Rob Allen

Biography

Rob graduated from Cambridge University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature. After receiving his Research Master’s Degree in Literary studies (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam (UvA), Rob was appointed as a PhD Fellow at the UvA's Research Institute of Culture and History. Rob was awarded his PhD in April 2012.

Rob has presented his work in peer-reviewed publications and at international conferences on book history, paratext and the novel.

In March 2011, Rob organised a two-day conference on serialization together with Thijs van den Berg at the University of Amsterdam.

Research Interests

Rob’s research is focused on the relationship between the material history of the book, textual/paratextual theory and representations of authorship in nineteenth-century Britain. His current scholarly interests can broadly be divided into work on William Blake and research on Victorian serial fiction.

In his work on Blake, Rob focuses on the relationship between text, image and material production. The combination of Blake’s unique illuminated manuscripts and his self-professed prophetic mission makes the study of this relationship relevant not only for a material history of the book but also for an understanding of the influence of Medieval, Renaissance and Western esoteric iconography on British Romanticism.
 
Rob’s work on Victorian serial fiction, the focus of his PhD, deals with the specific paratextual features accompanying nineteenth-century serials. Examining a range of these elements (including dedications, prefaces, advertisements, illustrations, portraits and frontispieces), Rob’s PhD study traces how the paratext specific to Victorian modes of serial publication redefined the figure of the author in Victorian England.

An adapted version of the first chapter of his PhD was published in 2012 in John Hinks and Matthew Day (eds.), From Compositors to Collectors: Essays on Book-Trade History (London: Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 2012), 155-79.