Current research projects in English Literature

HypheNation: A study of the Bildungsroman in six American minority novels from the 1990s (Zdravka Katinic) Internal funding 2020-

The project explores six American minority novels published in the "post-era" of the 1990s USA: Danzy Senna's Caucasia (1998), Gish Jen's Mona in the Promised Land (1996), Sapphire's Push (1996), Bapsi Sidhwa's An American Brat (1995), Linda Hogan's Solar Storms (1994), and Julia Alvarez's How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991). The aim is to show how these coming-of-age stories play with the Bildungsroman in order to reimagine what an "American" is and what it means in the construction of identity..

Literary life cycles: Case studies of Swedish and American literature 1900–1970 (Anna Forssberg, Anna Linzie). Internal funding 2020-

What makes literary value appear and disappear? Some authorships survive, but what happens to the others? This project contributes new historical perspectives on the valuation of literature and new knowledge about literary life cycles through case studies of the fluctuating literary value of a number of Swedish and American authorships 1900-1970: Marika Stiernstedt, Sigfrid Siwertz, Emilia Fogelklou, Gustaf Hellström, Zona Gale, Julia Peterkin, Ellen Glasgow, and Marjorie Rawlings. Since literary prizes highlight what has been considered great literary value at a certain point in time, authors are selected who have been awarded major national prizes. Theories and concepts from Raymond Williams and Pierre Bourdieu are used, as well as categories of value from Swedish research – value of style and form, of knowledge, and emotional, social, and economic values.

“Sweet Mother of Tinker Bell!”: Re-imagining the Fairy Figure in Contemporary Fantasy Literature. (Saga Bokne)
Internal funding (PhD project) 2019-

This project explores the fairy figure as it is depicted in the modern fantasy genre. Examining a wide variety of fantasy texts, the project aims to map the development of the fairy figure in relation to fairy depictions in folklore and in canonical literature. It also aims to elucidate the function(s) which this figure performs in the fantasy genre of today.

"We are Black; we’re at home with that”: British Poetry from Black Power to Black Lives Matter (Judith Kiros)
PhD project funded by Kufo (The Research Group for Cultural Studies) 2020-

The project aims to examine Black British poetry from the age of Black Power to Black Lives Matter. Through close readings of four major poets – Linton Kwesi Johnson, Fred D’Aguiar, Patience Agbabi and Jackie Kay – and through the theoretical lens of Paul Gilroy’s “Black Atlantic”, it traces a theoretical, political tradition and literary tradition to younger poets Kayo Chingonyi and Jay Bernard