School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies
Dr Margaret Bowers
Senior Lecturer in English Literature
SSHLS
Milldam, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, HANTS., PO1 3AS
Profile
My specialism is the field of multi-ethnic, cross-cultural and transnational writing of North America and Britain with a particular focus on narrative strategies. I have published articles on African American writing, Native American writing and comparative studies of Asian diasporic literature in America, Canada and Britain. I am the author of Routledge’s New Critical Idiom volume Magic(al) Realism and a co-editor of the multi-lingual postcolonial volume Convergences and Interferences. I am currently working on the link between Native American writing, legal discourse and orality and on a wider-ranging study of narrative strategies in postcolonial contexts.
Publications:
Books:
Magic(al) Realism. New Critical Idiom Series, Routledge: London, 2004.
Convergences & Interferences: Newness in Intercultural Practices/Ecritures d'une nouvelle ére/aire. Eds. Maggie Ann Bowers, Isabel Hoving and Kathleen Gyssels, Thamyris Series, Vol. 1., Rodopi: Amsterdam, April 2002, pp. 293. (co-edited)
Refereed Chapters in Books:
"Discursive Positioning", Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-US Border, eds. Gillian Roberts and David Stirrup, due to be published by Wilfred Laurier Press.
“‘Ethnic Glue’: Humour in Native American Literatures.” Cheeky Fictions: Laughter and the Postcolonial. Ed. Mark Stein and Susanna Reichl. New York and Amstedam: Rodopi, 2006. 247-256.
“Global, National and Local Identities: Effects of Immigration on Literature.” International Migration and Security:Immigrants as an Asset or Threat. Ed. Joanne van Selm and Elspeth Guild. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. 147-156.
“In Conversation with Maxine Hong Kingston.” Writing Across Worlds: Contemporary Writers Talk. Ed. Susheila Nasta. London: Routledge, 2004. 171-182.
"For East, Look North: Cross-border Comparisons and the Future of North American Asian Studies" National, Communal and Personal Voices in Asian America and the Asian Diaspora. Eds. Elisabetta Marino and Begona Simal-Gonzalez, Contributions to Asian American Studies series, LIT Verlag: Berlin, 2004.
"Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale", Study Guide for the CAPES Examination, British Institute of Paris/Universities of Paris and London; Paris, 1999, pp. 1-24.
"Negotiating the Problems of Identity in "Multi-cultural" Canada: the Canadian Writing of Suniti Namjoshi and the case for "Cross-culturalism", in Literary Theory: (Re)Reading Culture and Aesthetics, eds. Jameela Begum and B. Hariharan, Pencraft International: New Delhi, 1996, pp. 51-62.
Refereed Journal Articles:
"Incommensurability and survivance: Native North American literature and federal law", Journal of Postcolonial writing, vol 46, no 5 (2010) pp. 457 - 456
"An Interview with Maxine Hong Kingston", Wasafiri, May 2001, pp. 48-53.
"Ritual Literature in a Postmodern World: Leslie Marmon Silko's US/Mexico Border Writing", Belgian Essays on Language and Literature, 2000, pp. 19-26.
"Robert Kroetsch--A Bio-critical Essay", Lexicon of Post-war Literatures in English, Martinus Nijhoff: Groningen, May 2000, pp. 1-40.
"The Return of the Writer: Writer/Reader Relations in Contemporary Post-structuralist Fiction", Theory@Buffalo, September 1999, pp. 136-151.
"Cultural Ambivalence and the Creation of Cultural Memory in the Writing of Toni Morrison", Wasafiri, Issue 27 (Spring 1998), pp. 19-23.
Refereed conference papers:
"Comparative Allegiances: Cultural Analysis and Critical Traditions of South Asian American and British Asian Scholarship", European Association of American Studies annual conference, Bordeaux, March 2002.
"Developing Asian Canadian Studies in a Global Context: Current International and Cross-border Debates", Globalization and Nationalism: The Second International Conference on Postcolonial Studies, Vigo, November 2001.
"Historical Differences and West Coast Chinese North American Writing", Association of Asian American Studies, Toronto, March 2001.
"For East, Look North: Cross-border Comparisons and the Future of Multi-ethnic Studies", MELUS Annual Conference, Knoxville College, Tennessee, March 2001.
"Cross-culturalism and Geographic Specificity in Native American Women's Writing", ASNEL Annual Conference, Universities of Aachen/Liege, June 2000.
"Stereotypes in British "Foreign" Convenience Food Advertising", "Eating Cultures" Conference, University of Frankfurt, May 2000.
"Re: Generations. A Generational Approach to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale", BACS-Literature Annual Conference, University of Leeds, September 1999.
"Cultural Conflict in Leslie Marmon Silko's Almanac of the Dead", "Borderlands" Conflict Conference, Goldsmith's College, University of London, June 1998.
"Negotiating the Problems of Identity in 'Multi-cultural' Canada: the Canadian Writing of Suniti Namjoshi and the case for 'Cross-culturalism'", International Conference on Canadian Studies, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India, January 1996.
"Self-identity and the Writing of Suniti Namjoshi", "Subjectivity" Conference, University of Kent at Canterbury, March 1995.
"The Construction of Community in Toni Morrison's Beloved", "Post-colonialism" Postcolonial Conference, University of Kent at Canterbury, December 1994.