Professor Claire Nally

Professor

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

I am a researcher in modern and contemporary literature, specifically Neo-Victorianism and Irish Studies. My first monograph was Envisioning Ireland: Occult Nationalism in the Work of W. B. Yeats (2009), followed by a second, co-written book (with John Strachan), entitled Advertising, Literature and Print Culture in Ireland, 1891-1922 (2012).

I have additional research interests in subcultures, the graphic novel, and gender, and this informed my third book, Steampunk: Gender, Subculture and the Neo-Victorian (2019), which is one of the first monographs on this topic in literature. I am also interested in the ways Neo-Victorianism functions as part of the (post)colonial encounter, with especial reference to Ireland.

I was the founding co-editor (with Angela Smith) of the Bloomsbury Library of Gender and Popular Culture (2011-2024) and I was the Deputy Editor (including Reviews) for the open access journal, C21 Literature (2019-2022).

I have published a wide range of articles and book chapters on material as diverse as contemporary Irish writing, heritage, Goth and burlesque. My latest research involves contemporary culture's engagement with memory, grief and mourning, and my fourth book, Death Memoirs in Contemporary Culture, is under contract with Bloomsbury.

Campus Address

Squires Building 202B
School of Design, Arts, and Creative Industries
Northumbria University
NE4 8ST

Email Claire

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Steampunk: Gender, Subculture and the Neo-Victorian, Nally, C. 27 Jun 2019
Advertising, literature and print culture in Ireland, 1891-1922, Strachan, J., Nally, C. 31 Aug 2012
Envisioning Ireland: W. B. Yeats's Occult Nationalism, Nally, C. Nov 2009
Rites and Rhymes, Nally, C. 21 Jun 2023, The Oxford Handbook of W. B. Yeats, Oxford, Oxford University Press
The ‘style terrorism’ of Siouxsie Sioux: femininity, early goth aesthetics and BDSM fashion, Nally, C. 2023, 'Let's Spend the Night Together', Manchester, Manchester University Press
The death positive library, Pitsillides, S., Nally, C., Luby, A., Brooks, R., Hill, F., Ghee, J., Ingham, K., Robinson, J. 26 Jul 2023, The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death, London, Taylor & Francis
Goth 'zines: Writing from the dark underground, 1976-92, Nally, C. Jul 2018, Ripped, torn and cut, Manchester University Press
Cross Bones Graveyard: Excavating the Prostitute in Neo-Victorian Popular Culture, Nally, C. 27 Apr 2018, In: Journal of Victorian Culture
Goth Beauty, Style and Sexuality: Neo-Traditional Femininity in Twenty-First Century Subcultural Magazines, Nally, C. 1 Nov 2018, In: Gothic Studies
The political occult: revisiting fascism, Yeats and 'A Vision', Nally, C. 2012, W. B. Yeats's A Vision: Explications and Contexts, Clemson, SC, Clemson University Press

PGR Supervision

Lucy Swift Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Emma Catan Cross-Dressing and ‘Transgression’ in the Neo-Victorian city Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 17/10/2025
Lucy Swift The New Liminal: Hauntological Limbo, Uncertain Futures and the Elongated Present in Contemporary Fiction and Digital Art Start Date: 01/10/2025
Emma Catan Cross-Dressing and ‘Transgression’ in the Neo-Victorian city Start Date: 01/10/2019

Further Information

I am the module leader for ‘Neo-Victorianism: Contemporary Literature and Culture’. I have co-led the MA English Literature module, ‘Dark Tourism: Urban Underworlds and Modern City Spaces’ and contribute to ‘Literature and Adaptation’ and 'Gothic Stories.'

In previous years, I was the module leader for ‘Concepts in Criticism and Culture’, and I offered lectures and seminars on ‘Textual Studies (Modernism and Modernity)’. I also led the third-year module on ‘James Joyce's Ulysses’.

I welcome PhD students in Neo-Victorianism, modern and contemporary fiction, Irish studies, and subcultures.