Andrew Blades

My research interests lie mainly in the Twentieth Century, and in American literature more specifically. My doctoral thesis examined the literature of the AIDS epidemic, reconsidering the work of poets such as James Merrill and Thom Gunn, and I am currently reworking this for monograph publication with the Oxford University Press. The book is provisionally entitled Reassessing American AIDS Literature. My work in this field has sparked an ongoing interest in the intersections between literature and medicine; my next project will focus on the relationship between literature and clinical, psychological and social understandings of anxiety.

I have also published a general undergraduate guide, Twentieth-Century American Literature (Longman, 2011), an article on Edward Albee's drama for English Review, and a book chapter on Mark Doty's poetry in From Self to Shelf: The Artist Under Construction (Cambridge Scholars' Press, 2007). When I am not teaching and researching English literature, I write a music blog, and pen regular theatre reviews for The Stage.