Theresa Kenney, PhD

B.A. English and Classics, Pennsylvania State University
M.A. English, University of Notre Dame
PhD English, Stanford University

Literary Tradition I, II, III, IV
Jane Austen
Arthurian Romance
Charles Dickens
Medieval Lyric and Romance
Religious Lyric
Shakespeare
John Donne

17th-Century Lyric
Jane Austen
Arthurian Literature
Medieval Literature
Renaissance English and European Literature
Dante
19th-Century Novel

Books

Last Impressions: Jane Austen’s Conclusions. University of Toronto Press, Spring 2025.
 

“All Wonders in One Sight”: The Christ Child Among the Elizabethan and Stuart Poets. University of Toronto Press, 2021.

The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha es et O! Co-edited with Mary Dzon. University of Toronto Press, 2012.

"Women Are Not Human": An Anonymous Treatise and Responses.  NY: Crossroad, 1998.

Essays

“Emma,” “Lady Susan,” in Palgrave McMillan Encyclopedia of Women Romantic Writers. Forthcoming.
 

“‘He hath made Himself ... Weak enough, now into the world to come’: The Embryo Christ in Lancelot Andrewes and John Donne.” Life and Learning XXXI:  Proceedings of the Thirty-First University Faculty For Life Conference. Edited by Fr. Joseph Koterski, SJ. University Faculty for Life. 2022. 131-42.

“Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Introduction to La Respuesta.” In Learning the Good Life: Wisdom from the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before. Edited by Jessica Hooten Wilson and Jacob Stratman. Zondervan Academic Publishing, 2022. 

“‘Sensualiter tangitur’: The Christ Child ‘Born a Martyr’ in John Donne’s Sermon for Christmas 1626.” John Donne Journal 36 (2021): 91-117. Mentioned in upcoming Volume 13 of The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne, sermon preached at St Paul’s Cathedral on Christmas Day, 1626. 

“‘Abjuring all future attachments’: Concluding Lady Susan.” Persuasions On-Line 41.1 (Winter 2020): np. 

 “‘Don’t know much about history’: History and Histrionics, Moderation and Passion in Northanger Abbey.” Persuasions (2020): 93-106.

 “A Tale of Two Captains: Whose Heart Is Worth Having?” Persuasions Online 39.1 (2018).

“The Nativity in the Middle Ages through the Reformation.” In The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Rachel Fulton Brown and Rika Spiekermann. Berlin: De Gruyter.

“The Manger in the Early Modern Period.” In The Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception. Edited by Rachel Fulton Brown and Rika Spiekermann. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019

“’This pomp is prizèd there’: Southwell’s Challenge to Courtly Identities in His Nativity Lyrics.” In Precarious Identities: The Works of Fulke Greville and Robert Southwell. Edited by Vassiliki Markidou and Afroditi-Maria Panaghis. New York: Routledge, 2019.

“‘God did play the child’: Robert Southwell’s ‘Christes childhood.’” Reprinted in Literature Criticism from 1400-1800: Robert Southwell, Volume 258. Gale/Cengage Learning, 2017. 194-198:

“Benevolence and Sympathy in Emma.” Persuasions 38 (2017): 66-80

“Why Edward Ferrars Doesn’t Dance.” In Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Ed. by Eleanor Donlon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2015. (shorter version of essay published in Persuasions)

“Why Tom Bertram Cannot Die.” Persuasions Online 35.1 (2014).

“‘God did play the child’: Robert Southwell’s ‘Christes childhood.’” Logos 17.3 (Summer 2014): 170-80.

“The Christ Child on Fire: Robert Southwell’s Mighty Babe.” ELR 43.3 (2013): 415-45.

“Why Edward Ferrars Doesn’t Dance.” Persuasions 34 (2013): 155-68.

"Anne De Bourgh Smiles.” Persuasions Online (2013).

“The Heroic Cicatrix and Bleak House,” with Cheryl Kinney, M.D. Dickens Quarterly 30.4 (December 2013): 267-77.

"Jane Austen, Revolution, Socialist Realism, and Reception: A Response to Helong Zhang's 'Jane Austen: 100 Years in China.'" Persuasions 33 (2012).

"Aisha, Rajshree Ojha's Urban Emma: Not Entirely Clueless." Persuasions Online 32.1 (Winter 2011).

"Mansfield Park and the Conscience Outside the Self." In Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Ed by Eleanor Donlon. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010.

"Compassion and Condemnation in Wuthering Heights: Mediation, Christianity, and the Occult." In Wuthering Heights. Ed. by Joseph Pearce. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008.

"'Slyness Seems the Fashion': Dexterous Revelations in Pride and Prejudice." Persuasions 27 (2006).

"'As she was not really Mrs. Croft': Playing the Admiral's Wife in Bath." Persuasions 26 (2005).

"Arcangela Tarabotti, Venetian Humanist and Nun." Canticle, 2000.

"From Francesca to Francesco: Transcribing the Tale of Passion from the Inferno to the Paradiso, or Thomas Aquinas as Romancier." Religion and Literature 31.1 (1999).

John Donne's Conversion from Misogyny." English Renaissance Prose 6 (1997-98).