Biography
Alan J. Fletcher joined the School of English in 1979. Before that he taught at the Universities of Leeds and of Oxford. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
Research Interests
Theatre and performance history. Also, the reconstruction and performance of early music and drama. In this regard I have produced and recorded early plays with student groups within my university, as well as with professionals at R.T.E. (the national Irish broadcasting company) and at the B.B.C. I have also written for and personally participated in documentaries on medieval culture for these two national broadcasting companies, my most recent venture (March 2005) being a series of three programmes for B.B.C. Radio 4 on the history and nature of humour. The book contract forWho Murdered Chaucer? (noted below under books published) has also safeguarded rights in view of the material possibility that the book's substance will be reworked for media presentation.
'Moveable feasts' (my proposed future research schedule, in a notional chronological order):
• A critical edition, with introduction, commentary, and full supporting apparatus, of the entire corpus of Latin liturgical drama extant from the British Isles. Importantly, this will include an edition of the music of the plays, where appropriate. The edition will be accompanied by an eductional package comprising a CD, and an image-rich website will be created to host text and downloadable video and music files. The website will expand and develop reciprocally with the project.
• A digital archive of all of the early muniments of Dublin from the medieval to the beginning of the early modern period.
• A research project, in tandem with one planned to begin at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester, which would aim to trace the development and politics of courtly entertainments between the reigns of Edward I and Henry VIII.
Research funding secured:
• £5,000, President's Research Award, peer reviewed, UCD (1991)
• £2,000, National University of Ireland, book subvention award (1998)
• £1,000, National University of Ireland, book subvention award (2000)
• £5,750, Esmé Mitchell Trust, research grant and book subvention award (2000)
• £1,000, National University of Ireland, book subvention award (2001)
• €4,500, Trinity College Dublin Association and Trust, book subvention award (2005)
Research funding application:
• €57,000, Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2005)
Books
Fletcher, A.; (2009) Late-Medieval Popular Preaching in Britain and Ireland: Texts, Studies, and Interpretations. Belgium: Brepols.
Fletcher, A. & Beadle, R.; (2008) The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, c. 1350 - c. 1520 2nd Ed. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.
Fletcher, A.J., and D'Arcy, A.M.; (2005) Essays on Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Texts in Honour of John Scattergood: The Key of All Good Remembrance. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Fletcher, A., with Terry Jones, R. F. Yeager, T. Dolan, and J. D'Or; (2003) Who Murdered Chaucer?. London: Methuen.
Fletcher, A.,; (2001) Drama and the Performing Arts in Pre-Cromwellian Ireland: A Repertory of Sources and Documents. Cambridge: Brewer.
Fletcher, A.J., and Gillespie, R.; (2001) Irish Preaching, 700-1700. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Fletcher, A.J.; (2000) Drama, Performance and Polity in Pre-Cromwellian Ireland. Toronto: Toronto University Press.
Book Chapters
Fletcher, Alan; (2008) 'The Liturgy and Music of the Medieval Cathedral' In: John Crawford and Raymond Gillespie (eds). A History of St Patrick's Cathedral. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, Alan; (2008) 'The Annals and Chronicles of Medieval Dublin: An Overview' In: Duffy, Sean (eds). Medieval Dublin VIII. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, A.; (2006) 'The de Derby Psalter of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin'' In: R. Refaussé and R. Gillespie (eds). The Medieval Archives of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, A.; (2008) 'Compilations for Preaching and Lollard Literature' In: Morgan, N. and Thomson, R (eds). The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain. Cambridge: CUP.
Fletcher, A.; (2006) 'The Liber Albus of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin' In: Refaussé, R. and Gillespie, R (eds). The Medieval Archives of Christ Church Cathedral. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, A.; (2006) 'Reading Radical Metonymy in Pearl' In: Bessserman, L (eds). Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Modern Cultures. New York and London: *.
Fletcher, A.; (2005) 'Middle English Debate Literature' In: Johnson, D. and Treharne, E (eds). Reading in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature. Oxford: OUP.
Fletcher, A.; (2005) 'Pearl and the Limits of History' In: D'Arcy, A-M and Fletcher, A (eds). Essays on Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Texts in Honour of John Scattergood: The Key of all Good Remembrance. Dublin: UCD Press.
Fletcher, A.; (2005) 'The Lyric in the Sermon' In: Duncan, T (eds). A Companion to the Middle English Lyric. Cambridge: CUP.
Fletcher, A.,; (2004) 'God's Jesters and the Festive Culture of Medieval Ireland' In: Seán Duffy (eds). Medieval Dublin V. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, A.,; (2004) 'Joseph Ashbury' In: B. Harrison (eds). The New Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: *.
Fletcher, A.,; (2003) 'Chaucer the Heretic' In: Studies in the Age of Chaucer 25. *: *.
Fletcher, A.; (2002) 'The Essential (Ephemeral) William Langland: Textual Revision as Ethical Process in Piers Plowman' In: Yearbook of Langland Studies 15. *: *.
Fletcher, A.,; (2001) 'Preaching in Late-Medieval Ireland' In: Alan J. Fletcher and Raymond Gillespie (eds). Irish Preaching, 700-1700. Dublin: *.
Fletcher, A.,; (2000) 'The Liturgy of the Late-Medieval Cathedral Priory of Christ Church, Dublin' In: A History of Christ Church Cathedral. Dublin: *.
Peer Reviewed Journals
Fletcher, A.; (2005) 'The Reception of My Lord of Ormonde at Kilkenny upon the First Peace 1646'. Journal of the Butler Society, 4 :241-256.
Fletcher, A.; (2005) 'Turning and Turning in the Narrowing Gyre: The Shaping of W. B. Yeats's Dramaturgy and its Sense of Irish Performance History'. Irish Studies Review, 13 :203-220.
Fletcher, A.,; (2004) 'Variations on a Theme attributed to Robert Holcot: Lessons for Late Medieval English Preaching from the Castle of Prudence'. Journal of Medieval Studies, 66.
Fletcher, A.,; (2002) 'The Essential (Ephemeral) William Langland: Textual Revision as Ethical Process in Piers Plowman'. Yearbook of Langland Studies, 15 :61-84.
Fletcher, A.,; (2000) 'Sir Orfeo and the Flight from the Enchanters'. Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 22 :141-178.
Associations
Association: Royal Irish Academy, Function/Role: Member
Other Activities
Journal reviewer
I haved acted as a peer reviewer for numerous articles submitted to such scholarly periodicals as the following:
The Chaucer Review;
Mediæval Studies;
Medium Ævum;
The Review of English Studies;
Studies in the Age of Chaucer.
Peer Reviewer
I also act as a peer reviewer of book proposals within the domain of late medieval and early Renaissance studies for Cambridge University Press and for D. S. Brewer, Cambridge. I serve on the panel of the Arts and Humanities Research Board of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as assessor for funding applications in late medieval and early modern studies.
Academic appointments:
• Appointed in 1986 and in 1993 as PhD external examiner to the Department of English, Trinity College, Dublin.
• Appointed in 2002 as MA external examiner to the Department of English, University of Sterling, for a three-year term.
• Appointed in 2003 as MA external examiner to the Department of English, University of Dundee, for a three-year term.
• Appointed in 2004 as PhD external examiner to the Department of English, University of Sheffield.
• Appointed in 2007 as MA external examiner to the Department of English, University of Leicester, for a three-year term.
• Appointed in 2004 as a Trustee of Dvblinia, the museum of the early history of the city of Dublin, Christ Church Place, Dublin 2.
Teaching Interests
Teaching experience:
Keble College, Oxford, 1975-6, appointed tutor for Schools English, the History of the Language paper, and at Worcester College, Oxford, 1975-6, tutor for Schools English, the Chaucer and Langland paper.
Leeds University, School of English, 1976-8, appointed Tutorial Assistant to teach Single Hons First-Year Old English, Joint Hons First-Year Early Modern English (1500-1700) and Single Hons Third-Year Chaucer; 1977, appointed as Temporary Lecturer, with particular responsibility for the Single Hons Third-Year Chaucer course and the Single Hons Second-Year Middle English literature course.
University College Dublin, Department of English, 1978-, appointed to the Department of English (now the School of English and Drama) to teach diverse aspects of medieval and Renaissance texts at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. This includes the supervision of M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. students. At undergraduate level I also hold tutorials on modern and postmodern English texts.
New teaching and course initiatives:
I have recently developed and introduced to my School of English and Drama a series of new seminar courses which share in common the aim of bridging the medieval and the (post)modern. Essentially, each course asks students to consider how the medieval past is apprehended and constructed in the (post)modern present. Courses include:
• Gothic and Gothick: a course examining ways in which medieval culture was received and remodelled in English literature and culture between the late-eighteenth and early-twentieth centuries. (Modern texts include work by Horace Walpole, Matthew Lewis, John Keats, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Montague R. James.)
• Medieval Celluloid: a film-centred course that matches big-screen versions of ‘the medieval' with kindred themes in medieval texts. (Films studied include Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal, Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, John Boorman's Excalibur, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam's Monty Python and the Holy Grail; and Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales.)