Jessica Cox

Jessica obtained her PhD from Swansea University and worked as a lecturer at the University of Wales Lampeter before moving to Brunel in 2009. She is the co-founder of the Brunel Interdisciplinary Network on Gender and Sexuality (click here for more details) and recently organised the bi-annual Feminist and Women’s Studies Association conference on The Futures of Feminism, held at Brunel in July 2011.

She is currently editing a collection of essays on Victorian sensation author Mary Elizabeth Braddon, co-editing, with Professor Mark Llewellyn (University of Strathclyde), an anthology set entitled Women and Belief (part of Routledge’s History of Feminism series), and authoring a study provisionally entitled Neo-Victorian Sensations: Rewriting Victorian Sensation Fiction in Contemporary Literature.

Research Overview

Jessica’s research interests include Victorian sensation literature (particularly the work of Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins), the Brontës, New Woman Fiction, the neo-Victorian novel, film adaptation, and feminism and popular culture. She would welcome research students working in any of these areas.

Teaching Activity

Jessica convenes a number of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, including The Nineteenth-Century Novel (level 2), The Women’s Movement and Twentieth-Century Writing (level 2), Victorian Literature and Culture (level 3) and Victorian Sensations: The Mass Media and the Novel, 1850-1900 (MA).

Jessica is currently on maternity leave.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

Authored Books

Charlotte Brontë (Hesperus Brief Lives series). London: Hesperus Press, 2011
Annotated/Edited Work

Editor, New Perspectives on Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Amsterdam: Rodopi, forthcoming 2011
Co-editor, with Mark Llewellyn, Women and Belief, 6 vols, Routledge ‘Major Works’ History of Feminism Series, forthcoming 2011

Co-editor, with Alexia Bowler, Neo-Victorian Studies, special issue: Adapting the Nineteenth Century: Revisiting, Revising and Rewriting the Past, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 2009/2010

Editor and notes, Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (London: Penguin Classics, 2006)

Articles and Chapters in Books

‘Gender, Conflict, Continuity: Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) and Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins (1893)’, Brontë Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1, March 2010, pp.30-39

‘Sensational Realism? Jane Eyre and the Problem of Genre’, Cycnos, Vol. 25, 2008, pp.15-32

‘“A Touch of In’nard Fever”: Illness and Moral Decline in Elster’s Folly (1866)’
Women’s Writing, special issue on Mrs Henry Wood (eds. Andrew Maunder and Emma Liggins), Vol. 15:2, August 2008, pp.232-43

‘Reading Faces: Physiognomy and the Depiction of the Heroine in the Fiction of Wilkie Collins’, in Andrew Mangham (ed.), Wilkie Collins: Interdisciplinary Essays, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp.107-21

‘Gendered Visions: The Figure of the Prostitute in Wilkie Collins’, The New Magdalen (1873) and The Fallen Leaves (1879)’, Wilkie Collins’ Society Journal, New Series Vol. 8, 2005, pp.3-18

‘From Page to Screen: Transforming M. E. Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret’, Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 14:1, March 2005, pp.23-31

‘Representations of Illegitimacy in Wilkie Collins’ Early Novels’, Philological Quarterly, Vol. 83, Spring 2004, pp.147-69

Publications

Journal Papers

(2010) Cox, J. and Bowler, A., 'Introduction to Adapting the Nineteenth Century: Revisiting, Revising and Rewriting the Past', Neo-Victorian Studies 2 (2) : 1- 17

(2010) Cox, J., Gender, conflict, continuity: Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) and Sarah Grand’s The Heavenly Twins (1893), Brontë Studies 35 (1) : 30- 39

(2008) Cox, J., Sensational realism? Jane Eyre and the problem of genre, Cycnos 25 15- 32

(2008) Cox, J., "A touch of in'nard fever": illness and moral decline in Elster's Folly, Women’s Writing 15 (2) : 232- 243

(2005) Cox, J., Gendered visions: the figure of the prostitute in The New Magdalane (1873) and The Fallen Leaves (1879), Wilkie Collins’ Society Journal 8 3- 18

(2005) Cox, J., From page to screen: transforming M.E. Braddon's Lady Audley's Secret, Journal of Gender Studies 14 (1) : 23- 31

(2004) Cox, J., Representations of illegitimacy in Wilkie Collins's early novels, Philological Quarterly 83 147- 169

Book Chapters

(2007) Cox, J., Reading faces: physiognomy and the depiction of the heroine in the fiction of Wilkie Collins. In: Mangham, A. ed. Wilkie Collins: Interdisciplinary Essays. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing 107- 121

Books

(Forthcoming) Cox, J., Charlotte Brontë. Hesperus Press