Zoe Miller

I completed my BA in English Literature at the University of Manchester in 2018 and wrote my undergraduate dissertation on presentations of masochistic submission by female authors, looking at E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey and Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behaviour. I went on to do an MA in Gender, Sexuality and Culture at the University of Manchester which gave me an invaluable insight into gender theory and current issues surrounding identity and culture. I wrote my MA dissertation on depictions of “leaky” female bodies in early modern literature and art, focusing on the persistent comparison between vaginas and vessels. I have just started my PhD at the University of Manchester (supervised by Dr Robert Spencer and Professor Daniela Casselli) on metaphors of sexual violence in modernist literature. I am exploring what power is invested in using a violated female body to symbolise something “bigger”.