Felicity Brown wins Derek Brewer Essay Prize for work on Arthurian literature
Dr Felicity Brown, Lecturer in English at Christ Church, has won the prestigious Derek Brewer Essay Prize, offered in memory of the distinguished medievalist and founder of the D. S. Brewer publishing imprint, for a work on Arthurian literature.
Dr Brown’s piece, titled Playing Arthur: Making the Elizabethan Mariner, is about the influence of Arthurian Accession Day Tournament shows of George Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland (aka the Privateering Earl) on conceptions of sailors in Elizabethan England.
In her essay, Dr Brown suggests that performing sailors in chivalric pseudo-Arthurian events contributed to the transformation of the mariner's position in society.
Dr Megan Leitch, co-editor of Arthurian Literature, said: 'My Arthurian Literature co-editor Professor Kevin Whetter and I are delighted to award this year's Derek Brewer ECR Essay Prize to Dr Felicity Brown for her compelling reading of the playful politics of understudied early modern Arthurian drama.'
The prize-winning essay will be published in the 2024 volume of Arthurian Literature.
Other Christ Church news
