Leverhulme: Public Lecture

'The Irish Novel andConsumer Culture in the Nineteenth Century' by Dr Helem O' Connell (University of Durham)

Helen O'Connell's research interests lie in the fields of Irish literature and culture; British writing and educational theory of the Romantic period; and the relationship betwen literature and modernisation. In particular, her work to date has focused on 'improvement' (principally in the form of fictional pamphlets and instructional manuals) and literary culture in Ireland from the Romantic period through to the Irish Revival. She is the author of Ireland and the Fiction of Improvement (Oxford University Press, 2006).Current research includes a study of the relationship between fiction and education in the early nineteenth century.