About

Theresa Kenney received her Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her research interests include 17th-century lyric, Jane Austen, Arthurian literature, Medieval and Renaissance English and European literature, Dante, and the 19th-century novel.

B.A. English and Classics, Pennsylvania State University
M.A. English, University of Notre Dame
Ph.D. English, Stanford University
Literary Tradition I, II, III, IV
Jane Austen
Arthurian Romance
Charles Dickens
Medieval Lyric and Romance
Religious Lyric
Shakespeare
John Donne
17th-Century Lyric
Jane Austen
Arthurian Literature
Medieval Literature
Renaissance English and European Literature
Dante
19th-Century Novel
  • All Wonders in One Sight: The Christ Child among the Elizabethan and Stuart Poets, University of Toronto Press, 2021.
  • "Don’t know much about history: History and Histrionics, Moderation and Passion in Northanger Abbey.” Persuasions. Forthcoming.
  • "Sensualiter Tangitur": The Christ Child ‘Born a Martyr’ in John Donne's Sermon for Christmas 1626.” John Donne Journal. Under consideration.
  • “A Tale of Two Captains: Whose Heart Is Worth Having?” Persuasions Online 39.1 (2018).
  • “The Nativity in the Middle Ages through the Reformation.” In The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Rachel Fulton Brown and Rika Spiekermann. Berlin: De Gruyter. Forthcoming.
  • “The Manger in the Early Modern Period.” In The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Rachel Fulton Brown and Rika Spiekermann. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019
  • “’This pomp is prizèd there’: Southwell’s Challenge to Courtly Identities in His Nativity Lyrics.” In Precarious Identities: The Works of Fulke Greville and Robert Southwell. Edited by Vassiliki Markidou and Afroditi-Maria Panaghis. New York: Routledge, 2019.
  • “‘God did play the child’: Robert Southwell’s ‘Christes childhood.’” Reprinted in Literature Criticism from 1400-1800: Robert Southwell, Volume 258. Gale/Cengage Learning, 2017. 194-198:
  • “Benevolence and Sympathy in Emma.” Persuasions 38 (2017): 66-80
  • “Why Edward Ferrars Doesn’t Dance.” In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Ed. by Eleanor Donlon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015. (shorter version of essay published in Persuasions)
  • “Why Tom Bertram Cannot Die.”Persuasions Online 35.1 (2014).
  • “‘God did play the child’: Robert Southwell’s ‘Christes childhood.’” Logos 17.3 (Summer 2014): 170-80.
  • “The Christ Child on Fire: Robert Southwell’s Mighty Babe.” ELR 43.3 (2013): 415-45.
  • “Why Edward Ferrars Doesn’t Dance.” Persuasions 34 (2013): 155-68.
  • "Anne De Bourgh Smiles.” Persuasions Online (2013).
  • “The Heroic Cicatrix and Bleak House,” with Cheryl Kinney, M.D. Dickens Quarterly 30.4 (December 2013): 267-77.
  • The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha es et O! Co-edited with Mary Dzon. University of Toronto Press, 2012.
  • "The Christ Child on Fire: Robert Southwell's Mighty Babe."   ELR 42.2 (2012). Forthcoming.
  • "Jane Austen, Revolution, Socialist Realism, and Reception: A Response to Helong Zhang's 'Jane Austen: 100 Years in China.'" Persuasions 33 (2012).
  • "Aisha, Rajshree Ojha's Urban Emma: Not Entirely Clueless." Persuasions Online 32.1 (Winter 2011).
  • "Why Edward Ferrars Doesn't Dance." In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Ed. by Eleanor Donlon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. Forthcoming.
  • "Mansfield Park and the Conscience Outside the Self." In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Ed by Eleanor Donlon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010.
  • "Compassion and Condemnation in Wuthering Heights: Mediation, Christianity, and the Occult." In Wuthering Heights. Ed. by Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008.
  • "'Slyness Seems the Fashion': Dexterous Revelations in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions 27 (2006).
  • "'As she was not really Mrs. Croft': Playing the Admiral's Wife in Bath." Persuasions 26 (2005).
  • "The Infant Christ as Inspiration to the Anglo-Saxons." Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, March 2003.
  • "Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian Humanist and Nun." Canticle, 2000.
  • "From Francesca to Francesco: Transcribing the Tale of Passion from the Inferno to the Paradiso, or Thomas Aquinas as Romancier." Religion and Literature 31.1 (1999).
  • "Women Are Not Human": An Anonymous Treatise and Responses.  NY: Crossroad, 1998.
  • John Donne's Conversion from Misogyny." English Renaissance Prose 6 (1997-98).