A former Literature MA student at Sussex and now a first-year PhD student in English Literature at Lancaster University, I’m traversing fiction and bio-fictions of Tudor Queens, namely, Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. My investigative foray into the Tudor era involves divergent degrees of political as well as self-censorship in personal letters and correspondences from the State Papers and government archives. In course of my investigation, I intend to unpack sixteenth-century discourses of Anne vis-à-vis three focal events in modern history: the English Reformation facilitated by the disjuncture with Rome, the genesis of the nation state, and the political success story of Anne’s daughter and Queen Regnant, Elizabeth I. I explore how a careful balance of sympathy between mistress and queen is achieved in Anne’s narratives to show how the same speaks to both Protestant and Catholic sensibilities. Analogous to this would be my survey of Tudor history’s rather cursory treatment of Catherine of Aragon’s queenship, her loyalty and virtue purportedly being less appealing to scholars and writers. I would also navigate Catherine’s epistolary voice to illustrate how, despite being locked into a historicist discourse centred on the ‘maternal’ instead of the ‘political,’ her diplomatic acumen and alliances make her letters fascinating examples of self-fashioning. 

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My PhD research shares an interdisciplinary audience between literature and history, which is both tricky and wonderful! The verses and epic poems essentially appeal to a literary audience and the legal records appeal to historians. Having multiple audiences makes you ask different questions and that encapsulates the journey I’m currently on. I am intrigued by the 15th and 16th century recesses of history, Renaissance Drama and Early Modern Literature. As a side quest, I also review articles for the International Journal of Literature and Arts with the Science Publishing Group.  

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I warmly welcome submissions and articles related to my areas of interest.