Dr Chris Mourant BA, MA, PhD

Department of English Literature
Lecturer in Early Twentieth-Century English Literature

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 415 8682
Email: c.mourant@bham.ac.uk

Address: Room G41, Arts Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I research twentieth-century literature and culture, with particular focus on modernism and networks of transnational connection, communication, and exchange.

Qualifications

Fellow, Higher Education Academy (2019)
PhD, King’s College London (2015)
BA and MA, University of Warwick (2009 and 2010)

Biography

Educated in the comprehensive system, I studied English Literature at the University of Warwick before completing my PhD at King’s College London (with a year abroad studying at the University of Stuttgart and the Sorbonne, Paris). After working as a Lecturer in English at Nottingham Trent University, I joined the University of Birmingham in 2016.

Teaching

I enjoy introducing students to works of prose fiction, especially modernist literature.

In years gone by, I have designed and delivered the following specialist option modules:

Modernism in the Magazines
The Modern Short Story
Single Author: Virginia Woolf.

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquires from prospective MRes and PhD students with research proposals relating to my areas of specialism.

Find out more - our PhD English Literature page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

I research twentieth-century literature and culture, with particular focus on modernism and networks of transnational connection, communication, and exchange.

My work sits at the intersection between literary/media histories. I am especially interested in how writers responded to and shaped cultures of periodical publishing and radio broadcasting.

I have published extensively on the life and work of New-Zealand born writer Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), the subject of my first monograph. The novels of E. M. Forster (1879-1970) are also a continuing research priority for me, alongside the work of associated authors such as D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, and George Orwell. At present, for Cambridge University Press, I am producing a new scholarly edition of Forster’s final novel, A Passage to India (1924).

Other activities

I am president of the international Katherine Mansfield Society.

Previously, I have served as co-director of the Centre for Modernist Cultures at the University of Birmingham (2017–23), co-editor of the journal Modernist Cultures (2020–23), contributor of the section ‘Fiction 1900–30’ to The Year’s Work in English Studies (2021–23), and executive committee member of the British Association for Modernist Studies (2013–15, 2017–19).

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Mourant, C & D'hoker, E (eds) 2021, The Modern Short Story and Magazine Culture, 1880–1950. Edinburgh University Press. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctv1hm8j01>

Article

Mourant, C 2023, 'Exile from Eden: Miron Grindea’s ADAM International Review', Journal of European Periodical Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 40-59. https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.85441

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Mourant, C 2020, Katherine Mansfield as Critic. in T Martin (ed.), The Bloomsbury Handbook to Katherine Mansfield. Bloomsbury, London, pp. 199-213.

Chapter

Mourant, C 2024, Correspondence: Colette and Katherine Mansfield. in G Kimber & A Gasston (eds), Katherine Mansfield's Women. Katherine Mansfield Studies, vol. 17, Edinburgh University Press.

Mourant, C 2024, Wired: Katherine Mansfield and the Telephone. in G Kimber & A Gasston (eds), Katherine Mansfield and London. Katherine Mansfield Studies, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 39-60.

Mourant, C 2022, Alfred Richard Orage (1873–1934). in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Volume 2: Letters to Correspondents K – Z. The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. 2, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 395-400. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399504027-027

Mourant, C 2022, Eric Pinker (1891–1973). in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Volume 2: Letters to Correspondents K – Z. The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. 2, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 437-444. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399504027-033

Mourant, C 2022, James Brand Pinker (1863–1922). in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Volume 2: Letters to Correspondents K – Z. The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. 2, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 445–465. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399504027-034

Mourant, C 2022, Michael Sadleir (1888–1957). in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, Volume 2: Letters to Correspondents K – Z. The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. 2, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 544-560. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399504027-043

Mourant, C 2022, The New Age. in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Letters to Correspondents K – Z. vol. 2, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 376–379. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399504027-025

D'hoker, E & Mourant, C 2021, Introduction. in E D'hoker & C Mourant (eds), The Modern Short Story and Magazine Culture, 1880–1950. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3366/j.ctv1hm8j01.4

Mourant, C 2020, Katherine Mansfield and American Modernism. in A Gasston, G Kimber & J Wilson (eds), Katherine Mansfield: New Directions. 1 edn, Historicising Modernism, Bloomsbury, London, pp. 92-109. <https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/katherine-mansfield-new-directions-9781350135505/>

Mourant, C 2020, Mark Gertler. in C Davison & G Kimber (eds), The Edinburgh Edition of the Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Letters to Correspondents A – J. vol. 1, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 594-7.

Review article

Sorensen, J, Mourant, C, Phillips, J, Parsons, K, Roach, R, Stringfellow, S, RodrÍguez MartÍn, GA, Fallow, C, Richards, J, Niven, A & Wheatley, D 2023, 'XIV Modern Literature', The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 961-1070. https://doi.org/10.1093/ywes/maad014

Ross, S, Mourant, C, Fischer, TM, Phillips, J, Parsons, K, Stringfellow, S, RodrÍguez MartÍn, GA, Saunders, G, Richards, J, Quin, J & Roach, R (ed.) 2022, 'XIV Modern Literature', The Year's Work in English Studies, vol. 101, no. 1, pp. 971-1083. https://doi.org/10.1093/ywes/maac014

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