This author has not written his bio yet.
But we are proud to say that Penelope J. Corfield contributed 172 entries already.
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) Losing is not fun. That is, losing in a cause that means a lot to you, both intellectually and emotionally. In fact, it’s grim. Coping with defeat feels a bit like coping with a death. Again, there are deaths and deaths. Losing in a […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) Vote early! Generations of democratic activists have campaigned over centuries to give the franchise to all adult citizens. (Yes, and that right should extend to all citizens who are in prison too).2 Vote early and be proud to vote! So, if we are full […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) Is it a fact or a factoid? There are lots of those impostors around. Historical films perpetrate new examples daily and the web circulates them with impartial zeal. Items of information that can be verified and cross-checked with reference to other sources count as […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) The present ‘Temporal Turn’ in ideas and politics means reminding everyone, including all government policy-makers, that everything unfolds in historical context.1 There’s never a tabula rasa – a blank page on which to inscribe the future. The present comes from the past, and legacies […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) The senior American policy-maker, who claimed in 2004 that: ‘When we act, we create our own reality’,1 proved to be dangerously wrong – in Iraq as elsewhere across the world. Instead, it is history which provides the past and present reality. Hence the need […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2015) The ‘temporal turn’ is a grand phrase to name the current political and intellectual return to interpreting things explicitly within the very long term, otherwise known as history. It’s a new trend, which is gathering pace – and it’s an excellent one too. The […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2014) The art of public presentation in the academic world and beyond has improved no end, during my working lifetime. But still there are some who do it badly. Often noted personalities think that their notability will suffice, in lieu of a structured talk. They […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2014) It really wasn’t done – for centuries. Women, respectable women especially, did not speak in public from public platforms. They do sometimes, anachronistically, in period films. So the script-writer of The Duchess (dir: Sam Dibb, 2008) decided that the famous eighteenth-century Duchess of Devonshire […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2014) Not everyone shakes hands. But those who do are expressing an egalitarian relationship. As a form of greeting, the handshake differs completely in meaning from the bow or curtsey, which display deference from the ‘lowly’ to those on ‘high’.1 In one Jane Austen novel, […]
If citing, please kindly acknowledge copyright © Penelope J. Corfield (2014) TV’s Pride and Prejudice (1995) provided many memorable images, not least Colin Firth as Mr Darcy diving into a pool to emerge reborn as a feeling, empathetic human being. This transformation gains extra impact when contrasted with the intense formality of his general deportment. […]
Penelope J. Corfield is a historian, lecturer and education consultant. She currently serves as the President of the International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS).
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