![]() Associate Professor听in Literature in English from 1900 to the Present Day Email: m.sperling@ucl.ac.uk Office: Foster Court 232 |
Education and Experience听
Matthew Sperling听joined 香港六合彩 in 2016 as Lecturer in Literature in English from 1900 to the Present Day and became Associate Professor in 2022. He now teaches half the time in the English department and half on BA Creative Arts and Humanities at 香港六合彩 East.
Before joining 香港六合彩, he held positions听as Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Reading and听Fellow by Special Election at Keble College, Oxford. He studied at Gravesend Grammar School and听the University of Oxford.
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Research Interests
Matthew's first novel,听Astroturf, was published by riverrun in 2018 and was longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019. His second novel,听Viral, was published by riverrun in 2020.听His writing has also been published in 3:AM, Best British Short Stories听2015, The Economist: 1843,听The Guardian,听The Junket,听the New Statesman,听Prospect,听Vanity Fair,听The White Review,听and elsewhere.
Matthew鈥檚 critical writing focuses on modern and contemporary literature and the history of publishing and the book. His monograph, Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words, was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. He has contributed chapters, articles and听reviews to many publications, and he听regularly writes about modern art听for .
He is currently at work on a creative-critical听book about the Ripley novels by Patricia Highsmith.
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Selected Publications
听(London: riverrun, 2020)
![Viral book cover](/english/sites/english/files/styles/non_responsive/public/viral_small.jpg?itok=opzC54Dn)
鈥楢 fiercely smart and funny portrayal of tech arrogance, unhinged entrepreneurship, and the vacuous amorality of disruptive startup culture. Viral is a vicious delight.鈥欌擲am Byers
鈥楢n irresistible, razor-sharp and hilarious takedown of our generation's masters of the universe.鈥欌擮livia Sudjic
鈥楽imultaneously funny and dead accurate鈥欌擲unday Telegraph
鈥榁iral鈥檚 vision of our capitalist present is at once absurdist 鈥撯淯berise the homeless?鈥 Ned suggests, searching for a new enterprise 鈥 and uncomfortably familiar.鈥欌擬ikaella Clements, Times Literary Supplement
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听(London: riverrun, 2018)
![Astroturf book cover Astroturf book cover](/english/sites/english/files/styles/non_responsive/public/astroturf_small_0.jpg?itok=joPc-xEz)
LONGLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2019
鈥楢 brawn cocktail that nails the zeitgeist... a clever and well-paced morality tale for the modern age鈥欌擲arah Gilmartin, Irish Times
鈥業 loved Matthew Sperling鈥檚 sly, subversive novel, a听wickedly funny听tale of how to come out on top in a听fake news world鈥欌擮livia Laing
鈥極utrageous, sexy and funny. Sperling writes with the caustic economy of Waugh or Spark, but his characters have more heart, including the听sockpuppets. The plot is so taut I'm still trying to work out how he brings the tension of a heist movie to thirty-something bedsit London鈥欌擫uke Kennard
鈥榠t proceeds with the briskness of a screenplay... the author is to be commended for the controlled and unobstrusive voice of his third-person narrator鈥欌Houman Barekat,听Times Literary Supplement
鈥楢 tale about steroids which seems to be听on steroids听itself: sleek, muscular and just slightly听too real鈥欌擪ate Clanchy
鈥楢 brilliant anatomy of a certain proliferating type of contemporary masculinity: Instagram-approved, swole with self-regard, yoked with desperation, and, like this novel itself, equipped with an alarmingly strong grip鈥欌擜dam Foulds
鈥榯his sharp, short, timely novel is not only a powerful account of performance-enhacing drug use, but a snapshot of contemporary masculinity 鈥 not caricatured or simply dismissed as 鈥渢oxic鈥 but brought to life with empathy and wit鈥欌擭ew Statesman
鈥楢 frank and remarkable debut from a new and authentic voice. I love Matthew Sperling鈥檚 exploration of masculinity, love, and the plural identities that entangle us all in the contemporary world鈥欌擷iaolu Guo
鈥樷櫶齣n听Critical Quarterly听(October 2023)
鈥樷櫶齣n听The Junket, issue 14听(June 2015)
鈥樷櫶齣n听3:AM听(March 2015)
鈥樷櫶齣n听The Junket, issue 13听(January 2015)
鈥楻emovals鈥櫶齣n听, issue 1听(2014), 23鈥32
鈥樷櫶齣n听The Literateur (April 2014); anthologized in Nicholas Royle (ed.),听Best British Short Stories 2015听(Cromer: Salt Publishing, 2015), 113鈥127
听 听 听 听 CRITICAL WRITING
Visionary Philology: Geoffrey Hill and the Study of Words (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014)
鈥楽perling鈥檚 plundering of the archive makes this study an invaluable and highly revealing document of Hill鈥檚 poetic and scholarly life鈥 the academic monograph invites us to read it as a brilliantly unconventional biography of its subject鈥欌擲tuart Farley, PN Review
鈥楳atthew Sperling has produced an indispensable book on the poet鈥 He has also, by the way of delineating Hill鈥檚 intellectual genealogy, written a slender but learned history of English romantic philology, an important study that will repay the attention of scholars and critics interested more broadly in the politics and theology of language鈥欌擯aul Franz, Religion & Literature
鈥榁isionary Philology is an outstanding work of scholarship and synthesis鈥欌擝eau Hopkins, Notes & Queries
鈥榓 passionately informed, thoroughly fascinating exploration of Hill鈥檚 published and unpublished thought, and one that is sure to set the agenda for further research on this major poet鈥欌擪arl O鈥橦anlon, Modernism/modernity
鈥榁isionary Philology has performed an invaluable task in its patient account of a variety of abstruse and sometimes rebarbative ideas鈥欌擜lex Pestell, The Review of English Studies
鈥榯his lean monograph is a superb example of lively and rigorous scholarship, achieving a double whammy by making significant contributions to our understanding of both Hill and literary philology鈥欌擩ames Underwood, The Modern Language Review
鈥楬ymnody: From Lowell to Riley in Common Measure鈥, in E.J.F. Allen, Forms of Late Modernist Lyric (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2021)
鈥楲exicography and Modern Poetry鈥 in Andrew Blades and Piers Pennington (eds), Poetry and the Dictionary (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019)
鈥楪eoffrey Hill and Publishing: 鈥淭he Recalcitrance of the World鈥濃, in Andrew Michael Roberts (ed.), Strangeness and Power: Essays on the Poetry of Geoffrey Hill (Bristol: Shearsman, 2019)
鈥楴ot Feeling at Home: Poetry and the Hidden Injuries of Class鈥, in Tom Phillips (ed.),听The Other Lives of Peter Robinson: Essays on his Writing听(Bristol: Shearsman, 2021)
鈥楥ape Goliard鈥, in Lise Jaillant (ed.), Publishing Modernist Fiction and Poetry (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019)
鈥The Tribune's Visitation听and Fulcrum Press: The Publishing Contexts of Late-Modernist Poetry鈥, in Jamie Callison, Paul S. Fiddes, Anna Johnson and Erik Tonning (eds),听David Jones: A Christian Modernist?听New Approaches to His Art, Poetry and Cultural Theory听(Leiden: Brill, 2018),听249鈥262
Sections on 鈥楤ritish Poetry Post-1950鈥櫶齣n The Year鈥s Work in English Studies, volumes 93, 94, 95 and 96听(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014鈥17)
鈥楾he Publishing of Poetry: An Interview between Don Paterson and Matthew Sperling鈥, in Natalie Pollard (ed.), Don Paterson: Contemporary Critical Essays (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014), 145鈥152
鈥楤ooks and the Market: Trade Publishers, State Subsidies and Small Presses鈥, in Peter Robinson (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Contemporary British and Irish Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 191鈥212
Geoffrey Hill and his Contexts, co-edited with Piers Pennington (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2011)
鈥楾he Trouble of an Index鈥, Essays in Criticism, LXI:4 (2011), 325鈥337
鈥樷淭he Glacial Question, Unsolved鈥: A Specimen Commentary on Lines 1鈥31鈥櫶(co-authored with Thomas Roebuck), Glossator:听Practice and Theory of the Commentary, 2 (2010), 39鈥78
鈥榃ater鈥, in Peter Robinson (ed.),听An Unofficial Roy Fisher听(Exeter: Shearsman, 2010), 161鈥168
鈥樷淭he Making of the Book鈥: Roy Fisher, the Circle Press and the Poetics of Book Art鈥, Literature Compass, 4:5 (2007), 1444鈥1459