher Smart and the Cartographic Imagination' The Review of English Studies , DOI Open access

Wild M (2016) 'No cabbage' TLS - The Times Literary Supplement (5889)

WILD MIN (2014) 'Knowing Books: The Consciousness of Mediation in Eighteenth-Century Britain. By CHRISTINA LUPTON. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2012. xi + 184 p. £36 (hb). ISBN 978-0-8122-4372-7.The Things Things Say. By JONATHAN LAMB. Princeton, NJ' Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 37, (3) 424-426 , DOI

Wild M (2012) 'The eighteenth century: Ideas, objects, objections' FEMINIST THEORY 13, (3) 337-343 Author Site , DOI

Wild M (2010) 'Making Words Human' ESSAYS IN CRITICISM 60, (4) 299-317 Author Site , DOI

WILD MIN (2008) 'Revisiting Christopher Smart's Midwife: Alexander the Great and the Terrible Old Lady' Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 27, (2) 279-292 , DOI

Wild M (2005) '"The Bottom of All Things": Christopher Smart's Old Crone of Criticism' 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era 15, 271-292

Wild M (2004) '' “The Elation of Objects": Adorno and Wyndham Lewis’ Tarr.'' Wyndham Lewis Annual XI, 2004., 18-31

Wild M (2004) '‘Alexander the Great and the "Terrible Old Lady": Revisiting Christopher Smart’s Midwife.’' British Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies 27:2 (2004) (2 (2004)) 279-292

Wild M (1998) '“‘Prodigious Wisdom’: Civic Humanism in Frances Brooke’s _Old Maid_.”' Women's Writing 5:3 (1998) 421-425

Books

Smallwood P (2014) Ridiculous Critics: Augustan Mockery of Critical Judgement. Bucknell University Press

Wild G (2013) Reading Christopher Smart in the Twenty-First Century: 'Tis by Succession of Delight'. Bucknell University Press

Wild M (2013) Christopher smart and satire: ‘Mary midnight’ and the midwife.

Wild M (2008) Christopher smart and satire: 'Mary midnight' and the midwife.

Wild M (2008) Christopher Smart and Satire. Ashgate Pub Co

Chapters

Wild M (2017) '‘The Ravished Organs of the Attentive Audience’: John Hill and Christopher Smart' Fame and Fortune: Sir John Hill and London Life in the 1750s Palgrave Macmillan UK 121-135 , DOI

Performances

01/04/2013Julie Peakman, Amatory Pleasures: Explorations in Eighteenth-Century Sexual Culture (Bloomsbury) in Times Literary Supplement, 13th October 2016. (400 words) Mark Davies, King of all Balloons: the adventurous life of James Sadler, the first English aeronaut (Amberley) in Times Literary Supplement, July 22nd 2016. Norma Clarke, Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub St., Harvard University Press (3,000 words: second lead article) in Times Literary Supplement, 20th May 2016. Lynda Mugglestone, Samuel Johnson and the Journey into Words, Oxford University Press (800 words) in Times Literary Supplement, 12th February 2016. Margaret Doody, Jane Austen’s Names, U of Chicago P (1,600 words) in Times Literary Supplement, 2nd October 2015. Janet Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, second edition, 2015 (400 words) in Times Literary Supplement, June 5th 2015. Richard M. Ward, Print Culture, Crime and Justice in 18th-Century London, London: Bloomsbury, 2014 (400 words) in Times Literary Supplement, Jan 30th 2015 The Collected Works of Ann Yearsley (three vols.), Pickering and Chatto (1,600 words): Times Literary Supplement, May 23rd 2014. William Hayley (1745-1820): Poet, Biographer, and Libertarian: A Reassessment., ed. Paul Foster, with Diana Barsham: William Hayley (1745-1820): England’s Lost Laureate: Selected Poetry, ed. Paul Foster, with Diana Barsham (1,000 words): Times Literary Supplement, October 11th 2013. Raspe, Rudolf Erich, The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Melville House, Times Literary Supplement April 2013.

Other Publications

Wild M (2016) The deserted village.

Wild M (2016) Revising oliver goldsmith : An assured account of the absurdities of the writing life in eighteenth-century London.

Wild M (2015) Nominal value.

Personal

Reports & invited lectures

PODCASTS:

On Charlotte Lennox, in conversation with Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi for the Times Literary Supplement, 16th August 2018.

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/freedom-books-flowers-moon-august-16/

On the rise of the novel, in conversation with Thea Lenarduzzi and Lucy Dallas, for the Times Literary Supplement, 7th July 2020.

Invited Conference Plenary:

26- 29th March 2021 ‘Mrs Mary Midnight vs the ”Present Happy Establishment”: Drag and Rhetoric in Eighteenth-Century London.’ Closing plenary for the University of Edinburgh’s ‘Enemies in the Early Modern World 1453-1789: Conflict, Culture and Control’ online conference.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/freedom-books-flowers-the-moon/id868068396

Conferences organised

14th-15th September, 2010: “ ’Tis by Succession of Delight”: A Colloquium on the Words and Times of Christopher Smart: International conference on Christopher Smart's writing, cross-dressing and Christianity.

Other academic activities

Reviews for the Times Literary Supplement since 2013:

Julie Peakman, Amatory Pleasures: Explorations in Eighteenth-Century Sexual Culture (Bloomsbury) in Times Literary Supplement, 13th October 2016. (400 words)
Mark Davies, King of all Balloons: the adventurous life of James Sadler, the first English aeronaut (Amberley) in Times Literary Supplement, July 22nd 2016.
Norma Clarke, Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub St., Harvard University Press (3,000 words: second lead article) in Times Literary Supplement, 20th May 2016.
Lynda Mugglestone, Samuel Johnson and the Journey into Words, Oxford University Press (800 words) in Times Literary Supplement, 12th February 2016.
Margaret Doody, Jane Austen’s Names, U of Chicago P (1,600 words) in Times Literary Supplement, 2nd October 2015.
Janet Todd, The Cambridge Introduction to Jane Austen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, second edition, 2015 (400 words) in Times Literary Supplement, June 5th 2015.
Richard M. Ward, Print Culture, Crime and Justice in 18th-Century London, London: Bloomsbury, 2014 (400 words) in Times Literary Supplement, Jan 30th 2015
The Collected Works of Ann Yearsley (three vols.), Pickering and Chatto (1,600 words): Times Literary Supplement, May 23rd 2014.
William Hayley (1745-1820): Poet, Biographer, and Libertarian: A Reassessment., ed. Paul Foster, with Diana Barsham: William Hayley (1745-1820): England’s Lost Laureate: Selected Poetry, ed. Paul Foster, with Diana Barsham (1,000 words): Times Literary Supplement, October 11th 2013.
Raspe, Rudolf Erich, The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Melville House, April 2013.

Profiles

Lecturer in English

School of Society and Culture (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)