Veronique Webster
Doctoral Student in Literature - Veronique’s thesis is entitled 'Prosthetic Tongues: How Do AI Systems Mimic Human Forms of Creative Speech, and How Do These Texts Perform Under Psychoanalytic Readings?'
Research Project Title:
Prosthetic Tongues: How Do AI Systems Mimic Human Forms of Creative Speech, and How Do These Texts Perform Under Psychoanalytic Readings?
Supervisors:
Dr Robbie McLaughlan + Dr Mark Byers
Contact Details:
Email: v.webster2@newcastle.ac.uk
Research Interests
- Modernism & post-modernism
- Post-structuralism
- Lacanian Psychoanalysis
- Avante-Garde and Experimental literature – William Burroughs cut-ups, Antonin Artaud’s Poetry and Plays, Concrete Poetry (Brazilian and British), and Sound Poetry.
- The Intersection between AI and the humanities.
- The Beat movement
- Post-humanism
Brief Outline of Research Project:
My Doctoral research project investigates contemporary issues surrounding AI/LLM’s through the lens of post-structuralist linguistic theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Through explorations of disembodied literary practices such as the Cut-up fictions of William Burroughs, my research investigates how the autonomy of language, and it’s parasitic nature, performs beyond human uses.
Academic Background:
- MLitt in English Literature, Newcastle University (2025) – Dissertation ‘Serving Up Our Tongues: How Does the Experimental Methodology of William Burroughs Cut-up Technique Help Us Understand the Potential Cultural Functions of an AI Author?’
- BA (Hons) English Literature (2024) – Dissertation ‘The Word Virus is a Parasite: Deconstructing William Burroughs Cut-up Fiction’