SHAW, Marion

PERSONAL: Female. Education: T.Cert., B.A., Ph.D., R.S.A.

ADDRESSES: Office—c/o Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, England.

CAREER: Loughborough University, Loughborough, England, professor of English and head of department, 1993-98, part-time teacher, 1998—; Quality Assurance Agency, review chair, 1999—. Member of English panel for Research Assessment Exercise, 1996, 2001; former member of executive committee and organizer of conferences for the Council for College and University English.

MEMBER: Tennyson Society (chair).

AWARDS, HONORS: National lottery grant, 1999.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Alfred Lord Tennyson (criticism), Humanities Press International (Atlantic Highlands, NJ), 1988.

(With Clifton U. Snaith) An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Harvester Wheatsheaf (London, England), 1989. (With Sabine Vanacker) Reflecting on Miss Marple (criticism), Routledge (London), 1991.

(Editor) Man Does, Woman Is: An Anthology of Work and Gender, Faber and Faber (London, England), 1995.

(Editor) An Introduction to Women's Writing: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day, Prentice Hall (New York, NY), 1998.

The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby (biography), Virago (London, England), 1999.

OTHER

(Editor, with Susan Shatto) Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam (poetry), Clarendon Press (Oxford, England), 1982.

(Editor, with Paul Berry) Winifred Holtby, Remember! Remember! (short stories), Virago Press (London, England), 1997.

Contributor to Festschrift for John Lucas: Critical Survey Special Issue, 1999. Founding editor, Journal of Gender Studies; former editor, Tennyson Research Bulletin.

SIDELIGHTS: Marion Shaw was a professor at Loughborough University until she retired from full-time teaching in 1998. Her works typically focus on nineteenth-century poetry, in particular, the works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, and on women's literature.

After coediting Tennyson's In Memoriam in 1982, Shaw published two works on the renowned poet. The first, simply titled Alfred Lord Tennyson, was published in 1988 and was part of Humanities Press International's "Feminist Readings" series. Critical reaction to the book was mixed. Though L. M. Tenbusche in Choice found that the book could "give readers a sufficient slice of feminist criticism," the critic felt it could be "tiresomely one-sided." On the other hand, Laurel Brake in Victorian Studies called the work "provocative," concluding: "This is a book which offers a number of fresh readings, and rather than viewing Tennyson as a misogynist, Shaw provides a view of the male author reproducing and creating structures of a particular male culture."

Shaw's second work was An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a bibliography of works on Tennyson and his poetry. The work lists just over 400 major works on Tennyson and is aimed primarily at the upper-level university or graduate student. Joseph Sendry in Victorian Poetry praised both the comprehensiveness of Shaw's annotations and the organization of the volume as a whole. R. Hanson in Choice wrote: "[The bibliography] puts a good deal of information within easy reach, and its annotations are especially well informed on biographical and bibliographical entries."

In addition to works on Tennyson, Shaw has also written a literary analysis of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Reflecting on Miss Marple, two volumes of women's literature history, Man Does, Woman Is: An Anthology of Work and Gender and An Introduction to Women's Writing: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day, and a biography of activist and author Winifred Holtby, The Clear Stream: A Life of Winifred Holtby. Critics were largely positive in their assessments of Shaw's other works as well. L. Babener in Choice called Reflecting on Miss Marple, co-written with Sabine Vanacker, "a major contribution to popular culture and feminist scholarship." Pamela Norris in the Times Literary Supplement lauded Shaw's biography of Holtby. Norris, referencing Sarah Burton, a character from Holtby's 1936 novel South Riding, concluded: "Burton . . . mirrors the Winifred Holtby portrayed in Shaw's scrupulously even-handed biography, whose attitude to life may be summarized by Sarah's final advice to her girls: 'Question everything . . . and see that you get sensible answers to your questions.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice, March, 1989, L. M. Tencusch, review of Alfred Lord Tennyson, p. 1162; February, 1990, R. Hanson, review of An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, p. 937; February, 1992, L. Babener, review of Reflecting on Miss Marple, p. 898.

Contemporary Review, May, 2000, Catherine Wade, review of A Life of Winifred Holtby, p. 271.

Times Educational Supplement, July 14, 1995, Julia Neuberger, review of Man Does, Woman Is, p. 14.

Times Literary Supplement, September 3, 1999, Pamela Norris, review of The Clear Stream, p. 28.

Victorian Poetry, summer, 1990, Joseph Sendry, review of An Annotated Critical Bibliography of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, pp. 229-241.

Victorian Studies, winter, 1991, Laurel Brake, review of Alfred Lord Tennyson, pp. 280-281.*