Profile

Sheng Yao is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature at Peking University. She received her PhD from the Department of English Studies at Durham University, UK. Her research focuses on William Wordsworth’s dramatic poetics of passion and feeling. She is also interested in reading Wordsworth alongside other Romantic and Victorian poets, playwrights, and successors who exhibit an intrinsic dramatic quality in their works, such as Robert Browning and the dramatic monologue form. Her articles and book reviews have appeared in Foreign Literatures (《国外文学》) and the BARS Review. She has recently translated Wordsworth’s only verse drama, The Borderers (1797-99), into Chinese.

Educational Experience

Ph.D. University of Durham, 2024.

M.A. Peking University, 2019.

B.A. Peking University, 2016.

Work Experience

March 2026 – present: Boya Postdoctoral Fellow, Peking University

Research Interests

British Romantic Poetry and its Cultural Legacies, Victorian Dramatic Monologue, Closet Drama.

Selected Publications

• ‘William Wordsworth’s Dramatic Ventriloquism in the Lyrical Ballads.’ Foreign Literature (forthcoming) (论威廉·华兹华斯《抒情歌谣集》中的浪漫主义腹语术,《外国文学》，已录用 )

• ‘The Dramatic Legacy of Pageant and Voice in Wordsworth and Robert Browning.’ Foreign Literatures, 2024(3): 98-108. (涌动的行列与声音的活力——威廉·华兹华斯和罗伯特·勃朗宁笔下的戏剧性诗学传承,《国外文学》，2024年第3期：98-108.)

• Review. Rieko Suzuki, The Shelleys and the Brownings: Textual Re-Imaginings and the Question of Influence (Liverpool, 2022)’ for The BARS Review, No. 60 (2023-24): 14-15.

• Review. William Wordsworth, Guide to the Lakes, ed. Saeko Yoshikawa (Oxford, 2022)’ for The BARS Review, No. 59 (2022): 4-5 (listed as the editorial ‘Review’ for the Oxford University Press).

Honors and Awards

• Wordsworth Conference Foundation bursaries, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.

• China Scholarship Council — Collaborative Scholarship with Durham University, UK. 2019-2022.