Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I grew up in London and studied literature at UCL before doing a PhD at the London Consortium (Birkbeck College). I spent a number of years teaching in a variety of insitutions including UCL, Birkbeck, the Open University, Goldsmiths College, Central St Martins and Camberwell College of Arts. I have always had quite broad interests and enjoy teaching and researching across different historical periods and engaging with different disciplines. But my core area of interest in in twentieth-century British literature, particularly in relation to its political contexts.
External Activities
- Senior Deputy Editor of Critical Quarterly
- Co-editor (with Janice Ho and Benjamin Kohlmann) of the OUP book series, Literature and Politics
- Member of the AHRC Peer Review College, 2020-
- Treasurer, British Association of Modernist Studies
- Advisory Board, British Library ‘Dicovering Literature' project
- Co-director (with Rebecca Beasley) of the Anglo-Russian Research Network, 2011-2019
Key Research Interests and Expertise
I have broad interests in the literature, politics and culture of the twentieth century.
My current project investigates the phenomenon of collective speech--speaking in unison--in a broad historical perspective. It situates modern literature's fascination with collective speech in relation to notions of the chorus that go back to Ancient Greece, as well as the liturgical practices of the Christian church, and anthropological ideas about chanting that associated it with (racialised) primitive cultures. I have published a number of articles around this topic (see publications below) and I have been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship to pursue the project.
I am also currently collaborating on two edited volumes. I am co-editing, with my UEA colleague Rachel Potter, The British Novel of Ideas: George Eliot to Zadie Smith to be published in 2023 by Cambridge UP. With Benjamin Kohlmann (University of Regensburg) I am co-editing The People: Belonging, Exclusion and Democracy in the Cambridge Themes in British Literature and Culture series.
My previous books are Red Britain: The Russian Revolution in Mid-Century Culture (OUP, 2019), A History of 1930s British Literature (co-edited with Benjamin Kohlmann, CUP, 2019) and Fictions of the City: Class, Culture and Mass Housing in Paris and London (Palgrave, 2009).
I would be very interested to hear from potential doctoral students with interests in these areas.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, London Consortium
Award Date: 1 Jan 2008
Master of Arts, University College London
Award Date: 1 Jan 2004
Bachelor of Arts, University College London
Award Date: 1 Jan 2003
-
Chorus and Agon in the political novel: Staging left-wing arguments in H.G. Wells, Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing
Taunton, M., 15 Jun 2021, In: MFS: Modern Fiction Studies . 67, 2, p. 247-271 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile25 Downloads (Pure) -
Communism
Taunton, M., 2021, (Accepted/In press) The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Poltics. Hadjiyiannis, C. & Potter, R. (eds.). Cambridge University PressResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
-
Communism by the letter: Doris Lessing and the politics of writing
Taunton, M., 9 Mar 2021, In: ELH. 88, 1, p. 251-280 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile10 Downloads (Pure) -
Doris Lessing at 100: the Writer's Quest
Taunton, M. (ed.) & Williams, N. (ed.), 14 Apr 2021, In: Critical Quarterly. 63, 1, p. 1-128 128 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Special issue › peer-review
-
Literature of the 'Thirties
Taunton, M., 22 Sep 2021, Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature. Oxford University Press, (Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Activities
-
British Association for Modernist Studies Conference: Hopeful Modernisms
Matthew Taunton (Speaker)
23 Jun 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
-
Tragic Form and Comic Effects in the Novel of Ideas
Matthew Taunton (Speaker)
9 Mar 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Invited talk
-
Oxford University Press (Publisher)
Matthew Taunton (Peer reviewer)
2022 → …Activity: Editorial work › Publication editorial role
-
Oxford University Press (Publisher)
Matthew Taunton (Peer reviewer)
2022 → …Activity: Editorial work › Publication editorial role
-
College Literature (Journal)
Matthew Taunton (Peer reviewer)
2021 → …Activity: Editorial work › Publication peer-review