Katie Noble
My thesis, titled The Brady Collection and the Mediation of Eighteenth-Century Women's Performance in Theatrical Ephemera was completed in November 2023.
My thesis makes use of the yet uncatalogued Brady Collection held at Christ Church Library. This collection of ephemera, alongside a large reference library of associated books, came to the library in 1977. Containing tens of thousands of items ranging in date from the 17th to 20th centuries, the collection spans a range of theatrical and entertainment subjects and is an invaluable primary resource. It includes c. 15,000 theatrical portraits of authors, actors and actresses (both in and out of roles), characters, dramatists, and depictions of theatrical productions, along with the music and other related materials.
It explores the mediation of performances by women in eighteenth-century theatrical ephemera, expanding our understanding of how theatrical ephemera was understood and interacted with by both performers and the theatrical public. It considers ephemera in various stages of mediation, including through ephemeral print production, and post-performance compliation and collection. I employ a highly multi-disciplinary approach which combines performance studies, literary studies, art history, media studies, and cultural history. As a whole, my thesis uncovers the ways in which performance and repertory was created beyond the embodied stage, and how it continues to be created in the archive.
My other research interests include: the visual culture of the theatre, fugitive print history, adaptation studies, queer theories of ephemera, performance archives, the relationship between the theatre and the novel, and eighteenth-century media studies/theories of mediation.
I am currently a Postgraduate & ECR Representative for the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies (BSECS) and the Theatre Editor for Criticks.
I have extensive teaching experience including the Oxford papers 4 and 5, and other courses on the queer eighteenth century/romantic period, and women's writing.
Publications:
Katie Noble, 'Adapting Medea in Eighteenth-Century Visual Culture', in Lissette Lopez Szwydky and Glenn Jellenik (eds.) Adaptation Before Cinema: Literary and Visual Convergence from Antiquity through the 19th Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2023).
