Key details
Dr Daniel Weston
Senior Lecturer in English Literature
Dr Daniel Weston began working at the University of Greenwich in 2015. Before this he was a lecturer at the University of Hull and a teaching fellow at the University of Nottingham. He studied for his MA and PhD at the University of Nottingham after his BA at the University of York. Daniel has interests spanning the period from modernism through the post-war era to contemporary writing. An important strand of his research has focused on representations of landscape, place, and environment in literary texts, with particular emphasis on contemporary writing in several different forms (poetry, fiction, non-fiction). He is interested in literary theory and interdisciplinary methodologies, particularly the interface between literary studies and cultural geography. Other work has considered literary London, experimental novels, post-war poetry, and the relationship between ecology and literary form. He is currently at work on a project considering the slippery, seemingly genre-less texts that play an increasingly important role in the contemporary scene.
Responsibilities within the university
Daniel teaches on the following modules:
- Contemporary Writing and Critical Theory
- Poetry and Drama in Context
- Literary Forms of Representation
- Case Studies in Short Fiction
- Imagining the Metropolis
- Text and Theory
- Unreal City: London and Modernity
Daniel is also an Academic Conduct Officer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Recognition
- External examiner, Canterbury Christ Church University
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Peer reviewer for journals including Contemporary Literature, Literature and History, Cultural Geographies
- Reader of proposals and manuscripts for academic publishers including Bloomsbury Academic, Liverpool University Press, Routledge
- Formerly executive committee member, Literary London Society
Research / Scholarly interests
Daniel’s current research project investigates varieties of ‘genre-less’ literature over the last ten years. The research focuses on contemporary writers who have concluded that inherited literary forms and narratives might capture the shape of life but miss its substance. These writers are willing to forgo the former to approach the latter. They jettison novel and memoir in favour of strange hybrids that cannibalise elements of both to capture the reality of lived experience.
Before this latest project, much of Daniel's research focused on literary representations of landscape, place, and environment. His first monograph, Contemporary Literary Landscapes: The Poetics of Experience (Ashgate, 2016) surveyed late-20th- and 21st-century landscape-writing across poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction. The research was interdisciplinary and looked to critical paradigms from literary criticism and cultural geography to devise new ways of thinking about landscape writing. A number of other publications have also flowed out of this longstanding interest.
Other work has resulted in publications addressing experimental novels of the 21st century, post-war poetry, the city (especially London) in literature, ecology and poetic form, and other topics (single author studies and wide-ranging surveys).
Recent publications
Article
Weston, Daniel Peter and , (2018), Exploring first-year undergraduates’ perceptions of poetry and their acquisition of skills in reading poetry for study at university. Educational Development, University of Greenwich. In: , , , . Educational Development, University of Greenwich, Compass: The Journal of Learning and Teaching at the University of Greenwich, 11 (2) ISSN: 2044-0081 (Print), (doi: https://doi.org/10.21100/compass.v11i2.791).
Weston, Daniel and , (2018), Two contemporary poets and the Ted Hughes bestiary. The Ted Hughes Society. In: , , , . The Ted Hughes Society, The Ted Hughes Society Journal, 7 (1) . pp. 89-101 ISSN: 2051-7270 (Print), (doi: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5693c7287086d7242736f5d5/t/5b4332f50e2e72bb8079a74f/1531130652873/The+Ted+Hughes+Society+Journal+VII.1.pdf).
Weston, Daniel Peter and , (2016), Contemporary poetic ecologies and a return to form. Open Library of Humanities. In: , , , . Open Library of Humanities, C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-century Writings, 4: 5 (1) . pp. 1-24 2045-5224 (Online) (doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/c21.5).
Book
Weston, Daniel and , (2016), Contemporary Literary Landscapes: The Poetics of Experience. Ashgate. In: , , , . Ashgate, Farnham . ISBN: 9781472474650 (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.
Book section
Weston, Daniel Peter and , (2020), Manifestos and Poetics/Poets on Writing. Wiley-Blackwell. In: , , In: Wolfgang Gortschacher, David Malcolm (eds.), A Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Poetry, 1960-2015. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, UK (1st) . pp. 97-105 . ISBN: 9781118843208; 9781118843253; 9781118843215 (doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118843215.ch2b.1) NB Item availability restricted.
Weston, Daniel Peter and , (2018), The environment in British fiction and non-fiction prose since 1945. Oxford University Press. In: , , , Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature. Oxford University Press, Oxford (doi: ).
Weston, Daniel and , (2016), W.G. Sebald's afterlives: haunting contemporary landscape writing. Rowman & Littlefield International. In: , , In: Ruth Heholt, Niamh Downing (eds.), Haunted Landscapes: Super-Nature and the Environment. Rowman & Littlefield International, London (1st) . pp. 167-180 . ISBN: 9781783488810 (doi: ) NB Item availability restricted.