Interests and Information
Victorian
literature and visual art
South asian visual, literary, and performing arts
(Hire Date: 1974)
Ph. D., University of British Columbia,
1974
M.A., University of British Columbia, 1969
arlife@email.unc.edu
(919) 962-4024
Allan Life
In most of his scholarship, Allan Life has explored the relationship between literature and visual art. An interest in the visual portrayal of dance and music has led him to study aspects of medieval South Indian sculpture; in 1995 he was a Senior Fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies. In recent years he has concentrated on Pre-Raphaelitism, especially on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his associates. He served as co-editor of The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vols. 4-6 (2004-2006); in volume 6, he annotated all references to Rossetti's activities as a painter. He is now preparing with Page Life a book focused on Rossetti's later pictures.
Recent publications:
"Scenes and Types of India - with a difference: Picture Postcards by M. V. Dhurandhar." Visual Resources: An International Journal of Documentation, 17 (Winter 2001), 401-416.
"Scheherazade's 'Special Artist': Illustrations by Arthur Boyd Houghton for The Thousand and One Nights." In Haunted Texts: Studies in Pre-Raphaelitism, ed. David Latham (University of Toronto Press, 2003), 145-175.
"Introduction: William E. Fredeman as the Editor of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A Reminiscence." The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), 3: vii-xix.
"The Oil Versions of Rossetti's Proserpine." The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006) [Appendix 2], 6: 588-604.
[with Page Life] "Monna Innominata: Alexa Wilding." The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), [Appendix 3], 6: 605-645.
[with Page Life] "'Scattered to the Four Winds': The Lost Days of Clara Vaughan Morgan and Charles Augustus Howell." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, 16 (Spring 2007), 59-83.
[with Page Life] "Leonard Rowe Valpy: Patron of Samuel Palmer and Dante Rossetti, Part 1 [of 3]." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, 16 (Fall 2007), 28-65.
[with Page Life] "Leonard Rowe Valpy: Patron of Samuel Palmer and Dante Rossetti, Part 2 [of 3]: Rossetti Pictures Associated with Valpy: An Annotated Catalogue." The Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies, 17 (Spring 2008), 36-72.