
Dr Megan Leitch
BA Hons (Br.Col.), MPhil, PhD (Cambridge)
Reader
- leitchm@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0406
- 2.18, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a Reader at Cardiff University, where I teach and research medieval English literature. I am also co-editor of the journal Arthurian Literature and President of the International Arthurian Society British Branch.
My second monograph, Sleep and its spaces in Middle English literature: Emotions, ethics, dreams (Manchester University Press, 2021), explores how the subject of sleep interlaces medical, moral, and imaginative discourses in the Middle Ages. The book’s contributions include analysing how sleep shapes the ethical codes and emotive scripts of Middle English romance, fabliau, drama, and dream visions; establishing sleep’s significance for medieval approaches to mental health; and offering a new understanding of Chaucer’s dream visions by exploring their hitherto-neglected engagements with Aristotelian dream theories and English traditions.
I have also recently co-edited Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance (with Victoria Flood; Boydell & Brewer, January 2022), a collection of essays that has emerged from the 16th Biennial Medieval Insular Romance conference, which I hosted at Cardiff in 2018, and that positions a set of inter-related issues about ‘translation’ (across generic, geographic, and social boundaries as well as linguistic ones) as crucial for our understanding of the evolution of medieval romance from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries.
I am now working on a new monograph project, The Medieval Middlebrow: Romance and the Body Politic, 1300-1534, which explores the democratization of literary culture in later medieval England and takes an intersectional approach to the politics of gender, class, race, religion, and dis/ability. I am also editing Volume II (The Middle Ages) of Bloomsbury's six-volume A Cultural History of Sleep and Dreaming (under contract, 2025).
Previous books include:
- Romancing Treason: The Literature of the Wars of the Roses (Oxford University Press, 2015)
- Romance Rewritten: The Evolution of Middle English Romance, co-edited with Elizabeth Archibald and Corinne Saunders (D. S. Brewer, 2018)
- A New Companion to Malory, co-edited with Cory James Rushton (D. S. Brewer, 2019)
I have published articles on Arthurian literature, medieval romance, and Chaucer in various edited books and in journals including Arthuriana, Arthurian Literature, The Chaucer Review, Medium Aevum, and Parergon (for full details, see the 'Publications' tab).
I am currently supervising PhD students working on Arthurian literature (including English, French, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton traditions), medieval romance, and medieval queens in early modern drama. I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students planning research in these areas or in the other areas listed under my research interests. Informal enquiries are always welcome.
I am a Welsh Crucible 2022 Future Research Leader, and my work on sleep and the medical humanities is featured in a recent blog post on the public engagement platform, The Polyphony.
Biography
Career Overview
- August 2020 - present: Reader in English Literature, Cardiff University
- August 2016 - July 2020: Senior Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University
- September 2012 - July 2016: Lecturer in English Literature, Cardiff University
Education and Qualifications
- 2012: PhD, University of Cambridge
- 2009: MPhil, University of Cambridge
- 2008: BA (Hons), University of British Columbia
Honours and awards
- Welsh Crucible 2022 Future Research Leader
- Cardiff University Research Leave Fellowship, 2018-19
- Visiting Research Fellow, St Catherine's College, University of Oxford, 2015
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy
- New Chaucer Society
- International Arthurian Society, British Branch
- Canadian Society of Medievalists
Speaking engagements
Invited addresses include:
London Medieval Society Colloquium to mark the 550th anniversary of Thomas Malory’s death, November 2021: ‘Malory and the Crux of “Conscious Artistry”’
University of Reading, November 2021: ‘Sleep and its Spaces in Middle English Literature: Emotions, Ethics, Dreams’
National Museum of Wales, Youth Forum, November 2021: ‘Night at the Museum’
University of Bristol, Department of English Research Seminar, March 2019: ‘Sleep and its spaces in Middle English literature’
Swansea University, MEMO Symposium by the Sea (keynote), June 2018: ‘Drowsy Knights and Dreamers: The Ethics and Affect of Sleep from Chaucer to Shakespeare’
University of Cambridge, English Faculty Medieval Seminar, May 2018: ‘“grete luste to slepe”: Sleeping through it all in Middle English Romance, Drama, and Dream Visions’
Cardiff BookTalk Special World Poetry Day Event, March 2018: ‘Telling Tales’ (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Patience Agbabi’s 21st-century reinterpretation)
Oxford Medieval Society, termly visiting speaker event, February 2018: ‘Fighting for Mordred in the Fifteenth Century: Insular Identities and the Geopolitics of Literary Treason’
London Old and Middle English Research Seminar (LOMERS), November 2015: ‘“grete luste to slepe”: Sleep and its Spaces in the Pre-modern Imagination’
University of Cambridge, Magdalene Medievalists Seminar, June 2015: ‘Chaucer, Hypertextuality, and the Memory of Middle English Popular Romance’
University of Oxford, Medieval Seminar, October 2014: ‘Drowsy Knights and Dreamers: The Ethics and Affect of Sleep from Chaucer to Malory’
Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, Conference on Representing War and Violence in the Pre-Modern World, September 2013: ‘”For treason walketh wonder wyde”: civil strife and pragmatism in the literature of the Wars of the Roses, c.1437-c.1497’
Durham University, Department of English Seminar, March 2013: ‘Sleep and Romance from Chaucer to Shakespeare’
University of Bristol, Centre for Medieval Studies Seminar, October 2012: ‘”For treason walketh wonder wyde”: Treason, Truth, and Pragmatism in the Literature of the Wars of the Roses, c.1437-c.1497’
Committees and reviewing
Director, Cardiff Centre for Medieval Studies
Co-editor, Arthurian Literature
Publications
2022
- Leitch, M. G. 2022. The artistry of Malory’s mercantile metaphors: Goods, generosity, and the source of 'The Tale of Sir Gareth'. In: Leitch, M. and Whetter, K. S. eds. Arthurian Literature XXXVII., Vol. 37. Arthurian Literature Boydell and Brewer Inc, pp. 23-48., (10.1017/9781800105911.004)
- Flood, V. and Leitch, M. G. 2022. Cultural translations in medieval romance. D. S. Brewer.
- Leitch, M. G. 2022. Merchants in shining armour: chivalrous interventions and social mobility in Late Middle English romance. In: Flood, V. and Leitch, M. G. eds. Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance. D. S. Brewer
- Leitch, M. and Whetter, K. S. eds. 2022. Arthurian literature. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
2021
- Leitch, M. G. 2021. From sorceresses to scholars: universities and the disenchantment of romance. In: Edwards, A. S. G. ed. Medieval Romance, Arthurian Literature: Essays in Honour of Elizabeth Archibald. D. S. Brewer, pp. 16-33.
- Leitch, M. 2021. Sleep and its spaces in Middle English literature: emotions, ethics, dreams. Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Leitch, M. and Whetter, K. eds. 2021. Arthurian literature. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
2019
- Leitch, M. G. 2019. Malory in literary context. In: Leitch, M. G. and Rushton, C. J. eds. A New Companion to Malory. Arthurian Studies Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer
- Leitch, M. G. and Rushton, C. J. eds. 2019. A new companion to Malory. Arthurian Studies. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer.
- Leitch, M. and Bellis, J. 2019. Chivalric literature. In: Companion to Chivalry. Boydell Press
2018
- Leitch, M. G. 2018. Middle English romance: The motifs and the critics. In: Archibald, E., Leitch, M. G. and Saunders, C. eds. Romance Rewritten: The Evolution of Middle English Romance. A Tribute to Helen Cooper. Studies in Medieval Romance Cambridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, pp. 1-24.
- Leitch, M. G., Archibald, E. and Saunders, C. eds. 2018. Romance rewritten: The evolution of Middle English romance. Studies in Medieval Romance. Cambridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer.
2017
- Leitch, M. 2017. The servants of chivalry? Dwarfs and porters in Malory and the Middle English Gawain romances. Arthuriana 27(1), pp. 3-27. (10.1353/art.2017.0000)
2016
- Leitch, M. 2016. “of his ffader spak he no thing”: family resemblance and anxiety of influence in the prose romances. In: King, A. and Woodcock, M. eds. Medieval Into Renaissance: Essays for Helen Cooper. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer
- Leitch, M. 2016. Mordred. In: Echard, S. and Rouse, R. eds. Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature. Wiley-Blackwell
- Leitch, M. 2016. Prose romance. In: Echard, S. and Rouse, R. eds. Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature. Wiley-Blackwell
- Leitch, M. 2016. The squire of low degree. In: Echard, S. and Rouse, R. eds. Encyclopedia of British Medieval Literature. Wiley-Blackwell
2015
- Leitch, M. 2015. Ritual, revenge and the politics of chess in Medieval romance. In: Perkins, N. ed. Medieval Romance and Material Culture. Studies in Medieval Romance Boydell and Brewer, pp. 129-146.
- Leitch, M. 2015. 'grete luste to slepe': somatic ethics and the sleep of romance from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to Shakespeare. Parergon 32(1), pp. 103-128. (10.1353/pgn.2015.0006)
- Leitch, M. 2015. Romancing treason: The literature of the Wars of the Roses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2014
- Leitch, M. 2014. Enter the bedroom: managing space for the erotic in Middle English romance. In: Hopkins, A., Rouse, R. A. and Rushton, C. J. eds. Sexual Culture in Late Medieval Britain. Boydell and Brewer, pp. 39-53.
- Leitch, M. 2014. "suche maner of sorow-makynge": affect, ethics and unconsciousness in Malory's Morte Darthur. Arthurian Literature 2014, pp. 83-99.
2012
- Leitch, M. 2012. Thinking twice about treason in Caxton's prose romances: Proper chivalric conduct and the English printing press. Medium Aevum LXXXI(1), pp. 41-69.
- Leitch, M. 2012. Locating authorial ethics: the idea of the ‘male’ or book-bag in the 'Canterbury Tales' and other Middle English poems. The Chaucer Review 46(4), pp. 403-418. (10.1353/cr.2012.0004)
2011
- Leitch, M. 2011. (Dis)figuring transgressive desire: blood, sex, and stained sheets in Malory’s Morte Darthur. In: Clark, D. and McClune, K. eds. Arthurian Literature XXVIII: Blood, Sex, Malory: Essays on the Morte Darthur. Arthurian Literature Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 21-38.
2010
- Leitch, M. 2010. Speaking (of) treason in Malory’s 'Morte Darthur'. In: Archibald, E. and Johnson, D. F. eds. Arthurian Literature XXVII. Arthurian Literature Vol. 27. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 103-134.
Teaching
At Cardiff I enjoy teaching a range of undergraduate and MA modules on medieval literature. These include:
- Transgressive Bodies in Medieval Literature (Year One)
- Chaucer's Gender Politics: Chivalry, Sex and Subversion in The Canterbury Tales (Year Two)
- Medieval Romance: Monsters and Magic (Year Three)
- Heroes and Villains from Chaucer to Shakespeare (MA)
Research interests
- medieval romance; Arthurian literature; Chaucer; dream visions
- history of the emotions
- gender studies
- medical humanities
- literature and law
- treason, sleep, and dwarves in Middle English literature
- Malory's Morte Darthur, the Wars of the Roses, and the fifteenth century
- periodisation and continuities between medieval and early modern English Literature
I am happy to supervise PhD students in any of these areas. Current and recent PhD students I have supervised have focused on Arthurian literature, medieval romance, and medieval queens in early modern drama (see the supervision tab).
My first monograph, Romancing Treason: The Literature of the Wars of the Roses (Oxford University Press, 2015), analyses texts from a variety of genres, and romance in particular, alongside contemporary social and political discourses, demonstrating that this literary culture is broader and richer than has previously been recognized. While the mid-to-late fifteenth century often goes unaddressed by both medievalists and early modernists, seen as a blip or rupture between the highs of Chaucer (and his immediate successors) and the developments of Tudor writers, my book examines the central role of treason in Malory's Morte Darthur (written in 1469; printed by Caxton in 1485) and in understudied contemporary romances such as the prose Siege of Thebes and Siege of Troy, Melusine, and Caxton's translations. Romancing Treason establishes some characteristics for the space between Lancastrian and Tudor literary culture, articulating the idea of a literature of the Wars of the Roses. Drawing upon theories of political discourse and interpellation, of the power of language to shape social identities, this book explores the ways in which, in this textual culture, treason is both a source of anxieties about community and identity, and a way of responding to those concerns. I argue that this literature offers instruction by both negative and positive reinforcement, with the former - the mode of paraenesis or admonition - attaining a distinctive primacy. Prose romances play a central role in this ethical discourse, but the concentrated yet contested ways in which treason is discussed in attainders, petitions, political poems, chronicles, and correspondence, as well as in literary texts, point us to a key word and concept of the time.
Reviews of Romancing Treason: The Literature of the Wars of the Roses state that it ‘brilliantly sheds new light by its very insistence on seeing [Malory’s] work in a larger, national context’ (David Lawton, Renaissance Quarterly 71.4, 2018), gives an ‘account of romances [that] outlines a particular historical change with measure and assurance’ (Eliot Kendall, Review of English Studies 66, 2015), and ‘presents a cogent, consistent, and compelling hypothesis, one that is theoretically nuanced and well researched’ (Matthew Giancarlo, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 38, 2016).
My research interests in Arthurian Literature and medieval romance have also led to three co-edited volumes: Romance Rewritten: The Evolution of Middle English Romance, co-edited with Elizabeth Archibald and Corinne Saunders (D. S. Brewer, 2018); A New Companion to Malory, co-edited with Cory James Rushton (D. S. Brewer, 2019); and Cultural Translations in Medieval Romance, co-edited with Victoria Flood (D. S. Brewer, 2022).
My work also focuses on Chaucer and on the medical humanities and history of the emotions. I have published on Chaucer's poetics and tropes of gendered authorial anxiety in The Chaucer Review, and both Chaucer and romance are central to my second monograph. Entitled Sleep and its spaces in Middle English literature: Emotions, ethics, dreams (Manchester University Press, 2021), this study explores the affective, ethical, and epistemic issues raised by sleep from the twelfth century to the early seventeenth, ranging across the genres of romance, fabliau, drama, and dream vision. This first book-length study of sleep's vital implications for how medieval people thought of and fashioned themselves, individually and collectively, elucidates a pre-modern mode of reading and moulding gendered bodily performance that shapes many works of medieval and early modern literature, and the continuities between them. It also questions the distinctions we can (or should) make between literature and medical tracts, conduct books, and sermons - between imagination and practice.
My work on sleep, emotions, and the medical humanities is featured in a recent blog post on the public engagement platform, The Polyphony.
Supervision
I am currently supervising PhD students working on medieval Arthurian literature (including English, French, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton traditions), crusading interests in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century English prose romances, and medieval English queens on the early modern stage. I welcome applications from prospective postgraduate students planning research in these areas or in the other areas listed under my research interests. Informal enquiries are always welcome.
Current supervision
Past projects
(Primary supervisor) Dr Martha Baldon (awarded 2018): 'The Logic of the Grail in Old French and Middle English Arthurian Romance' (funded by the AHRC)
(Supervisor; 50%) Dr Victoria Shirley (awarded 2018): 'The Galfridian Tradition(s) in England, Scotland, and Wales: Texts, Purpose, Context, 1138-1530' (funded by the AHRC)
(Primary supervisor) Dr David Mason (awarded 2020): ‘Combat, Crusade and Conversion: Prose Romance and the English Printing Press, 1473-1534’ (funded by the SWW DTP)