Modern and Contemporary Literature

 

Modern and Contemporary Literature, including writing from Britain, America and beyond, is the largest research area in the School. Members of staff working in these areas include:

The work conducted by these colleagues covers a very wide range of twentieth-century and contemporary authors, and takes many different approaches to literature. The research of some colleagues is closely engaged with new directions in critical and cultural theory, while other colleagues take a more historicised approach, or draw on texts and other souces sometimes considered non-literary.

Particular clusters of expertise exist in the following areas:

  • Modernism: A number colleagues work chiefly on the literature and culture of the Modernist period making this one of the most sizeable and dynamic areas of research in the School. Professor Linda Anderson has investigated early twentieth-century women's poetry and is currently focusing on Elizabeth Bishop; Dr John Beck specialises in American modernism; Dr Abbie Garrington works on writing about expeditions and mountaineering, and on the body and the senses, in the Modernist period (and in particular on James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson and D.H. Lawrence); Dr Kirsten MacLeod is interested in the role of collectors and institutions as the gatekeepers of cultural history and especially in Carl Van Vechten, the influential early twentieth-century critic of music, dance, theatre and literature; Professor Kim Reynolds is undertaking a substantial study of Modernist children’s literature; and Dr Andrew Shail works on the historical contexts of Modernist literature and also specialises in early twentieth-century cinema. Emeritus Professor John Batchelor has published major works on Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf and H.G. Wells, and Visiting Professor Alison Light is an authority on Virginia Woolf. Colleagues working on Modernism contribute to a number of specialist associations, including the Northern Modernism Seminar (NMS) and the North East Modernist Cluster (linking researchers from Newcastle, Northumbria and Durham universities). The University's Robinson Library contains a substantial amount of relevant material in its Special Collections department including Modernist magazines and journals, Modernist travel literature and the archives of the explorer Gertrude Bell. The Lit &Phil library in Newcastle city centre provides further Modernist resources, as does its neighbour, the Nicholas Wood Library as the Newcastle Mining Institute (predominantly pre-1920 material). The School hosts frequent symposia and conferences on Modernism and cognate areas. Recent events have included The Second Birth of Cinema and the Northern Modernism Seminar: Gender, Transnationalism and Travel (both 2011), while major conferences on 'Gender, Travel and Modernity: 1850-1950' and 'Modernist Mountaineering' are forthcoming in 2012-13. The School has attracted a number of major grants for work in this area, and many research students work in the field.
  • Gender studies: Many colleagues working on modern and contemporary literature include gender as a particular focus of their research. Their work connects with the work of the Faculty-wide Gender Research Group (GRG). The School has hosted a number of international conferences examining feminism and literature, including 'Affecting Feminism: Feminist Theory and the Question of Feeling' co-organised by Dr Stacy Gillis and Dr Anne Whitehead to mark the move of the journal Feminist Theory to Newcastle. The Journal is co-edited by Dr Stacy Gillis and Professor Kate Chedgzoy.
  • Post-War British literature: Several staff in the School share overlapping interests and expertise in postwar British literature and culture. Dr James Procter has published widely on postwar British black writing. He also shares with Dr Anne Whitehead research interests in key contemporary British writers after Empire, such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Caryl Phillips. Dr Melanie Bell, Dr Stacy Gillis and Anne Whitehead have converging expertise in postwar British women's writing: Melanie Bell is currently working on women's novels and screenplays of the 1960s; Stacy Gillis is particularly interested in women's middlebrow writing, including detective fiction; while Anne Whitehead has published on contemporary British women writers, such as Pat Barker, in the context of war, trauma, and memory studies. The work of this group of staff is closely complemented by the visits of major British writers to Newcastle; recent speakers have included Kazuo Ishiguro, Andrea Levy, Ian McEwan, and Caryl Phillips.

Feminism and Popular Culture

Modern and contemporary literature is also central to the following distinct areas of research in the School - follow the links for more details:

 

Besides these distinctive clusters, other characteristic aspects of modern and contemporary research being carried out at Newcastle include work on popular culture and technology (Dr Stacy Gillis), on globalisation and literature (Dr James Annesley), and on trauma literature and the medical humanities (Dr Anne Whitehead). Staff working on contemporary literature also work closely with colleagues in Creative Writing and with the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA).

Staff working in these different areas have published many books.

Postgraduates

The School has a thriving community of research postgraduate students working in many different areas within modern, postmodern and contemporary literature. Over many years, a substantial amount of AHRC funding has been secured to provide PhD studentships in these areas. Expertise in the fields listed above shapes the MA in Modern and Contemporary Studies.