Impact case study database
Search and filter
Filter by
- University of Chester
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Submitting institution
- University of Chester
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Summary impact type
- Cultural
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- No
1. Summary of the impact
This project has played a major role in establishing flash fiction (stories of up to 500 words) in the UK and beyond, through local, regional, national, and international initiatives. It has inspired beneficiaries of all ages to read and write flashes, nurtured creativity, developed literacy and writing skills, and provided opportunities for publication. Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine has published c. 600 writers (350 in 2013–20) from 48 countries across six continents; since 2015, its not-for-profit Press has published 300 authors in seven books, one in aid of a UK national charity. Impacts on commercial publishing and authors’ careers included 83 flashes reprinted in 33 books by 22 publishers. Public engagement included: social-media forums and webpages with users in 180 countries; writing contests (two international, one local); and live events (two in Italy, 23 in the UK), with talks, readings, and workshops for literary festivals, libraries, arts venues, community groups, and adult-education courses attracting 1,150 people. Schoolchildren, students, and teachers – in primary, secondary, and higher education – benefitted from six workshops, seven annual National Flash Fiction Youth Competitions, and learning resources including set texts. Aspects were featured on broadcast, print, and online media, extending the project’s considerable reach.
2. Underpinning research
Drs Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler, founding Directors (2015) of the International Flash Fiction Association (IFFA), have since 2006 been at the forefront of establishing flash fiction as a popular form of contemporary storytelling and a new field of academic research. They were joined in 2016 by Dr Ian Seed as Assistant Director. Their theoretical and analytical scholarship informs, and is informed by, two modes of practice-led research: the Directors’ and Assistant Director’s creative writing; and the Directors’ editing of a leading literary magazine and a respected small press.
In the early 2000s, flash fiction was little known outside the USA. In 2006, Chantler introduced the form at ‘The Short Story’ conference (Edge Hill University) and edited An Anatomy of Chester: A Collection of Short-Short Stories (Chester Academic Press), comprising 55 flashes by local writers, three by Blair. In 2008, Chantler published ‘Notes Towards the Definition of the Short-Short Story’ [3a], the first sustained academic consideration of very short fiction.
Blair and Chantler researched print and online literary magazines, revealing a paucity of outlets for flash. To stimulate writing in the genre and to broaden publishing opportunities, they launched (Oct. 2008) Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine [ISSN 1756-5200], the first biannual print periodical for flashes and reviews (of up to 360 words). 22 issues (typically 115 pages, comprising Editorial, 50 flashes, six reviews, and occasional essays) appeared (excluding issues delayed by Covid). Approx. 8,000 stories were submitted, and 1,100 published, by 600 authors from 48 countries (with translations from nine languages), plus 130 reviews. In 2015, they founded Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press, which has published seven books [5e]. Bibliographic research led them to establish and curate the Flash Fiction Special Collection (Seaborne Library, Chester). For researchers, they maintain (since 2008) the IFFA Archive [5f].
In 2014, Blair and Chantler published interviews with David Gaffney and Vanessa Gebbie, the UK’s leading flash authors, in peer-reviewed journal Short Fiction in Theory and Practice (4.1: 125–30; 4.2: 233–39); this research underpinned four collaborative festival events (Box 4). Blair and Chantler were interviewees for Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine (2012), USA’s 100 Word Story (2012) and SmokeLong Quarterly (Chantler, 2016), and the Bath Flash Fiction Award (Blair, 2016).
Blair was commissioned to write a ‘Flash Fiction’ article for Bloomsbury’s bestselling * Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook for 2014, 2015, and 2016 [3b], reflecting the form’s increasing popularity in the UK. Twice updated, it researched flash’s publishing history and contemporary opportunities. His path-breaking 12,000-word article ‘Hyper-compressions: The Rise of Flash Fiction in “Post-transitional” South Africa’ (2018 [3c]) surveyed short-story collections and analyzed flashes to demonstrate that flash is emerging there as a significant, yet critically neglected, form; a version was commissioned for a Routledge book on the contemporary South African short story.
Blair and Chantler’s publications are cited eight times in the first academic collection on flash: Critical Insights: Flash Fiction, ed. Cocchiarale and Emmert (Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2017). Other recognition includes invited papers: Blair’s ‘Flash Fiction and the Oral Short Story’ (OU Contemporary Cultures of Writing Research Group, University of London, 2014) and keynote ‘Flash Fiction Now: Theory and Practice’ (Poetics and Linguistics Association conference on ‘Creative Style’, University of Kent, 2015); and Chantler’s ‘David Gaffney’s Flash Fiction’ (‘Mapping Flash Fiction: Linguistic and Cultural Pathways’ colloquium, LUMSA University, Rome, 2017).
Seed’s small stories explore the interface between flash and the prose poem. They have appeared in Flash (for which he reviews), and such prestigious publications as Granta, PN Review, and The Best Small Fictions 2017 (Braddock Books). His books include four collections: Makers of Empty Dreams (2014); ** **Identity Papers (2016) [3d]; ** **New York Hotel (2018) [3e]; and ** The Underground Cabaret (2020). New York Hotel was a TLS Book of the Year.
3. References to the research
[a] Book chapter: Chantler, ‘Notes Towards the Definition of the Short-Short Story’, The Short Story, ed. Ailsa Cox (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2008), pp. 38–52.
[b] Book chapter: Blair, ‘Flash Fiction’, Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2014 (London: Bloomsbury, [Nov.] 2013), pp. 279–82; WAYB 2015 (2014), pp. 279–82; WAYB 2016 (2015), pp. 248–51.
[c] Journal article: Blair, ‘Hyper-compressions: The Rise of Flash Fiction in “Post-transitional” South Africa’, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 55.1 (March 2020): 38–60 [Special issue: The Short Story in South Africa Post-2000]; first pub. July 2018. DOI 10.1177/0021989418780932 [in REF2].
[d] Collection (creative writing): Seed, Identity Papers (Bristol: Shearsman, 2016) [in REF2].
[e] Collection (creative writing): Seed, New York Hotel (Bristol: Shearsman, 2018) [in REF2].
4. Details of the impact
Publishing writers, inspiring readers: Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine is ‘the best UK magazine’ dedicated to the form [5a], internationally one of the two ‘most notable’ [5b], and in ‘the top ten literary magazines to send very very short flashes’ [5c]. It has featured university-based writers and such luminaries as Ama Ata Aidoo, Margaret Atwood, Beryl Bainbridge, James Kelman, Bernard MacLaverty, and Jon McGregor, but the large majority of submissions and accepted flashes are by amateur writers from outside HE. The editors work with accepted authors to help them polish their flashes for publication. Since August 2013, c. 5,000 stories have been submitted to Flash, which in 12 issues published 600 by 350 authors from over 40 countries across six continents, including translations from seven languages: Arabic, Dutch, German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, and Spanish [5d,f]. Typically, 250 copies are printed, with two issues exceeding 400. Approx. 5,800 copies are in circulation (3,500 printed after August 2013), 10% in libraries. Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press published seven books: four single-author chapbook collections, two anthologies featuring almost 300 authors, and a novella-in-flash [5e,f] – giving a fillip to an emerging flash-fiction form; 1,200 copies were distributed. The IFFA is self-sustaining, with print costs offset by sales (mostly online); a small surplus helps fund the National Flash Fiction Youth Competition. International submissions, acceptances, and distribution (including complimentary author copies) indicate wide reach in inspiring readers and nurturing diverse, fresh writing.
Public engagement through broadcast, print, online, and social media has raised awareness of flash, prompted discussion, and encouraged creative participation. Seed read his flashes and was in conversation with host Ian McMillan on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb (18 Mar. 2016) [c. 17,000 listeners]; New York Hotel, a *Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, featured on BBC Radio Merseyside (17 Jan. 2019). The TLS also ran a paid Flash advert (14 Aug. 2015) and Blair and Chantler’s letter on the form (6 April 2018). Their competitions, public events, and school collaborations featured in The Chester Standard (Jan. 2015, Oct. 2019), The Chester Chronicle (April 2018), Cheshire Live (March 2018), and Oswestry Life (Sept. 2020). A story from Flash was republished on Huffpost (13 June 2014); two were translated in Poland’s psychology magazine Charaktery (Feb. 2014, March 2014). This publicity drew visitors to the IFFA website ( http://www.chester.ac.uk/flash.fiction), which includes ‘an excellent bibliography of flash fiction materials’ [5a], Flash Editorials and sample stories from each issue, plus full open access to our tenth-anniversary issue and interviews with Gaffney and Gebbie. For April 2014–Dec. 2020, Google Analytics records 98,595 sessions (160,771 page views by 65,682 unique users from 180 countries), an average of 1,232 sessions per month. Our social-media accounts are the premier forums for flash: on Twitter, Flash Fiction @shortstorymag has 8,450 followers; on Facebook, the International Flash Fiction Network has 3,500 members. Described by users as the ‘ best’ and ‘go-to FB page for flash connections’, it ‘Opens up new possibilities to so many aspiring new writers’, including ‘Receiv[ing] good feedback from other writers’, and ‘Ha[ving] stories published based on leads I’ve gotten in this group’. On Twitter and YouTube, 12 flashes by Seed were translated into Urdu. By providing online resources, and impacting public-service and commercial media organizations, the project has thus created an active international community of flash readers and writers. [5f]
The publishing industry and authors’ careers [5f]
The project helped give publishers confidence to invest in the form by cultivating a readership, demonstrating a market, helping writers build a track record, contributing our own stories, and endorsing and reviewing flash books. Our direct impacts were significant and wide-ranging:
(i) At least 83 stories first published in Flash or Press collections were reprinted in 33 books by 22 publishers (trade, independents, and small presses). For authors, prepublication in Flash created a ‘stronger proposal’ (Michael Loveday, UK) and was a ‘decisive factor’ (Niles Reddick, USA) in securing contracts. In the UK: four books published by Salt (Cambridge/Cromer), four by Shearsman (Bristol), three by V. Press (Droitwich), one each by Cultured Llama (no place), Hamish Hamilton (London), Like This Press (Timperley), Red Ceilings Press (Derbyshire), Vagabond Voices (Glasgow). In South Africa: Deep South (Grahamstown), Dye Hard Press (Johannesburg). In the USA: four by Blue Light Press (San Francisco), one each by Aakenbaaken & Kent (Georgia), Apprentice House (Baltimore), Arcadia (Oklahoma), Big Table (Boston), Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York), Matter Press (Pennsylvania), Monkey Puzzle Press (Colorado), Pelekinesis (California), Press 53 (North Carolina), Ravenna Press (Washington). Norton’s landmark anthology Flash Fiction International (New York, 2015) reprinted three stories, selling over 18,000 copies.
(ii) Blair and Chantler supported this book and five other US or UK publications by co-writing cover blurbs/puffs; they are also quoted on New Zealand’s National Flash Fiction Day website (2016).
(iii) Flash’s Reviews section evaluated (in 2013–20) 85 flash collections and craft texts, providing ‘important publicity’ for ‘small presses’ often overlooked by reviewers (Managing Editor, V Press).
(iv) Blair’s ‘Flash Fiction’ articles offered writers strategies for getting published, while providing Bloomsbury with innovative content for three bestselling Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbooks [3b].
(v) Seed’s four collections sold 750 copies for Shearsman; his TLS Book of the Year ‘ increased our profile and brought good publicity’ (Editor and Publisher). Two stories were republished as exemplary texts in Bloomsbury’s Literary Non-Fiction: A Writers’ and Artists’ Companion (2015).
(vi) Blair and Chantler wrote stories for four books by new flash-specialist Ad Hoc Fiction (Bath).
(vii) In Italy, Seed’s Makers of Empty Dreams was translated as Sognatore di sogni vuoti (Rome: Edizione Ensemble, 2018) and reviewed in Patria Letteratura and L’Ombra delle Parole Rivista Litteraria Internazionale, extending our impact on overseas publishers and non-Anglophone readers.
Third-sector charities: Funny Bone: Flashing for Comic Relief, 60 humorous stories by 60 of the world’s best flashers, from Lydia Davis to Roddy Doyle, ed. Blair and Chantler (2017), was sold in aid of Comic Relief; profit of £620 was donated in 2018. In 2019, other Press books were donated to a Flash Fiction Festival raffle to support Air Ambulance South West. Because Funny Bone ‘filled the publishing gap of humorous flash fiction’ (Katey Schultz), US authors Meg Pokrass (2018) and Schultz (2019) set it for writing-group webinars, extending our influence on new writing. [5f]
Twenty-eight public-engagement events: competitions, festivals, talks, readings, workshops publicized the genre, deepened understanding, and inspired would-be writers. At our 25 live events, which attracted over 1,150 people, engaging discussion of example flashes helped audiences/participants recognize the rich potential of compression and so think differently about brevity. Workshops stimulated writers to create and improve flashes. [5f]
(i) Competitions: Blair and Chantler inspired and judged Gladstone’s Library’s ‘Mystery Lady’ Flash Competition (Aug. 2013 [120 entries]) and Chester Library’s Flash Fiction Competition (2014 [50 entries]), publishing winners in Flash. Their involvement conferred prestige, attracting entrants. Blair was a judge for New York’s NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge (Nov. 2013), giving ‘excellent helpful feedback’.
(ii) Public seminars (London 2014, Rome 2017): Blair’s ‘brilliant’ paper in London and Chantler’s in Rome [30 & 80 attendees] (see Box 2) put academic and amateur writers in ‘inspiring’ dialogue.
(iii) Lancaster Litfest (2014, 2019): Seed gave two invited readings [65 attendees]: ‘His reading had a profound effect on me, and on my approach to my own writing – both poetry and prose.’
(iv) Chester City Library’s ‘Flash Fiction Event’ (2015): For Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Adult Education Week, Blair gave a ‘fascinating’ talk [30 attendees] introducing four local writers’ groups reading specially written flashes; two were subsequently published.
(v) Vale Royal Writers’ Winter Wordfest (2015): Blair was a headline reader [60 attendees].
(vi) Chester Literature Festival (2015, 2017, 2018, 2019): Blair and Chantler delivered four admission-free ‘Uni at the Fest’ events, in City Hall and Storyhouse. Two talks with Press authors: David Swann (2015 [50 attendees]), Vanessa Gebbie (2018 [35 attendees]). An illustrated public lecture on humorous flashes (Blair, 2017 [60 attendees]): ‘Inspired me to have a try’, ‘I now want to write flash fiction!’ And a flash reading-to-write workshop (2019 [11 attendees]): ‘Very interesting and informative’, ‘Inspiring and thought provoking’, ‘Might even inspire me to write my own!’
(vii) Gladfest (2016) (Gladstone’s Library, North Wales): Blair’s talk, ‘Flash Fiction Now (and Then …)’ [75 attendees], ‘sparked requests for flash workshops, and because of the impact of your talk we recently featured flash writer and novelist Pippa Goldschmidt’ (Louisa Yates, Festival Director).
(viii) Verbose ‘Live Literature’ Night (Manchester, 2017): To celebrate Verbose’s second birthday, Blair, Chantler, and Press author Swann read flashes [40 attendees], followed by ‘an open mic of flash-fiction performances inspired by the guests’ (Sarah-Clare Conlon, Host).
(ix) Friends of Chester Literature Festival (2017): After Blair contributed an article on flash to the group’s Newsletter, he and Chantler ran ‘Crafting Flash Fiction’ [20 participants] at Chester Little Theatre: ‘So encouraging’, ‘Practical experience of writing flash. I intend to produce more’.
(x) Flash Fiction Festival (Bath 2017; Bristol 2018, 2019): At the Arts Council-funded inaugural Festival, Blair gave the keynote address, ‘Briefs and Bloomers: Revealing Flash Fiction’ [130 attendees]: ‘brilliant’, ‘extremely informative’. Blair and Chantler ran four workshops: ‘Submitting Your Flashes to Magazines’ (2017, 2018 [50 & 20 participants]): ‘Interesting, insightful’, ‘Really useful, practical’. ‘Tips from the World’s Best Flashes’ (2019 [22 participants]): ‘Very thought provoking’, ‘I learnt a lot’, ‘Made me analyse flashes more closely’. ‘Publishing with Flash Press’ (2019 [6 participants]): ‘Very informative’, ‘Practical insights into how to publish works’. Five other events included guest readings (2017 [45 attendees]) and presenting a Funny Bone book launch, with readings by nine contributors (2018 [140 attendees]). In 2018, Chantler was ‘In Conversation with David Gaffney’ [10 attendees]; Blair’s ‘Flashpoint South Africa’ talk [10 attendees] was ‘educational as well as useful in terms of writing’. In 2019, Blair represented South African flash and Chantler British flash in a panel discussion, ‘Flash Fiction Around the World’, with leading authors and editors from Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and the USA [120 attendees]. These ‘excellent workshops and talks have had very positive feedback at the three Festivals. Experienced and beginner writers of short-short fiction have been inspired to write more and submit their stories to magazines as a result of your contributions’ (Jude Higgins, Director).
(xi) Book launch (Rome, 2018): Seed gave a well-received reading and was in conversation with his Italian translator to launch Sognatore di sogni vuoti [35 attendees].
(xii) English Short Course, University of Chester (2019): Blair and Chantler facilitated ‘An Introduction to Writing Flash Fiction’ workshop [10 participants], free for people on benefits or aged 16–18 or over 60 to further extend our impact’s reach: ‘Plenty of opportunities to write’, ‘Gained a lot’.
Education: schoolchildren, students, teachers [5f]
(i) Primary Schools: To nurture creativity, Blair and Chantler collaborated with Chester’s University Church Free School to develop a portfolio of flashes by ten Key Stage 2 (Year 6) children, presented to literacy patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall at Chester Cathedral (March 2018).
(ii) Secondary Schools: The annual National Flash Fiction Youth Competition (for students aged 15–19) was established in 2013 by Blair and Chantler. Almost 1,000 entries were received from 79 schools across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. It provided ‘a very good learning experience for students, encouraging creative talents’ (Head of English, Ellesmere College, 2020), with long-lasting effects; a 2016 prizewinner emailed: ‘It gave me the confidence to study Creative Writing at Brunel [BA] and Chester [MA]’ and ‘to embark on writing as a profession’ (2020). They delivered six flash workshops for 87 KS 3, 4, and 5 students at five schools (two as part of a Widening Participation initiative for demographics underrepresented in HE): Helsby High School; Wirral Grammar School for Girls; The Catholic High School, Chester; South Wirral High School; The Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School, Chester: ‘Really useful, enjoyable’, ‘I am interested to explore more of this form’, ‘Inspired me to write my own flash fiction’. Learning resources: 200 copies of Short on Sugar were given gratis to school students visiting the University (2018–19). The IFFA website provides 88 flashes, bibliography, and a Flash Schools page with handouts for teachers and recommendations for young readers. Two Flash stories were reprinted in Spotlight on Literacy: Creative Interventions in English and Across the Curriculum (KS 3) by the English & Media Centre educational charity (2013). A flash by Seed was reprinted with discussion points for A-level in English Review, 29.3 (Feb. 2019).
(iii) Higher Education (BA, MA, PhD): At Chester, An Anatomy of Chester, three Flash issues, and four Press books have been set on BA and MA modules; two flash PhDs are in progress. Two of Seed’s collections were set texts at Manchester Metropolitan University (2016–18). Flash is recommended reading at Chichester and Bath Spa. Subscribers include 19 UK and three US university libraries, and South Africa’s national literary archive Amazwi. Our IFFA Archive (2008) and Flash Fiction Special Collection (2015) inspired the Harry Ransome Center (University of Texas at Austin) to establish (April 2020) the USA’s first Flash Fiction Collection (Prof. Robert Shappard), for which they acquired copies of Flash. Blair’s ‘excellent keynote’ for PALA (2015 [200 attendees]) ‘has impacted significantly on the research and teaching practice of delegates’ (convenor Dr Jeremy Scott). At Central Connecticut State University, ‘Flash [magazine] was useful to enlarge student perspectives beyond US borders’ (Dr Tom Hazuka, 2020). In South Africa, ‘Flash has been a powerful tool in the teaching of compressed fiction to postgraduate creative writing students at the University of the Western Cape and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It has also provided an opportunity for overseas publication for the students’ (Prof. Kobus Moolman, 2020). Building on our flash-publishing initiatives, and complementing our public-engagement activities, these pedagogic and archival interventions at primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions are having a far-reaching ongoing impact, securing the future of a unique literary form.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
[a] Assoc. Professor, Northumbria University; ‘Flash Fiction’, in The Handbook of Creative Writing, second edition, ed. Steven Earnshaw (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), p. 316.
[b] Author ‘The World’s Shortest Stories’, The Author ([Soc. of Authors] Winter 2017): 130.
[c] Professor of English, Dartmouth College, USA; ‘Top Ten Literary Magazines to Send Very Very Short Flashes’ (Sept. 2013): https://michaelalexanderchaney.com/2013/09/06/top-ten-literary-magazines-to-send-very-very-short-flashes/
[d] Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine, 6.2–12.2 (Oct. 2013–Oct. 2020).
[e] Flash: The International Short-Short Story Press books [all have ISBNs]: David Swann, Stronger Faster Shorter (2015); Meg Tuite, Lined Up Like Scars (2015); Funny Bone: Flashing for Comic Relief (2017); David Steward, Travelling Solo (2018); Vanessa Gebbie, Nothing to Worry About (2018); Mark Budman and Tom Hazuka (eds), Short on Sugar, High on Honey: Micro Love Stories (2018); Gillian Walker, The World at the End of the Garden: A Novella-in-Flash (2020).
[f] International Flash Fiction Association (IFFA) Archive. Includes all stories submitted to Flash, the Press, and competitions; bibliographies of published flashes and reviews; flashes reprinted in books; blurbs/puffs; Google Analytics and social-media data; publicity materials; workshop handouts and photographs; media coverage; correspondence with, and feedback from, beneficiaries (including authors, publishers, teachers, public-event organizers and participants).
- Submitting institution
- University of Chester
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Summary impact type
- Cultural
- Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?
- Yes
1. Summary of the impact
Research into the role of textiles, their use and manufacture in Victorian literature and culture led in 2013 to the establishment of the Textile Stories project. Public-engagement events included seven annual study days, and other talks and workshops in collaboration with regional and national museums, libraries, churches, charities, literary festivals, and literary societies. These brought together people interested in textiles: professionals (costume designers, museum curators, needlecraft teachers, artists, pattern-cutters, rare-breed sheep farmers) and amateurs (crafts hobbyists, vintage clothes enthusiasts, fans of costume drama) were introduced to academic research on textiles in literature and screen adaptations. These interactive events inspired more than 250 participants to experience an enriched understanding of the literary and cultural importance of textiles. This stimulated creativity and promoted wellbeing, as well as prompting participants to read books and watch films they might otherwise ignore, engage in further study, and change their professional practices. The project’s reach was extended by a Textile Stories blog, online talks, and an appearance on a primetime BBC television show.
2. Underpinning research
The research was conducted by Deborah Wynne (Professor from 2010), initially when researching women’s portable property in Victorian novels, funded by an AHRC Research Leave Grant in 2008-09 [ref. AH/G002940/1]. The resulting monograph, Women and Personal Property in the Victorian Novel (2010) [3a], demonstrated how writers depicted women’s property in the form of ‘soft wealth’ or textiles. From this beginning, Wynne’s understanding of textiles as pervasive in Victorian society and culture led her to examine the diversity of cloth representations in the literature of the long nineteenth century. She later gained an AHRC Fellowship (2013-14) [ref. AH/K00803X/1]to focus on how textile cultures informed, and were represented in, nineteenth-century literary culture and contemporary screen adaptations. The outputs from this research [3b, 3c, 3d, 3e] have contributed to the ‘material turn’ in Victorian studies.
The project’s research findings between 2010 and 2020 revealed that nineteenth-century literature utilised a diversity of languages and plots related to cloth manufacture and a consumer economy based on the retail of textiles and clothing, showing how textile cultures facilitated writers’ engagements with political and social developments, from controversies around slavery and cotton manufacture to the conditions of British textile workers. Wynne’s research has ranged across the Victorian period: her published outputs include an article on Victorian textile recycling and paper manufacture in the writings of Dickens [3c]; a co-authored study of Miss Havisham’s wedding dress in screen adaptations of Great Expectations [3b]; an analysis of male drapers’ assistants in late-Victorian life-writing and fiction [3d]; and an article examining Charlotte Brontë’s engagement with Yorkshire wool manufacturing in her novels and juvenilia [3e]. During her Fellowship year Wynne established the public engagement aspects of the project as a way of disseminating the research more broadly. This firmly set in place a plan for the impact evidenced in section 4.
3. References to the research
[a] Monograph: Deborah Wynne, Women and Personal Property in the Victorian Novel (Routledge, 2010) [submitted to REF2014; reviewed in Victorian Studies, Spring 2012]
[b] Journal article: Amber K. Regis and Deborah Wynne, ‘Miss Havisham’s Dress: Materialising Dickens in Film Adaptations of Great Expectations’, Neo-Victorian Studies 5:2 (2012): 35-58 [submitted to REF2014; peer-reviewed journal]
[c] Journal article: Deborah Wynne, ‘Reading Victorian Rags: Recycling, Redemption and Dickens’s Ragged Children’, Journal of Victorian Culture 20:1 (2015): 34-49 [Submitted in REF2; peer-reviewed journal]
[d] Journal article: Deborah Wynne, ‘The “Despised Trade” in Textiles: H.G. Wells, William Paine, Charles Cavers and the Male Draper’s Life, 1870-1914’, Textile History 46:1 (May 2015): 99-113 [Submitted in REF2; peer-reviewed journal]
[e] Journal article: Deborah Wynne, ‘Charlotte Brontë and the Politics of Cloth: The “vile rumbling mills” of Yorkshire’, Brontë Studies 43:1 (January 2018): 89-99. [Submitted in REF2; peer-reviewed journal]
4. Details of the impact
Wynne’s research approaches the study of nineteenth-century textiles, needlecrafts, dress, cloth manufacture, and the retailing of fabric from the perspective of literary studies. Submitted as an impact case study to REF2014 in its nascent stages, the project has grown considerably, benefiting from Wynne’s AHRC Fellowship in 2013-14, which funded the first Textile Stories Study Day (TSSD) in 2013. This was followed by annual events on the same model, whereby Wynne presented talks based on her research project (which included topics such as Elizabeth Gaskell, Manchester and US slave-grown cotton, the Brontës and Yorkshire wool manufacture, and clothing and costume in Jane Austen’s novels and screen adaptations). Additionally, invited speakers from the fashion and heritage industries, needlework instructors, sheep farmers specialising in wool production, novelists, poets, and textile artists presented talks and interactive workshops at the events. The study days introduced a general audience interested in textile history, fashion, vintage clothing, and crafts to Wynne’s research on textile cultures in nineteenth-century literature and its modern manifestations in the form of screen adaptations, known as ‘costume dramas’. Harnessing this interest in textiles, crafts, museum collections and fashion, the TSSD activities engaged participants in discussions relating to costume in literature and film, thus encouraging the reading of literary texts and the co-creation of resources via the Textile Stories blog, as participants and speakers contributed posts based on their interests and responses to the events [5:3]. Between 2013 and 2020 approximately 250 participants attended study days from a broad geographical reach within the UK (one participant wrote: ‘I will be going back home to Scotland full of knowledge from answers to my questions and inspiration from all I have seen and heard’, TSSD 2015) [5:2]. 80% of participants attended more than one event.
Wynne’s research findings have been delivered to the public through talks linked to her published work [3b, 3c, 3d, 3e], and this has encouraged participants, some of whom would not normally have read nineteenth-century fiction, to make meaningful engagements with literature and film via their interest in textiles. Designed to bring together diverse people from different backgrounds (including teachers of needlecrafts; amateur crafts people; professional textile artists; fashion designers; fans of vintage clothing and costume dramas; collectors of antique textiles; school and college students), participants shared their interests in textiles, and discovered how these could lead to rich engagements with literature and film. Some participants mentioned in feedback that they had previously considered academia remote and inaccessible and the TSSD, as their first experience of a university-led event, had made them see the relevance of academic research; some were inspired to continue their studies in FE and HE [5:2]. Participants at the events recorded developing a sense of community and belonging, many expressing their appreciation of the unique opportunities afforded by the TSSDs to discuss their interests in textiles in the context of literature and film [5:1]. In this way, the events (along with the project’s related blog [5:3], which has attracted 64,645 views since 2013 from across the world) have promoted wellbeing and stimulated creativity, as well as encouraging the reading of literary texts and watching of screen adaptations with new understanding.
The TSSDs have been held in different locations in the North West, Midlands and Wales, some on University of Chester campuses, while others, involving collaborations with museum curators, were hosted by museums [5:1]. Some participants have contributed to the project’s blog, which was established in 2013 [5:3]. In addition to the day-long annual study days, Wynne took the project to other venues, delivering public lectures based on her literary textiles research in libraries and churches (the Unitarian Chapel, Shrewsbury (2019), for example), and in 2017 for a charity’s fundraising event (namely the Shrewsbury Drapers’ Guild’s project to build homes for the disadvantaged elderly). She was invited to present talks at numerous literary festivals (including Gladfest at Gladstone’s Library in 2015 and 2019) and events organised by literary societies (including the Brontë Society (2016); Gaskell Society (2018); Jane Austen Society (2015); Mary Webb Society (2019); and Arnold Bennett Society (2019)). These talks recruited new participants for the TSSDs.
Impact on participants: new discoveries of literature and screen adaptations
The feedback from each study day is dominated by the word ‘inspiring’, with participants revealing how the events stimulated them to read books and watch films they did not know about before; one participant reported: ‘I’ll certainly be seeking out Elizabeth Gaskell novels’ (TSSD 2019), while another stated: ‘I’ve never seen “The Piano” but I will now’ (TSSD 2014) [5:2]. Many now engage with nineteenth-century texts via their love of textiles and crafts [5:1]. Comments from participants reveal an impulse to take what they have learned at the study day to explore cultural forms differently. For example, feedback comments include: ‘Will look at film and TV dramas in a different light!’ (TSSD 2014); ‘My mind has been opened and questions are being asked in it. I have made a note of your suggested books and look forward to reading them’ (TSSD 2018) [5:2]. Participants reported enjoying the novelty of being presented with information from an academic perspective, an indication of the educational benefits of the events [5:1]. For some, it has been a revelation to discover new aspects of culture: ‘Who knew there was so much to wool! It is even in art and literature’ (TSSD 2016) [5:2]. As these typical comments demonstrate, the study days have prompted participants to think of new ways of engaging with textiles via literature and film, enriching their hobbies and professional interests, and raising awareness of the role of textiles in literary texts, screen adaptations and historical contexts [5:1].
Impact on participants: furthering education
Some participants have been stimulated by the study days to continue their education or to view their studies differently. One college student reported, ‘I’ve left with lots of think about and this has been an excellent add on to my textile art studies’ (TSSD 2019) [5:2]. Others took practical steps to return to education, one writing: ‘Attending the study day in 2015 reignited my love of learning, and contributed to my enrolling on the MRes in Gender Studies’; she went on to complete a dissertation at Chester’s Institute of Gender Studies on gender and 1950s home dressmaking, graduating in 2020 [5:2]. Another participant, a retired Maths teacher with an MA in Textile History, was stimulated by the first TSSD to study for a PhD on the cultural history of tatting lace, gaining her PhD (supervised by Wynne) in 2018 when she was 80 years old: ‘It was after attending one of the Textile Story Days that I was inspired to transfer […] to Professor Deborah Wynne who was inspirational’ [5:2]. Another retired participant stated in 2019, ‘Textile Stories enables me to keep in touch with education […] helping to fill a much-needed gap where I can continue learning alongside others’ [5:2]. A number of school and college students have attended the TSSDs: one 15-year old reported gaining a new understanding of textiles, fashion and costume through the lens of literary and film studies, and wrote about this in a blog post for the Textile Stories blog [5:3].
Impact on textile professionals and teachers
The study days have also been popular with a range of professionals, such as teachers of crafts (including spinning; weaving; pattern cutting; and natural dyeing); sheep farmers specialising in wool production; textile artists; fashion and costume designers; and museum curators, many setting up stalls at the events to showcase their work or the collections they manage in the museums and heritage sites (such as the Flax Mill in Shrewsbury) [5:1]. The events have also encouraged some professionals to change their practices. For example, a needlework teacher stated in an email that attending the Textile Stories events encouraged her to include references to literature in her talks; in her demonstrations of creating vintage-style smocks she now refers to representations of smocks in the work of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy [5:2]. One participant reported: ‘The talk on Miss Haversham’s [sic] dress prompted me to make my own version of her wedding dress for World Book Day, when I was employed as a reading interventionist specialist teaching assistant at Middlewich High School. This also inspired a display around the reading room of the novels of Charles Dickens’ [5:2].
Impact via the media
In 2019 Wynne was interviewed for the BBC One series The Great British Sewing Bee about her research into textile recycling in the Victorian period. This was broadcast on 27/05/2020, the series attracting c. 4.9 million viewers per episode. The interview came about when the producer (from Love Productions) had read Wynne’s open access journal article on Dickens and rags recycling [3c]. Wynne showcased Dickens’s interest in rags recycling in his writing, thus highlighting in the interview the relationship between textiles and literature to a mass audience.
Impact on the heritage sector
The Textile Stories study days have also been organised in collaboration with heritage organisations, as museum curators heard of the success of Wynne’s events. In 2017 the Director of the Silk Museum in Macclesfield invited Wynne to organise the study day in the museum as a way of promoting its collection to a wider audience. Costumes and other silk items which had long been in storage were displayed, revealing the breadth of the collection to participants. The event also involved a crafts session, whereby participants constructed booklets using textual fragments from Jane Eyre and fragments of waste silk. One participant found this creative bringing together of text and fabric ‘inspirational’ [5:2].
In 2020 Wynne collaborated with Wrexham Museum to organise an event designed to display for the first time items from its costume collection. The whole collection had been in storage since its arrival at the Museum in 1980 [5:1]. For this study day Wynne worked with Ruth Caswell, an award-winning costume-maker for the films Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Elizabeth (1998), as well as for television and theatre productions, while her fashion designs had featured in Vogue. Caswell had approached Wynne after hearing her talk on Victorian textiles at Gladfest, Gladstone Library’s literary festival in North Wales in 2019. They went on to collaborate with Wrexham Museum’s lead curator, Karen Murdoch, to organise a study day for 40 participants as a way of highlighting how collections of historical costume can inspire the making of costumes for theatre and film. The Victorian costumes were taken from their storage boxes, where they had lain since the 1980s, and were then displayed and explained during the event. For example, Wynne discussed the design of one gown from the 1840s in relation to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and its many screen adaptations. The study day began with Wynne interviewing Ruth Caswell about her work with actors to develop character through costume . One participant noted: ‘Really made me think about costume in a new way’ [5:2]. The study day, as well as benefitting the participants, also helped the Museum to rethink the importance of its collection. Karen Murdoch stated in an email after the event that it had ‘an even greater impact as it has provided the momentum needed to look at larger projects as well as enabling us to start to understand the wealth of the collection’ [5:2].
Other collaborations with the heritage sector involved speakers at the study days from the National Trust at Attingham Park, Shropshire (2019); from the Flax Mill heritage site in Shrewsbury (2018); and from the V&A (in 2014 and 2016), all of whom talked to participants about the textile and costume collections they manage. Participants mentioned in feedback that they had subsequently visited these heritage sites and museums with a new awareness of their links to literature and film [5:1]. The costume curator at Attingham Park, Holly Kirby, reported that following her involvement in the 2019 study day there was an increase on previous years in the number of people booked for her 2019 Summer guided tours of the costume collection [5:2]. Participants mentioned to her that their attendance at the TSSD had prompted them to book a guided tour, offering further evidence that Wynne’s project made an impact on the heritage industry.
Online impact during the Covid-19 pandemic
The cancellation of the 2020 TSSD because of the pandemic led to Wynne establishing alternative channels of communication via the Textile Stories blog [5:3]. Participants at previous events were invited to submit details of their textile crafts projects, along with the books they were reading while under lockdown. Many reported finding this channel of communication useful, enabling them to retain their awareness of the relationships between texts and textiles and feel a sense of connectedness with the people they had met at previous study days [5:3]. Further opportunities for online engagement came later in 2020 when Wynne was invited to present a short talk on textile recycling and paper-making (delivered on 06/08/20) for the Crafting Communities: A Series of Victorian Object Lessons & Scholarly Exchanges in COVID Times project, organised by the Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada and involving scholars from the Universities of Alberta and Victoria. Wynne presented (and will present in 2021) online talks on Victorian textile recycling to a global audience of 65 academics and members of the public. In response to her talk, one non-academic participant from the UK emailed Wynne to say, ‘thoroughly enjoyed your discussion about “rag collectors”. For many years I researched my family tree and recently came across a great grandparent who was a “rag sorter”. Your talk gave me a new perspective and made me think about him in a completely different way’ [5:2].
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
The following evidence is available on request:
[5:1] Feedback forms (scanned) and emails (saved copies) from participants at TSSDs and other public events. List of public events and talks related to the project. Photographs of TSSDs and other events.
[5:2] Sources of the quotations used in Section 4.
[5:3] Textile Stories blog: http://dwtextilestories.blogspot.co.uk/ [usage figures accessed: 26/02/2021]