Prof Marina Warner

Overview

Biography

Marina Warner’s mother was Italian and her father an English bookseller; she was brought up in Egypt, Belgium, and Cambridge, England. She has been a writer since she was young, specialising in mythology and fairy-tales, with an emphasis on the part women play in them. Her award-winning books include Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (l976), Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (l982), From the Beast to the Blonde : On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (1994) and No Go the Bogeyman (1998). In l994 she gave the BBC Reith Lectures on the theme of Six Myths of Our Time. Her books include Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media (2006), Stranger Magic: Charmed States and The Arabian Nights (2011) and Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (OUP, 2012) . She also writes fiction: The Lost Father (l988), was short-listed for the Booker prize, and in 2000, The Leto Bundle (2000) was long-listed. Her third collection of short stories, Fly Away Home came out in 2014. She has curated exhibitions, including The Inner Eye (l996), Metamorphing (2002-3), and Only Make-Believe: Ways of Playing (2005); Forms of Enchantment: Writing on Art and Artists will be published next year. She chaired the Man Booker International Prize for 2015. Her third collection of short stories, Fly Away Home, was published by Salt in autumn 2015.

Since 2016, she has been working on the theme of Sanctuary and culture in times of dislocation and diaspora, developing the international Stories in Transit project, which aspires to work with displaced individuals, whatever their status, asking: What role can imaginary narratives play in contemporary conditions? In what ways can the ancient human capacity to tell and pass on stories help in the present crisis? Can make-believe help make-truth? More information about the work can be found here: www.storiesintransit.org.

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

2

Current doctoral researchers

• CHRISTINA BAUM

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2020 onwards

  Title of thesis:

  Creative Component: The Lost Mother / Critical Component: On Writing 'The Lost Mother' and Researching the Life and Tales of Luzia Teresa dos Santos

  Description:

  Research Project Description
  Christina Baum

  My PhD is a practice-based research project in Creative Writing, consisting of two components: a full-length novel, The Lost Mother (approximately 65,000 words), and a critical study, On Writing The Lost Mother and Researching the Life and Tales of Luzia Teresa dos Santos (approximately 20,000 words).

  The project explores themes of personal and political memory, oral storytelling, translation, and cultural identity, with a particular focus on the Northeast of Brazil and its tradition of orally transmitted folk narratives. Central to the research is the figure of Luzia Teresa dos Santos (1909–1983), an illiterate rural storyteller from Paraíba, whose repertoire of 242 fairy tales was recorded and transcribed by local folklorists between 1977 and 1983.

  The creative component draws on both historical and fictional elements to trace the journey of a Brazilian-born, London-raised woman returning to post-dictatorship Brazil in search of her origins. Woven into the novel are newly translated selections of Luzia Teresa dos Santos’s fairy tales, adapted for an English-speaking readership.

  The critical component reflects on the process of writing the novel and translating Luzia’s stories. It examines the challenges of preserving oral narratives in written form, the translator’s responsibility in negotiating voice and authenticity, and the blurred boundaries between fiction and historical research. Methodologies include creative writing practice, archival research (conducted at the Federal University of Paraíba’s Centre for Popular Culture Research and Documentation), oral history interviews, and close reading of Luzia’s tales alongside other versions from the Portuguese and Brazilian folk traditions. The work also reflects on how storytelling shapes cultural identity and offers a means of reclaiming lost histories and homes.

  This research contributes to current discussions on memory, translation, and narrative ethics in creative writing, folklore studies, and cultural history, while also helping to disseminate the little-known legacy of Luzia Teresa dos Santos to a broader, international audience.

   

   

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

• PAULINE SUWANBAN

  Nature of supervision:

  Joint Principal Supervisor, Oct 2017

  Title of thesis:

  Popular Romance and Orientalist Fantasy: 1720-1921

  Awarded:

  2025

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Storytelling: Narrative Archetypes, Forms and Techniques (AREN256S4)

Publications