“He gave her a momentary glance, a glance of brightness.”     

                                                                          — Jane Austen, Persuasion

 

Welcome to the home of Literature and the Face: A Critical History.

Literature and the Face is an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Discovery Project based at the University of Melbourne and the University of Geneva.

Our project is an historical study of the way the human face is represented in literary texts from the medieval through to the contemporary era. We aim to generate comprehensive new knowledge about changing literary and textual discourses about the face by combining rhetorical and textual analysis, the insights of cognitive literary theory, historical analysis and digital methodologies. By doing this, we hope to develop a deeper understanding of the cultural history of facial expression, identity and emotion, with particular attention to gender and ethnicity.

Take a look around our website to learn more about the project! You can also follow us on Twitter at @LiteratureFace. 

Stephanie, Guillemette, Joe & Tyne. 

 

We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live and work and pay our respect to Elders past and present.