Literary Heritage

Lessons from the Coronavirus Pandemic

David Rudrum, Helen Williams

$105

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
28 May 2025

Literature: history & criticism; Museums & museology; Social & cultural history; Cultural studies; Social impact of disasters

Literary Heritage examines the literary heritage sector in the post-pandemic moment. The book argues that this is a unique time for literary heritage management and demonstrates that the key to understanding it is an analysis of the transformations that took place because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Through an analysis of literary heritage sites across the UK’s four nations, this study provides an overview of practice from sites managed by national organisations as well as independent museums. Presenting a quantitative and qualitative overview of the challenges faced by the sector in the wake of the pandemic, Rudrum and Williams explore the innovations literary heritage organisations initiated in response. The book displays the wealth of ingenuity that was on display during this trying moment for the sector. It also looks forward to the new normal in the industry: a move towards the outdoors, increased use of online engagement, and creative arts and community programming that brings the literary past to the political present. Featuring interviews with 16 heritage practitioners, the book shares examples of best practice in the hope that lessons will be learned from the enforced closures prompted by the pandemic.

Literary Heritage will be of great interest to academics and students working in Heritage Studies, Museum Studies, and English Literature. It will also appeal to a broad readership of cultural heritage professionals.

By: David Rudrum, Helen Williams
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781032972985
ISBN 10: 103297298X
Pages: 88
Publication Date: 28 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

1. Introduction; 2. Methodology; 3. Meeting the Challenges; 4. Counting the Costs; 5. Doing things Differently; 6. Facing the Future; 7. Conclusions

David Rudrum is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Huddersfield, as well as secretary of the Elmet Trust – the charity that runs the birthplace of the late poet laureate Ted Hughes. His recent books include Trolling Before the Internet: an Offline History of Insult, Provocation and Public Humiliation in the Literary Classics, and New Directions in Philosophy and Literature. Helen Williams is Associate Professor of English Literature and Director of Cultural Partnerships at Northumbria University. She is the author of Laurence Sterne and the Eighteenth-Century Book, and co-editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Correspondence of John Cleland.