Professor David Roberts, Birmingham City University.

George Farquhar: A Migrant Life Reversed

Studio Space, Minghella, 15.30, Thursday, 12 October

This paper is based on the introduction to David’s forthcoming book, George Farquhar: A Migrant Life Reversed, to be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018. It examines the tradition of biographical writing about the Restoration dramatist George Farquhar and begins to explore how the theory and practice of migrant writing might be used to address concerns in Farquhar’s work hitherto either over-valued or disregarded as merely personal. Addressing ethical and epistemological issues in the production of literary biography, the paper presents a case for the radical revision of that genre in respect of Farquhar’s life.

David Roberts is Professor of English and Dean of the Arts, Design and Media at Birmingham City University, where he oversees and teaches at the (now) Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and Acting. Recent books include Thomas Betterton and Restoration Plays and Players, both for Cambridge University Press, and The Library of a Seventeenth-Century Actor for the Society for Theatre Research.