‘Origin Myths’

In 2011, Duncan Wu moved to the forests of northern Virginia, finding himself in a place largely unchanged since the Civil War. There, he learnt that indigenous people had once lived in considerable numbers; but, at some point after the War, they disappeared.

Contemporary documents held in local archives provided no explanation, though they confirmed that all indigenous settlements had left the area by 1778. Duncan would learn a good deal more by walking through the wilds of northern Virginia with his dog, Dakota, who would guide him to the places that witnessed the end of Powhatan and his people.

‘I love how the muscularity of his language pushes against the constraints of form. . . Origin Myths demonstrates the power and beauty inherent in classical structures, and I found that enormously refreshing.’ — Washington Independent Review of Books

‘It is the individual moments – small and large, remembered and unremembered – which Wu is now memorializing with just the right words and structures’ – Georgetown Magazine

Duncan Wu is Raymond Wagner Professor in Literary Studies at Georgetown University. He came to Georgetown in 2008, but began his career as a Catz Fellow by Special Election, and then as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the British Academy. In 1995, he was appointed Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, where he later became Professor of Romantic Studies in 1999. In 2000, he was appointed University Lecturer in English at the University of Oxford, and Catz Tutorial Fellow in English. In 2004, he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust. He is President of The Charles Lamb Society and former Vice-Chairman of The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, a founder member and former Chairman of The Hazlitt Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Origin Myths is the latest in a large corpus of authored, co-authored, or edited publications. His publications include Romanticism: An Anthology (1994, 1998, 2007, 2012); A Companion to Romanticism (1998); Wordsworth’s Reading 1770-1815 (1993, 1995); Wordsworth: An Inner Life (2000); Selected Writings of William Hazlitt (1998); and Making Plays: Interviews with Contemporary British Playwrights and Directors (2000).

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