Dr Todd Dearing

I am a researcher and writer investigating the intersections of literature, art, psychology, and philosophy. I focus on conceptions of human nature, imagination, creativity, and genius, exploring how these impact upon what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. I have articles published in English Studies and forthcoming in Journal of Romanticism and have presented my work both nationally and internationally.

My doctoral thesis explores the trope of the daimon in William Blake’s Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion as an allegory for Blake’s humanistic vision. My thesis argues that Blake’s daimon provides a methodology for understanding and developing our humanity through literature.

I value excellence in research, teaching, and leadership as a way of service to the academic and wider community.

Research interests:

• English Romanticism
• German Romanticism
• Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Anglo-German Romantic culture and thought
• Cognitive poetics
• William Blake
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Johann Wilhelm von Goethe
• Johann Georg Hamann
• Wilhelm von Humboldt
• Psychology and literature
• Language, poetry, mythology, mythopoesis
• Imagination, genius, creativity, the daimon
• Deep history, archeo-psychology, embodied imagination
• Narratology and characterisation
• Contemporary literary theory, practice, pedagogy, and criticism
• The Humanities - past, present, and future
• New literary humanism
• Art history
• Human potential
• Literature and wisdom