![Associate Professor Lisa O'Connell](/sites/default/files/profiles/838.jpeg)
Overview
Background
Lisa specializes in British Literature of the eighteenth-century. She trained at Melbourne and Brown universities and has held fellowships at various international English departments including Johns Hopkins University and the Free University Berlin.
Her research interests include the history of the novel, marriage plots, sentimental fiction, gothic fiction, theories of enlightenment and secularization and early global literatures.
Lisa has published on topics including the English marriage plot, libertinism, popular anthropology, travel narrative, settler fiction and courtesan memoirs. Her Australian Research Council-funded Discovery Projects include 'Secularisation and British Literature, 1600-1800' and 'The Cultural Impact of Irregular Marriage in the Age of British Colonialism'.
Her most recent book, The Origins of the English Marriage Plot: Literature, Politics and Religion in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge UP, 2019), offers a new account of why and how marriage became central to the English novel.
She is currently Associate Professor of English Literature in the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University. Her most recent work is on the history and theory of the novel and its relation to early global literatures.
Availability
- Associate Professor Lisa O'Connell is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Arts, University of Melbourne
- Masters (Coursework), University of Melbourne
- Doctor of Philosophy, Brown University
Research interests
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18th-Century British literature
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The History of the Novel
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Theories of Enlightenment & Secularisation
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Global Fiction
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Women’s writing (18th & 19th century)
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Colonialism and Postcolonial Studies
settler colonial writing (Australia & New Zealand); British travel writing 1700-1820; 18th-century popular ethnography; early global literatures.
Works
Search Professor Lisa O'Connell’s works on UQ eSpace
2020
Journal Article
Catalysts of change: colonial transformations of Anglo-European literary culture in the long eighteenth century
O'Connell, Lisa and Wawrzinek, Jennifer (2020). Catalysts of change: colonial transformations of Anglo-European literary culture in the long eighteenth century. Postcolonial Studies, 23 (3), 257-267. doi: 10.1080/13688790.2020.1809068
2020
Journal Article
Before Frankenstein: Therese Huber and the antipodean emergence of political fiction
O'Connell, Lisa (2020). Before Frankenstein: Therese Huber and the antipodean emergence of political fiction. Postcolonial Studies, 23 (3), 348-359. doi: 10.1080/13688790.2020.1802113
Featured
2019
Book
The origins of the English marriage plot : literature, politics and religion in the eighteenth century
O'Connell, Lisa (2019). The origins of the English marriage plot : literature, politics and religion in the eighteenth century. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108757706
Featured
2014
Book Chapter
The libertine, the rake, and the dandy: personae, styles, and affects
O'Connell, Lisa (2014). The libertine, the rake, and the dandy: personae, styles, and affects. The Cambridge History of Gay and Lesbian Literature. (pp. 218-238) edited by E. L. McCallum and Mikko Tuhkanen. New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CHO9781139547376.015
2021
Book Chapter
Sensible distances: the colonial projections of Therese Huber and E. G. Wakefield
O’Connell, Lisa (2021). Sensible distances: the colonial projections of Therese Huber and E. G. Wakefield. Matters of engagement: emotions, identity, and cultural contact in the premodern world. (pp. 216-230) edited by Daniela Hacke, Claudia Jarzebowski and Hannes Ziegler. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429488689-14
2021
Journal Article
Spaces of enlightenment: from domestic scenes to global visions
Denney, Peter and O'Connell, Lisa (2021). Spaces of enlightenment: from domestic scenes to global visions. Eighteenth-Century Life, 45 (3), 1-15. doi: 10.1215/00982601-9272978
2018
Journal Article
Mansfield Park and political theology
During, Simon and O’Connell, Lisa (2018). Mansfield Park and political theology. Political Theology, 19 (7), 1-6. doi: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1513201
2017
Journal Article
'Mum budget': Henry Fielding and the articulations of audibility
O'Connell, Lisa (2017). 'Mum budget': Henry Fielding and the articulations of audibility. Republics of Letters, 5 (2).
2017
Journal Article
Coleridge and the lay sermon
During, Simon and O'Connell, Lisa (2017). Coleridge and the lay sermon. English Studies, 98 (7), 747-757. doi: 10.1080/0013838X.2017.1339992
2017
Journal Article
Literary sentimentalism and post-secular virtue
O'Connell, Lisa (2017). Literary sentimentalism and post-secular virtue. Eighteenth-Century Life, 41 (2), 28-42. doi: 10.1215/00982601-3841348
2017
Book Chapter
Nationalism
O'Connell, Lisa (2017). Nationalism. Samuel Richardson in context. (pp. 319-326) edited by Peter Sabor and Betty A. Schellenberg. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781316576755.039
2012
Journal Article
Sir Charles Grandison, natural law and the fictionalisation of the 18th-Century English gentleman
O'Connell, Lisa (2012). Sir Charles Grandison, natural law and the fictionalisation of the 18th-Century English gentleman. Intellectual History Review, 23 (3), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/17496977.2012.723339
2011
Journal Article
Vicars and squires: religion and the rise of the English marriage plot
O'Connell, Lisa (2011). Vicars and squires: religion and the rise of the English marriage plot. The Eighteenth-Century: Theory and Interpretation, 52 (3-4), 383-402. doi: 10.1353/ecy.2011.0022
2011
Journal Article
'By ordinance of nature': Marriage, religion, and the modern English state
O'Connell, Lisa (2011). 'By ordinance of nature': Marriage, religion, and the modern English state. Parergon, 28 (2), 149-166. doi: 10.1353/pgn.2011.0101
2010
Journal Article
The Theo-political origins of the English marriage plot
O'Connell, Lisa (2010). The Theo-political origins of the English marriage plot. Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 43 (1), 31-37. doi: 10.1215/00295132-2009-059
2010
Conference Publication
Ethnographical humanism and the English marriage plot
O'Connell, Lisa (2010). Ethnographical humanism and the English marriage plot. Thinking the Human in the Era of Enlightenment, Canberra, Australia, 7-9 July 2010. Canberra, Australia: Australian National University.
2009
Journal Article
Sentimental Figures of Empire in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France
O'Connell, L (2009). Sentimental Figures of Empire in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France. Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 22 (2), 379-381. doi: 10.1353/ecf.0.0120
2008
Book Chapter
Settler colonialism, utility, romance: E. G. Wakefield’s letter from Sydney
O'Connell, Lisa (2008). Settler colonialism, utility, romance: E. G. Wakefield’s letter from Sydney. Burden or benefit? The legacies of benevolence. (pp. 49-60) edited by H. Gilbert and C. Tiffin. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
2006
Book Chapter
Gretna Green Novels
O'Connell, Lisa M. (2006). Gretna Green Novels. Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. (pp. 477-481) edited by David Scott Kastan. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
2006
Journal Article
The Character effect
O'Connell, Lisa M. (2006). The Character effect. Novel: A Forum on Fiction, 39 (3), 443-446.
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Associate Professor Lisa O'Connell is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Feminist Affect - Reading for Love, Knowledge and Transcendence
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Tim Mehigan
Completed supervision
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2024
Doctor Philosophy
English and Chinese Courtship Novels in the Long Eighteenth Century: Literature, Modernity, and Globalisation
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Jennifer Clement
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2016
Master Philosophy
In a Land Far Away: Time, Space, Degeneration, and the Gothic in the Island Fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson
Principal Advisor
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2004
Master Philosophy
Infamous imaginings: The novels of Lady Caroline Lamb
Principal Advisor
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2019
Master Philosophy
Flyaway: Visual Evocation of the Beautiful Sublime in Australian Gothic Fiction
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Kim Wilkins
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2012
Master Philosophy
Fragments of Mirrors
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Venero Armanno
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2012
Doctor Philosophy
Liminal Dissonance and Doublings: The Fiction of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Helen Oyeyemi
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor Carole Ferrier
Media
Enquiries
Contact Associate Professor Lisa O'Connell directly for media enquiries about:
- British literature - eighteenth century
- Eighteenth-century British literature
- English marriage plot
- Fiction - gothic
- Gothic fiction
- Literature - British
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