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Theresa Kenney, Ph.D.

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.

Education

B.A. English and Classics, Pennsylvania State University
M.A. English, University of Notre Dame
Ph.D. English, Stanford University

Recent Courses

  • Literary Tradition I, II, III, IV
  • Jane Austen
  • Arthurian Romance
  • Charles Dickens
  • Medieval Lyric and Romance
  • Religious Lyric
  • Shakespeare
  • John Donne

Research Interests

  • 17th-Century Lyric
  • Jane Austen
  • Arthurian Literature
  • Medieval Literature
  • Renaissance English and European Literature
  • Dante
  • 19th-Century Novel

Selected Publications

  • 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 On-Line 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 On-Line 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 On-Line (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 On-Line 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).