Prestigious prize for English Head

Research into the `extraordinary circumstantial and psychological realism’ of Shakespeare has been recognised at the University of St Andrews.

Professor Lorna Hutson, Head of the School of English, has won the 2008 Roland H. Bainton Prize for her book, ‘The Invention of Suspicion: Law and Mimesis in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama’.

The Sixteenth Century Society, which awards three prizes annually, selected Professor Hutson’s work as the best book in the area of literature. The prize is named in honour of the long-time Yale professor and 20th-century church historian.  Professor Hutson was recognised for demonstrating `originality of research, methodological skill and innovation, development of fresh and stimulating interpretations and literary quality’.

She said, “In my book, I argue that English Renaissance drama shares with popular English legal culture a new interest in sceptical, rhetorical inquiry into the ‘facts’ of a case, and that this, in part, accounts for the extraordinary circumstantial and psychological realism of Shakespeare and English drama in this period.”

ENDS

Issued by the Press Office, University of St Andrews
Contact Gayle Cook, Press Officer on 01334 467227 / 462529, mobile 07900 050 103, or email [email protected]
Ref:  Bainton prize 171208
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