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Alyssa Smith is a McNeil Center for Early American Studies consortium fellow at the McNeil Center and a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Iowa. Her dissertation, “America’s Requiem: Remembering the Renaissance Through the 18th-century Black Atlantic,” observes the presence of early modern literature, and the British Empire more broadly, in the 18th-century Black Atlantic World.
“I entered my program as an early modernist, focusing on race in early modern English dramatic literature and poetry. After taking two classes with professors who research early America, I was hooked and proposed exploring how Shakespeare remained a prominent figure throughout the 18th century in the colonies,” says Smith. “After finding examples of allusions to and appropriations of Shakespeare in Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” I was curious to see if other early modern English authors also played a dominant role in the 18th-century literary landscape. From my research, I have found that there is evidence of early modern literary influences, and I argue that there was a strong desire to remain in proximity to the British Empire culturally and intellectually, despite the revolution.”
As for her future research, “I anticipate enjoying working with the papers of William and Samuel Vernon,” says Smith. “The Vernon brothers were well-known businessmen in the slave trade and owned several ships that sailed across the Atlantic. I am most interested in their ship, named Othello, and want to learn more about these specific voyages.”
Read more at The McNeil Center.
From The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
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