Rebecca Anne Barr
@rabarr.bsky.social
Reading, writing, thinking about the long 18th Century at the Faculty of English @cam.ac.uk. Irish woman baffled by the fens and the English middle classes. Emotional support/ emotional manipulation provided by a terrier.
Pinned
Rebecca Anne Barr
@rabarr.bsky.social
· Nov 25
Here's our magnificent cover: a little-known illustration of Richardson's 'Pamela' by Francis Hayman. 'The Elopement' decorated one of the original #Pamela supper-boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. Thanks to @nationaltrust.bsky.social who hold the original at Sizergh Castle, Cumbria. #18thcentury
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
A beautiful, if sad, review of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century (with On Close Reading), with loving attention to many of our great contributors' essays. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Close reading in crisis times
Published in Textual Practice (Ahead of Print, 2026)
www.tandfonline.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:32 PM
A beautiful, if sad, review of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century (with On Close Reading), with loving attention to many of our great contributors' essays. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
anyone know if @theul.bsky.social access to the #ODNB is down? I'm clicking institutional access/ library card etc but am not getting anywhere. #academics
February 15, 2026 at 5:30 PM
anyone know if @theul.bsky.social access to the #ODNB is down? I'm clicking institutional access/ library card etc but am not getting anywhere. #academics
Lovely piece on hair gift-giving by @leannecalvert.bsky.social who has been digging around in the hairy archives at PRONI.
As a physical piece of a person that would outlast their human life, a lock of hair symbolised immortal love.
Forget flowers: lovers in 18th- and 19th-century Ireland exchanged hair
As a physical piece of a person that would outlast their human life, a lock of hair symbolised immortal love.
tcnv.link
February 10, 2026 at 4:39 PM
Lovely piece on hair gift-giving by @leannecalvert.bsky.social who has been digging around in the hairy archives at PRONI.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Need to cheer myself up so here's the best Twitter post ever. It spawned one billion bad ripoffs but it's a beautiful magic trick. You don't just read it in his voice: he said it now. This quote is real.
January 23, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Need to cheer myself up so here's the best Twitter post ever. It spawned one billion bad ripoffs but it's a beautiful magic trick. You don't just read it in his voice: he said it now. This quote is real.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
I am very glad to have been the occasion of this new series for C21 Literature. Huge thanks to Alex Houen, Leonid Bilmes, Laura A. Zander, and Adam Kelly for their engagements with Free Indirect, and to Denise Wong and Oli Haslam for the invitation to respond.
So pleased to be launching @c21literature.bsky.social ’s inaugural roundtable review w/ @olihaslam.bsky.social ! Thank you to our fabulous contributors for their work on this excellent piece 👏👏👏
C21 journal has published a ‘round table review’ of Timothy Bewes’s book FREE INDIRECT. It includes a short essay by me; other contributors include Leonid Bilmes, Laura Zander & Adam Kelly. Bewes does a response at the end 👇
c21.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...
@c21literature.bsky.social
c21.openlibhums.org/article/id/2...
@c21literature.bsky.social
February 5, 2026 at 3:31 AM
I am very glad to have been the occasion of this new series for C21 Literature. Huge thanks to Alex Houen, Leonid Bilmes, Laura A. Zander, and Adam Kelly for their engagements with Free Indirect, and to Denise Wong and Oli Haslam for the invitation to respond.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
“. . . Again is the sacred
word, the profane sequence suddenly graced, by
coming back.”
— J. H. Prynne
(from “Thoughts on the Esterházy Court Uniform”)
word, the profane sequence suddenly graced, by
coming back.”
— J. H. Prynne
(from “Thoughts on the Esterházy Court Uniform”)
February 5, 2026 at 7:31 PM
“. . . Again is the sacred
word, the profane sequence suddenly graced, by
coming back.”
— J. H. Prynne
(from “Thoughts on the Esterházy Court Uniform”)
word, the profane sequence suddenly graced, by
coming back.”
— J. H. Prynne
(from “Thoughts on the Esterházy Court Uniform”)
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
"And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees."
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees."
January 25, 2026 at 9:27 PM
"And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees."
anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these
to have you listen at all, it's necessary
to talk about trees."
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Ever since Outlook added reactions to emails, my students have been giving me a thumbs up like they’re Fonzie. When did email become Facebook? Time to retire.
January 22, 2026 at 12:25 PM
Ever since Outlook added reactions to emails, my students have been giving me a thumbs up like they’re Fonzie. When did email become Facebook? Time to retire.
Beautiful and evocative story about Russia, isolation, the long and hard twentieth century—and forests, wolves, and god.
Forty years in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot
The long read: In 1978, Soviet scientists stumbled upon a family living in a remote part of Russia. They hadn’t interacted with outsiders for decades. Almost half a century later, one of them is still...
www.theguardian.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:27 PM
Beautiful and evocative story about Russia, isolation, the long and hard twentieth century—and forests, wolves, and god.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
So while preparing slides was once again been reminded of this little mystery....Huge gender gaps in support for 2 parties - Reform and Greens. Both genders are more likely to support the Greens, and gender gap in Green support is larger. But all the discussion focuses on young men & Reform
January 20, 2026 at 4:37 PM
So while preparing slides was once again been reminded of this little mystery....Huge gender gaps in support for 2 parties - Reform and Greens. Both genders are more likely to support the Greens, and gender gap in Green support is larger. But all the discussion focuses on young men & Reform
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
They’re trying to keep on punishing her even after they’ve ruined her life.
This is appalling: Top DOJ officials are actively pushing for a criminal investigation into the widow of Renee Good, leading prosecutors to quit en masse, NYT is reporting.
Who in the White House ordered DOJ to do this? That's the next thing to establish.
Who in the White House ordered DOJ to do this? That's the next thing to establish.
January 13, 2026 at 9:20 PM
They’re trying to keep on punishing her even after they’ve ruined her life.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
The closing of Bucknell University Press is a tremendous loss for academic publishing in general and 18th-century studies in particular.
Universities have abandoned the academic mission. We’re the generation that will have to reinvent knowledge-work from the institutional ruins.
Universities have abandoned the academic mission. We’re the generation that will have to reinvent knowledge-work from the institutional ruins.
very much saddened to learn that bucknell university press will be closing. they took a chance on my first book when other presses said it was too short or too narrowly focused on minor authors.
www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
www.chronicle.com/blogs/letter...
Letter | Bucknell University Press to Close
This should alarm university presses nationwide, writes Aníbal González-Pérez.
www.chronicle.com
August 17, 2025 at 1:13 PM
The closing of Bucknell University Press is a tremendous loss for academic publishing in general and 18th-century studies in particular.
Universities have abandoned the academic mission. We’re the generation that will have to reinvent knowledge-work from the institutional ruins.
Universities have abandoned the academic mission. We’re the generation that will have to reinvent knowledge-work from the institutional ruins.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them”.
January 10, 2026 at 12:39 PM
“Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them”.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
LGBTQ+ conversion therapy was in the news recently, after a BBC report revealed many examples in English NHS hospitals in the 1960s/70s. On 16 Feb I’m giving a talk on the history of sexuality & psychiatry in Northern Ireland, as part of @niscifest.bsky.social.
nisciencefestival.com/event/shocki...
nisciencefestival.com/event/shocki...
Shocking: The Untold History of Psychiatry and Homosexuality in Northern Ireland | NI Science Festival
nisciencefestival.com
January 9, 2026 at 6:01 PM
LGBTQ+ conversion therapy was in the news recently, after a BBC report revealed many examples in English NHS hospitals in the 1960s/70s. On 16 Feb I’m giving a talk on the history of sexuality & psychiatry in Northern Ireland, as part of @niscifest.bsky.social.
nisciencefestival.com/event/shocki...
nisciencefestival.com/event/shocki...
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
A poem by John Kelly as it first appeared in Poetry Ireland Review.
January 8, 2026 at 2:59 PM
A poem by John Kelly as it first appeared in Poetry Ireland Review.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Winter, Edvard Munch, 1899.
January 7, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Winter, Edvard Munch, 1899.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Pictures that explain things.
Trees in Winter (back endpapers)
Artist: SR Badmin, 1963
Trees in Winter (back endpapers)
Artist: SR Badmin, 1963
January 4, 2026 at 7:43 PM
Pictures that explain things.
Trees in Winter (back endpapers)
Artist: SR Badmin, 1963
Trees in Winter (back endpapers)
Artist: SR Badmin, 1963
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Day 3 of the New Year
January 3, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Day 3 of the New Year
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
What amazes me is how quickly people are losing either the confidence or the willingness to complete basic human tasks.
The parents of the first baby born in 2026 in this county outside Baltimore got their name ideas from ChatGPT. Hudson Oakley Winkler.
www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/01/c...
www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/01/c...
ChatGPT named Carroll County’s first-born baby in 2026
The first baby born in Carroll County in 2026 was named with help from ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot.
www.baltimoresun.com
January 2, 2026 at 3:22 PM
What amazes me is how quickly people are losing either the confidence or the willingness to complete basic human tasks.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
This, combined with "vice signaling" (taking pride in antisocial behavior) has given us the reign of the Stupid Asshole, something most people are against, but can only be remedied if we're not too polite to talk about it
An essential development over the past decade-plus is that the ignorant went from feeling chastened when their ignorance was revealed to banding together and deciding that, actually, they were right. They might disagree at times, but they agreed that ignorance itself was an indicator of trust.
December 29, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This, combined with "vice signaling" (taking pride in antisocial behavior) has given us the reign of the Stupid Asshole, something most people are against, but can only be remedied if we're not too polite to talk about it
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Tonight you will be visited by the ghosts of three gender studies majors, each warning you that you’ll have to burn off in hell after death all the sins you accumulated in your futile effort to be a real man in life …
December 26, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Tonight you will be visited by the ghosts of three gender studies majors, each warning you that you’ll have to burn off in hell after death all the sins you accumulated in your futile effort to be a real man in life …
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
This individual had no right being in a *Muppets* movie.
December 25, 2025 at 10:39 PM
This individual had no right being in a *Muppets* movie.
Reposted by Rebecca Anne Barr
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Cardiff couple invited man in for Christmas, he stayed for 45 years
An arrangement Rob and Dianne Parsons thought would last a few days ended up changing their lives.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 25, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Merry Christmas, everyone!