Dr James Castell
Lecturer
School of English, Communication and Philosophy
- castellj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5410
- 2.05, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
My research focuses on English Literature.
I joined Cardiff University as a Lecturer in 2014, having been a research fellow at Hertford College, Oxford. I completed my PhD at St John's College, Cambridge and have also worked with and in secondary schools in a variety of different contexts.
2019
- Castell, J. 2019. The nature of Ted Hughes's similies. In: Roberts, N., Wormald, M. and Gifford, T. eds. Ted Hughes, Nature and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 87-106., (10.1007/978-3-319-97574-0_6)
2017
- Willis, M., Waddington, K. and Castell, J. 2017. ScienceHumanities: Theory, Politics, Practice. Journal of Literature and Science 10(2), pp. 6-18. (10.12929/jls.10.2.02)
- Castell, J., Waddington, K. and Willis, M. 2017. ScienceHumanities: Introduction. Journal of Literature and Science 10(2), pp. 1-5. (10.12929/jls.10.2.01)
- Castell, J. 2017. Book Review - Chase Pielak, Memorializing animals during the Romantic period (Ashgate, 2015). Romantic Textualities: Literature and Print Culture, 1780-1840(22), pp. 147-148. (10.18573/j.2017.10165)
2015
- Castell, J. 2015. William Wordsworth. In: Vance, N. and Wallace, J. eds. The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature Volume 4: 1790-1880., Vol. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 325-346.
- Castell, J. 2015. Wordsworth and 'the Life of Things'. In: Gravil, R. and Robinson, D. eds. The Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth. Oxford Handbooks of Literature Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 733-746.
2014
- Castell, J. 2014. Wordsworth, silence and the nonhuman. The Wordsworth Circle 45(1), pp. 58-61.
- Castell, J. 2014. Peter Heymans, Animality in British Romanticism: The aesthetics of species [Book Review]. The Coleridge Bulletin 43(Summer), pp. 83-87.
2013
- Castell, J. 2013. Ashton Nichols, Beyond romantic ecocriticism: toward urbanatural roosting (New York and Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp. 254. £54 hardback. 9780230102675.[Book Review]. Romanticism 19(2), pp. 221-224. (10.3366/rom.2013.0136)
- Castell, J. 2013. James Vigus (ed.) Informal Romanticism (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2012)[Book Review]. The Coleridge Bulletin 41, pp. 110-113.
2011
- Castell, J. 2011. Denise Gigante, Life: organic form and Romanticism (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) [Book Review]. Romanticism 17(1), pp. 131-133. (10.3366/rom.2011.0016)
2010
- Castell, J. 2010. The society of birds in home at Grasmere. In: Gravil, R. ed. Grasmere 2010. Penrith: Humanities-Ebooks, pp. 65-76.
2009
- Castell, J. 2009. Wordsworth, Peter Bell, and animal life. In: Gravil, R. ed. Grasmere '09. Penrith: Humanities-Ebooks, pp. 146-157.
I am currently working on a monograph that focuses on 'animal life' in the poetry of William Wordsworth. The project builds upon recent research concerning the relationship between Romantic literature and science, the development of animal rights movements in the period, and renewed continental philosophical interest in animals and the nonhuman.
It takes a different approach to previous studies, however, by favouring close analysis of the role of poetic language in thinking philosophically about animal life. Entitled Wordsworth and Animal Life, it will contribute to a number of contemporary debates on literature and the nonhuman, as well as attempting to think in a new way about Wordsworth's reputation as a philosophical nature poet.
In addition, I am interested more broadly in critical theory, poetry and poetics, and the environmental humanities.
Research Interests
- Poetry and poetics;
- critical theory;
- Romanticism;
- philosophy of animals;
- ontology;
- nature writing;
- literature and science.