Overview
Elisha Cohn's research focuses on Victorian literature, theory of the novel, and animal studies. Her first book, Still Life: Suspended Development in the Victorian Novel (Oxford University Press, 2016), considers how states of reverie and trance shaped aesthetic forms. Her second book, Milieu: a Creaturely Theory of the Contemporary Novel (Stanford University Press, 2025) rethinks the status of animals in global fiction, showing how contemporary narrative forms evoke the creatureliness of animal and human lives. She is also co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of George Eliot (2025). She has also published essays in Contemporary Literature, Victorian Studies, Journal of Victorian Culture and elsewhere. Her current interests include the history of medicine, affect theory, and ecology.
Research Focus
- Nineteenth Century British literature and culture
- Theory of the novel
- Animal studies
- Literature and science, especially medicine
- Affect theory
In the news
- Department of Literatures in English Debuts New Curriculum for the Fall 2022 Semester
- Alumnus helps celebrities navigate the spotlight