School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies
Profile
My main areas of research include postcolonial writing (Canadian literature more particularly), women’s writing and contemporary historical fiction. My book Re-Writing Women into Canadian History: Margaret Atwood and Anne Hébert (forthcoming Éditions de L’instant même, 2013) focuses on the recovery of female historical narratives absent from hegemonic and colonial versions of history in the work of Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood and Québécois author Anne Hébert. This project challenges conventional understandings of the idea of ‘national literature’ by bridging two bodies of work which have not traditionally been examined together, but which share a common cultural and political past.
My new research project further probes into those national and cultural boundaries by taking me to the exciting field of the Neo-Victorian novel. I am currently examining the use of nineteenth-century British cultural and artistic tropes in the work of contemporary non-British authors, in an effort to consider the significance of neo-Victorianism from a little as yet explored perspective, that of the colonial and formerly colonised. This has led to the publication of an essay on the use of ‘mourning’ as a discursive strategy in the work of Canadian author Jane Urquhart as part of a new series of edited volumes on Neo-Victorian Studies.
I have also organised a one-day symposium on the topic of ‘Neo-Historical Exoticism and Contemporary Fiction’ (14 June 2011) with the Centre for Studies in Literature. This interdisciplinary event aimed to develop critical examination of the recent trend of the 'neo-historical' novel and bring fresh perspectives to current debates on its cultural and theoretical underpinnings. Full details of the symposium at: http://www.port.ac.uk/research/csl/literatureevents/symposium/. I am currently editing a collection of essays based on the proceedings from that symposium.
I have also co-organised an international conference entitled ‘The Other Dickens: Victorian and Neo-Victorian Contexts’ (6-8 July 2012). This event aimed to consider the impact of Dickens's work on Victorian and neo-Victorian studies, and to challenge conventional perceptions of Dickens. Full details at: http://www.port.ac.uk/research/csl/researchprojects/theotherdickens/. I am currently co-editing a special issue of the Journal of Neo-Victorian Studies dedicated to this topic and entitled ‘The Other Dickens: Neo-Victorian Adaptation and Appropriation’.
Recent Publications
Re-Writing Women into Canadian History: Margaret Atwood and Anne Hébert. Québec: Éditions de L’instant même, forthcoming in 2013.
“Re-Writing Myth, Femininity and Violence in Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad.” Myth and Violence in the Contemporary Female Text: New Cassandras. Ed. Sanja Bahun-Radunovi and V.G. Julie Rajan. Farnham: Ashgate, 2011.
"Turmoil, Trauma and Mourning in Jane Urquhart’s The Whirlpool". Neo-Victorian Tropes of Trauma. Eds. Marie-Luise Kohlke and Christian Gutleben. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2010.
“Historical Fiction.” Encyclopaedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction. Ed. Brian Shaffer. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010
“Re-Writing Women’s Destinies in Anne Hébert’s La cage and L’île de la Demoiselle.” Anne Hébert: Essays On Her Works. Ed. Lee Skallerup. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2010.
“Francophone Canadian Literature.” Modern North American Criticism and Theory. Ed. Julian Wolfreys. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. 224-228.
“Anne Hébert and Her Historical Re-Writing Process in Le premier jardin.” Focus on Quebec: Essays on Quebecois Society & Culture 3 (2005) (Ed. Ceri Morgan and Christopher Rolfe): 38-46.
“‘Otherness’ and the Quest for a Sense of Identity in Anne Hébert’s Les enfants du sabbat and Le premier jardin.” Identity and Alterity in Canadian Literature. Ed. Ana Olos and Dana Puiu. Baia Mare: North University Baia Mare Press, 2003. 227-235.