Cat Schaupp
Thesis title: The repression and articulation of war experience: A study of the literary culture of Craiglockhart War Hospital
PhD in English Literature
Year of study: 5
- School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Contact details
- Email: Cat.Schaupp@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisor:
Background
I did my undergradute degree in English and Music Studies at the University of Aberdeen and completed my masters at Edinburgh University. I began my PhD in September 2012. I was a reader for the James Tait Black Prize (Biography) in 2014 and was both a reader and article editor for the FORUM Journal in 2013 and 2014.
Qualifications
- MSc Creative Writing (Distinction). University of Edinburgh, 2008.
- PGDE(S) English. University of Aberdeen, 2007.
- MA (Hons) in English with Music Studies (First Class). University of Aberdeen, 2005. Awarded the Seafield Medal for English, 2005.
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Member of the International Society for First World War Studies
- Member of the Wilfred Owen Association
- Member of the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship
Undergraduate teaching
- EL2 tutor since January 2015.
Research summary
In my thesis, I examine the literary culture that existed at Craiglockhart War Hospital, using the hospital's therapeutic ethos as a framework by which to study the creative work produced at the hospital. I argue that the British Army’s lack of consensus regarding the best treatment of war neuroses facilitated the development of Craiglockhart’s expressive culture, in which patients were encouraged both to articulate their wartime memories and return to purposeful activity. In my discussion of the hospital, I examine the hospital’s magazine at length, discuss Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon's time at the hospital, and introduce readers to other literary-minded patients who were treated at Craiglockhart. My thesis makes clear the fact that, for the hospital’s literary-minded patients, creative endeavour was an ideal means by which to negotiate the movement away from repression to the articulation of their wartime experiences.
My wider research interests include the literature of the Great War and the interwar period.
- 'A Tale of Two Protests: Max Plowman and Siegfried Sassoon at Craiglockhart.' Conflict, Patriotism, and Protest: Transnational Conflict Legacies, University of Dundee, 25 September 2015.
- 'Regenerating Craiglockhart: The Place of The Hydra in Literary Studies of the Great War.' Scotland's Great War Conference, UHI Perth, 14 March 2014.