Diana Solomon
Areas of interest
My research focuses on 17th- and 18th-century literature, particularly theatre, gender, comedy, and print culture. I also work on issues concerning contemporary comedy. Currently I鈥檓 at work on two books: I鈥檓 finishing a book on 鈥渢roubling comedy鈥� on the Restoration and 18th-century English stage, and I鈥檓 beginning a biography of Restoration actress Anne Bracegirdle. My work has been supported by fellowships from the Clark, Folger, Huntington, and Noel Libraries and the Harry Ransom Center, and by grants from the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Education
- BA (Vassar)
- MA (Hawaii)
- PhD (UCSB)
Biography
I teach courses on 17th- and 18th-century literature, drama, comedy, and print culture; from time to time I also teach a role-playing games class using Reacting to the Past pedagogy. As the current Undergraduate/Associate Chair of the English department, I supervise the Honours program and teach ENGL 494, the Honours Research and Methods Seminar. In the Fall of 2024, in addition to ENGL 494, I鈥檓 also teaching a graduate class (ENGL 832) on troubling comedy in 18th-century English literature. In 2014, I received the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award.
Publications
Books
Edited by Diana Solomon and David Weston
Forthcoming 2024.
Edited by the Multigraph Collective
Chicago, 2018.
Edited by Peter Dickinson, Anne Higgins, Diana Solomon, Paul St. Pierre, and Sean Zwagerman. Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013.
. Delaware, 2013.
Articles and Book Chapters
- 鈥淥ut of the Closet and Into the Clasroom: Teaching Anne Finch鈥檚 Plays.鈥� Aphra Behn Online, 14: 1 (Summer 2024): 1-13.
- 鈥淪ancho Panza in Eighteenth-Century English Theatre: Disrupting the Path of the Knight-Errant.鈥� Eighteenth-Century Life, 46:3 (September 2022): 123-143.
- 鈥�?鈥� (co-authored with Sean Zwagerman). The Conversation, 4 August 2022.
- 鈥淟ittle House on the Tundra: Female winners of the Leacock medal for Canadian literary comedy鈥� (co-authored with Sean Zwagerman). English Studies in Canada, 47.1 (March 2021): 91-114.
- 鈥淎necdotes and Restoration Actresses: The Cases of Elizabeth Barry and Anne Bracegirdle.鈥� Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research. 31:2 (Winter 2016): 19-36.
- 鈥淭he Jolt of Jacobean Tragicomedy: Double Falsehood on the Eighteenth-Century London Stage.鈥� Revisiting Shakespeare's "Lost" Play: Cardenio/Double Falsehood in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Deborah C. Payne. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. 57-73. (Winner of the 2018 Annibel Jenkins Prize in Performance and Theatre Studies)
- 鈥淟augh, or Forever Hold your Peace: Comic crowd control in Margaret Cavendish鈥檚 dramatic prologues and epilogues.鈥� Women and Comedy: History, Theory, Practice. Eds. Peter Dickinson, Anne Higgins, Diana Solomon, Paul St Pierre, Sean Zwagerman. Fairleigh Dickinson, 2013. 55-64.
- 鈥淕eorge Lillo鈥檚 The London Merchant and the Laughing Audience.鈥� The Laughing Stalk: Live Comedy and its Audiences. Ed. Judith Batalion. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2012. 124-39.
- 鈥淎nne Finch, Restoration Playwright.鈥� Tulsa Studies in Women鈥檚 Literature, 30:1 (2011): 37-56.
- 鈥淔rom Infamy to Intimacy: Anne Bracegirdle鈥檚 Mad Songs.鈥� Restoration 35:1 (2011): 1-20.
- 鈥淭ragic Play, Bawdy Epilogue?鈥� Prologues, Epilogues, Curtain-Raisers and Afterpieces: The Rest of the Eighteenth-Century London Stage. Ed. Judith Slagle and Daniel Ennis. Delaware, 2007. 155-78.
Forthcoming Publications
- Editor, The Provoked Wife, by John Vanbrugh. Forthcoming in The Broadview Anthology of Restoration and Early Eighteenth-Century Drama, 2 ed.
- 鈥淭he Anecdotal Afterlife of Rebecca Marshall鈥� (co-authored with Heather Ladd). Women鈥檚 Innovations in Theatre, Dance, and Performance series, Vol. 1: Performers. Ed. Colleen Daniher and Marlis Schweitzer. Bloomsbury.
- 鈥淧oetry on Stage.鈥� The Oxford History of Poetry in English, ed. Patrick Cheney, Volume 5: Seventeenth-Century British Poetry, ed. Laura L. Knoppers. 108-120.
Current Graduate Student Supervision
PhD students:
- Sarah Cipes, UBC-Okanagan (committee member), Kelowna鈥檚 Comedy Communities: Technology, Embodiment and Gender in Perception of Contemporary Stand-Up Comedy Performances
- Nikhil Jayadevan (committee member), Comedy and Satire against Cynical Withdrawal
- Kate Moffatt (secondary field exam), Long eighteenth-century Literature, Textual Media, and Gender
Courses
Summer 2025
This instructor is currently not teaching any courses.