Professor Cathy Shrank

School of English

Faculty Director of One University Strategy Delivery

English Cathy Shrank
Profile picture of English Cathy Shrank
c.shrank@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 8485

Full contact details

Professor Cathy Shrank
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
91直播
S3 7RA
Profile

My research focuses on early modern (or Renaissance) literature and culture. My interest in this area stems back to my undergraduate days at Cambridge, where a course on comparative literature introduced me to the poetry of the Henrician courtier Thomas Wyatt and his translations of Petrarch. I pursued this interest in early and mid-Tudor writing 鈥 an often neglected part of the canon 鈥 through my Masters and PhD, which looked at formations of English national identity in the decades after the break with Rome.

I moved to 91直播 in 2005, after stints at King鈥檚 College London and the University of Aberdeen.

Research interests

My research ranges from the late fifteenth to the late seventeenth century, and moves between poetry, prose, and drama, and between texts in manuscript and print. It also includes less obviously 鈥渓iterary鈥 forms of writing, such as medical or educational works, although I鈥檝e also written on hypercanonical figures like Shakespeare. The eclectic nature of what I study is exemplified by an on-going project on English dialogues: works written in the form of a conversation. These cover all sorts of topics, from teaching skills such as archery or maths, to the behaviour of women, or pressing political issues such as the marriage of Elizabeth I, the role of parliament, or the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. 

A lot of my research involves scholarly editing. Projects (completed and on-going) include Shakespeare鈥檚 poems, the works of the Elizabethan writer Thomas Nashe, and William Tyndale鈥檚 Parable of the Wicked Mammon. As with the work on dialogues, annotating these texts takes you down often unexpected paths, from working out the date of solar and lunar eclipses to acquiring a detailed knowledge of early modern insults. Soon I will be getting back to where my academic journey began, with an edition of the poems of Thomas Wyatt.

Other forthcoming work includes essays on the marital correspondence of Sir John Cheke, the relationship between literature and history, and a collection of essays (co-edited with Phil Withington) on Thomas More鈥檚 Utopia.

Publications

Books

  • Shrank C (2006) Writing the nation in Reformation England, 1530-1580. Oxford University Press on Demand. RIS download Bibtex download

Edited books

  • Shrank C & Withington P (Ed.) (2023) The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia. Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Pincombe M & Shrank C (Ed.) (2009) . OUP Oxford. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

  • Shrank C (2019) . Reformation, 24(2), 59-75. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2016) . Reformation, 21(2), 128-130. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Pincombe M (2010) Doing Away with the Drab Age. Literature Compass. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2009) Thomas Middleton and Early Modern Textual Culture, A Companion to The Collected Works. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES, 13(1), 111-112. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2009) . European Journal of English Studies, 13(1), 110-112. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2009) Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: John Benson and the 1640 Poems. Shakespeare, 5(3), 271-291. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2008) . Reformation, 13(1), 230-232. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2008) . Studies in Philology, 105(1), 30-49. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2008) Trollers and Dreamers: Defining the Citizen-Subject in Sixteenth-Century Cheap Print. Yearbook of English Studies, 38(1/2), 102-118. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2008) 'But I that knew what harbred in that hed': Thomas Wyatt and his posthumous interpreters. Proceedings of the British Academy, 154, 375-401. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2006) . Notes and Queries, 53(4), 421-422. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2006) . Reformation, 11(1), 227-230. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2004) . Huntington Library Quarterly, 67(2), 295-314. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2003) . Shakespeare Quarterly, 54(4), 406-423. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2000) . Reformation, 5(1), 1-26. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () . Huntington Library Quarterly, 73, 523-541. RIS download Bibtex download

Chapters

  • Shrank C (2024) Rewriting Robert the Devil: Thomas Lodge and Medieval Romance In Donoghue D, Sobecki S & Watson N (Ed.), Form and Power in Medieval And Early Modern Literature (pp. 241-258). Boydell & Brewer RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2022) , History in the Humanities and Social Sciences (pp. 286-305). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2022) , The Oxford History of Poetry in English (pp. 405-421). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2021) , The Cambridge Connection in Tudor England (pp. 232-251). BRILL RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Werstine P (2021) The Shakespeare manuscripts In Erne L (Ed.), The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Textual Studies (pp. 53-70). Bloomsbury RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2020) , Early Modern Literature and England's Long Reformation (pp. 7-23). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2020) , Memory and the English Reformation (pp. 334-350). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2020) , Enacting the Bible in medieval and early modern drama Manchester University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2020) Legends, Shrines and Ruined Tombs Memory and Reformation in Female-Voiced Complaint, MEMORY AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION (pp. 334-349). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2020) In Nicholas L & Law C (Ed.), Roger Ascham and His Sixteenth-Century World (pp. 208-225). Brill RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2019) 鈥楳asters of civility: Castiglione鈥檚 Courtier, Della Casa鈥檚 Galateo and Guazzo鈥檚 Civil Conversation in early modern England鈥 In Marrapodi M (Ed.), The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo-Italian Renaissance Literature and Culture (pp. 144-159). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2019) , ROUTLEDGE RESEARCH COMPANION TO ANGLO-ITALIAN RENAISSANCE LITERATURE AND CULTURE (pp. 144-159). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Lyne R (2017) , The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 269-623). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Lyne R (2017) , The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 251-267). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Lyne R (2017) , The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. xiii-xv). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Lyne R (2017) , The Complete Poems of Shakespeare (pp. 625-661). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2017) Mocking or Mirthful? Laughter in early modern dialogue In Knights MJ & Morton A (Ed.), The Power of Laughter and Satire in Early Modern Britain: Political and Religious Culture, 1500-1820 Boydell & Brewer RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2017) Cross Sections (I): 1516-1520 In Keymer T (Ed.), The Oxford History of the Novel in English, vol. 1 (pp. 46-54). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2017) On Error In Loffman C & Phillips H (Ed.), A Handbook of Editing Early Modern Texts (pp. 139-146). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2017) Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Imprint previously known as Arden Shakespeare RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2016) Finding a Vernacular Voice: The Classical Translations of Sir Thomas Wyatt In Copeland R (Ed.), The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature: Volume 1: 800-1558 (pp. 583-600). Oxford: Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2016) Diss茅quer le corps politique: la Couronne et le Parlement dans les dialogues politiques anglais du d茅but du XVIIe si猫cle In Bouhaik-Girones M (Ed.), Usages et strat茅gies pol茅miques en Europe, XIVe-premier XVIIe si猫cle (pp. 155-166). Peter Lang RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2015) Mise-en-page, 鈥渢he Authors Genius鈥, 鈥渢he capacity of the Reader鈥, and the ambition of 鈥榓 Good Compositer鈥, In Archer C & Peters L (Ed.), Religion and the Book Trade (pp. 66-82). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2013) All talk and no action? Early modern political dialogue, The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Prose (pp. 27-42). Oxford: Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2012) Beastly Metamorpohoses: Losing Control in Early Modern Literary Culture In Herring J (Ed.), Intoxication and Society (pp. 193-209). Palgrave MacMillan RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2011) Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2011) 1553, Oxford History of Popular Print Culture, Vol 1 (pp. 537-547). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2010) Society In Kinney AF (Ed.), Elizabethan and Jacobean England Wiley-Blackwell RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2009) The Politics of Shakespeare's Sonnets In Armitage D, Condren C & Fitzmaurice A (Ed.), Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (pp. 101-118). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C & Pincombe M (2009) The Travails of Tudor Literature In Pincombe M & Shrank C (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature:1485-1603 (pp. 1-19). OUP Oxford RIS download Bibtex download
  • Pincombe M & Shrank C (2009) In Shrank C & Pincombe M (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature: 1485-1603 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank CL (2009) 'Sir Thomas Elyot and the Bonds of Community' In Shrank C (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Literature (pp. 154-169). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2008) Stammering, snoring and other problems in Early Modern dialogue In Blakeley J & Pincombe M (Ed.), Writing and Reform in Sixteenth-Century England (pp. 179-192). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C (2007) John Bale and reconfiguring the 'medieval' in Reformation England, READING THE MEDIEVAL IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND (pp. 179-+). RIS download Bibtex download
  • Withington P & Shrank C () , The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia (pp. 1-16). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , The Oxford Handbook of Thomas More's Utopia (pp. 231-247). Oxford University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , A Companion to Renaissance Poetry (pp. 376-388). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () John Wiley & Sons, Ltd RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , Edmund Spenser in Context (pp. 176-184). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , A Mirror for Magistratesin Context (pp. 109-125). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , A Social History of England, 1500鈥1750 (pp. 19-38). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , The Shakespeare Circle (pp. 49-56). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () , Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (pp. 101-118). Cambridge University Press RIS download Bibtex download
  • Shrank C () Manuscript, Authenticity and 'evident proofs' against the Scottish Queen (pp. 198-218). RIS download Bibtex download

Book reviews

  • Shrank C (2017) WILLIAM TYNDALE A very brief history. TLS-THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT(5985), 12-12. RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

  • Shrank C (2003) (pp 19-34) RIS download Bibtex download

Scholarly editions

  • Shrank C & Lyne R (2017) The Complete Poems of Shakespeare. Routledge. RIS download Bibtex download

Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries

  • Shrank CL (2010) Community. In Cultural Reformations Oxford University Press. RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

I welcome applications from potential research students in any area of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English literature and culture.

Current and former PhDs include projects on Post-War Polish productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream; Drayton鈥檚 Poly-olbion; representations of Thomas Wolsey from Skelton to Shakespeare; Tudor women writers; a comparative study of the influence of Galen in England and Italy; and editions of a number of important early manuscripts (Burley; V&A Dyce MS 44; BL Harleian MS 7392(2); BL Additional MS 36529).

Teaching activities

My teaching at undergraduate and Masters level mainly focuses on the period 1500-1800.