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Dr Briony Hughes

@brihughespoet.bsky.social

2.1K followers 1.1K following 590 posts

Lecturer in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway; Editor @ Osmosis Press & Resurgence and Ecologist poetry feature; ask me about the RHUL Poetry MA pathway! https://linktr.ee/brihughespoet

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · May 17

I'm partnering with a range of arts, heritage, & environmental organisations to run a summer series of immersive bat walks with poetry performances. Bookings are live for my collaboration with Cambridge University Botanic Garden! 🦇@cubotanicgarden.bsky.social www.botanic.cam.ac.uk/whats-on/lis...

Listening to the Night: Bat Walk and Poetry Performance - Cambridge University Botanic Garden

www.botanic.cam.ac.uk

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 1d

Today I had the pleasure of leading a guest lecture & workshop at @ucl.ac.uk for students studying the MArch in Cinematic and Videogame Architecture. We discussed the page as a navigable landscape, text embedded in the (literal and digital) built environment, and writing as research methodology!

Image of a university building - a large, modern building made of yellow stone. Windows above the ground floor are tall, thin strips of glass

Screenshot from a slideshow: Experiment is Conversation with an interrogative dynamic’ Joan Retallack

A screenshot from a slideshow featuring JR Carpenter and Tomo Kihara’s ‘This is not a good sign’ project. Pictures of AR signs holding poetic text embedded in sites

Screenshot from a slideshow - Ian Hamilton Finlay’s Weather is a Third to Place and Time

Reposted by Dr Briony Hughes

Dolly Jørgensen @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social · 12d

Apply for this free PhD course on Energy Humanities in Stavanger, Norway!

Please pass the opportunity on to students you know. Students from anywhere are welcome.

#envhum #envhist

Melina Antonia Buns @melinabuns.bsky.social · 28d

I am really excited to announce the call for the PhD Course in Energy Humanities!

Held at the @greenhouseuis.net from 1-5 December.

Applications are welcome until 24 October.

#envhum #envhist #energyhistory

Poster showing a wind turbine from frog perspective. The picture is in light pink and blue nuances and announces a PhD course in energy humanities. More information can be found in this website. https://www.uis.no/en/research/collaboration/the-greenhouse-centre-for-environmental-humanities/humanities/apply-for-phd

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 1d

If you spot a bat from your garden in the UK, it is likely to be a common or soprano pipistrelle. These bats weigh around 5 grams - the same as this glass pot of black ink. For comparison, I’ve placed the ink next to a blueberry 🦇🫐✒️

Image of small glass jar half filled with black calligraphy ink. The jar is sealed with a cork and placed against a white background. It is casting multiple shadows across the surface

Image of the same pot of ink next to a blueberry. The ink pot has the same circumference and the ink reaches approximately 1/2 of the blueberry’s height. The neck of the pot extends beyond the height of the blueberry

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 3d

This morning I caught the bus to @royalholloway.bsky.social and had the privilege of hearing Open Day Visitor reactions as they spotted Founder’s Building for the first time. Genuinely magical!

The clock tower of Royal Holloway’s founders building - a red brick castle with grey detail characterized by turrets and chimneys

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you to the National Poetry Library for such an energizing tour and discussion with the MA poets!

Students stood in the NPL in front of book shelves Tour guide is pointing. Photo is taken from behind the group

Exhibition of visual poetry including text printed on ping pong balls held in a glass cube and a jacket with ribbons (with printed text) unraveling and hanging toward the floor

Reposted by Dr Briony Hughes

Dani Salvadori @danisalvadori.bsky.social · 5d

Come! Hear the banks of the Thames as you've never heard them before.

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 5d

NEWS: the first @royalholloway.bsky.social Small Press Takeover of the 2025/26 academic year will be on Tuesday 21st October featuring writers published by the incredible @ghostcitypress.bsky.social 👻 Join us in Bloomsbury to hear from Brittany Thomas, Dani Salvadori, and Ellen Warren 🧡

A BLOOMSBURY EVENT SERIES OF LAUNCHES, SHOWCASES, AND EXPERIMENTS IN INDEPENDENT PRESS
BRITTANY THOMAS
DANI SALVADORI
ELLEN WARREN
MORE INFORMATION:
BRIONY.HUGHES@RHUL.AC.UK

21.10.2025 / 6.30 PM
STEWART HOUSE ROOM 1
(VIA SENATE HOUSE LIBRARY)

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 5d

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 6d

A great Scratch Night with readings from the poets across MA Creative Writing pathways - looks like we have a fantastic year ahead of us!

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 8d

Inviting all Victorianist colleagues to take a peek at the music video - what might I have missed? 🧡 m.youtube.com/watch?v=ko70...

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 8d

To be honest I’m delighted to see the random Victorian art and culture facts living rent free in my head being put to use

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 8d

Absolutely! She moves back and forth between lofty and playful references - all held with equal significance by her audience. I think a lot of the criticism has come from the belief that there isn’t space for to do both - even though it’s a hallmark of her career

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 8d

Most likely! Though I wonder if she would have chosen to feature her own hair if this was the ambition

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

My advice: don’t fall into the trap of ‘reactionary misogyny’ (Maggie Nelson). Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore? My answer is yes!

Article title:
Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl review: Penis metaphors and poor little rich girl tales start to chafe
Is this really the same artist that gave us Folklore and Evermore?

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

Lyrics that have received backlash for being ‘cringe’ and ‘sloppy’ follow this intricate lyrical methodology (IYKYK)

Tweet: swifties anytime ariana sings about sex and doesn't write it like "he stuck his long wood into my redwood forest and let his sap ferment my roots"

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

This is only the starting point of a growing ecosystem of intertextual references that are woven into the album. I think it is exciting to see Swift is bridging a gap between uplifted literary culture and the intertextual intricacies of social media and the digital age.

I think I may have girl bossed too close to the sun tik tok screenshot

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

Not to mention the appearance of a red bird at the start of Swift’s video akin to the symbolic red dove Rossetti’s ‘Beata Beatrix’, notably painted after Siddal’s death.

Screenshot from the fate of Ophelia music video - a red bird has landed on her hand

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

‘The Fate of Ophelia’ lyrics align with the myth of Elizabeth Siddal’s own biography. When Siddal died of an overdose at 32, Rossetti buried a manuscript of poems in her coffin. He infamously exhumed the grave 7 years later to retrieve them.

Now I can see it all (see it all)
Late one night
You dug me out of my grave and Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia
Keep it one hundred

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

‘In an Artist’s Studio’ by Christina Rossetti (Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sister) evidences the objectification of Siddal - ‘He feeds upon her face by day and night’. Not to mention the reference to opal!

One face looks out from all his canvases, One selfsame figure sits or walks or leans:
We found her hidden just behind those
screens,
That mirror gave back all her loveliness.
A queen in opal or in ruby dress, A nameless girl in freshest summer-greens, A saint, an angel — every canvas means The same one meaning, neither more nor less.
He feeds upon her face by day and night, And she with true kind eyes looks back on
him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;
Not as she is, but as she fills his dream.

Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

As the music video moves between different variations of ‘showgirl’ aesthetics through the last two centuries, I turned my attention back to Siddal. Through each painting, Siddal’s face was claimed and commodified. Comparisons can be made with Swift’s own Showgirl experience.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

The narrative description of the water, sailors, and storms aligns with Swift’s boat scene, whilst (perhaps I’m going too far here), the cracked mirror might explain the prevalence of cracked versions of the album art across streaming platforms.

Screenshot from music streaming. Glittery cracks across album

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

The poem is widely recognised as a commentary on the isolation of the artist - it’s unsurprising that the story sparked Swift’s interest. Breaking the curse, the protagonist’s mirror cracks, she flees her tower, and eventually meets the same fate as Ophelia.

She left the web, she left the loom, She made three paces thro' the room, She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume, She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.

As when to sailors while they roam, By creeks and outfalls far from home, Rising and dropping with the foam, From dying swans wild warblings come, Blown shoreward; so to Camelot
Still as the boathead wound along The willowy hills and fields among, They heard her chanting her deathsong,
The Lady of Shalott.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

‘The Lady of Shalott’ responds to Alfred Tennyson’s (1832) poem of the same name, which in turn reimagines characters from Arthurian legend. The protagonist lives in a solitary ‘tower’, cursed to view the outside world though a mirror, weaving a tapestry of the reflection.

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

I turned my attention toward two Pre-Raphaelite paintings by John William Waterhouse - ‘Miranda - the Tempest’ and ‘The Lady of Shalott’. Despite Swift’s keen interest in Shakespeare, the latter painting took me on a more interesting adventure.

Woman in painting sat on rock looking out to stormy sea

Woman in painting sat on boat with red flowing hair

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

This felt intentional - was Swift trying to draw our attention the oceanic scene? It felt familiar. And (perhaps more compellingly) Swift’s social media posts, teasers, or lyric videos did not showcase this particular section of the music video.

Screenshot of swifts YouTube channel lyric videos

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Dr Briony Hughes @brihughespoet.bsky.social · 9d

Swift exchanged Siddal’s famous hair, choosing instead to pose as a blonde Ophelia. I initially brushed off this detail, however later in the music video Taylor reappears in a long red wig, uncannily embodying Siddal, before collapsing off a boat and into waves.

Another still from video - swift with red long hair

Swift with red hair falling off stage boat into stage sea

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