Literature 

This category covers:

  • Comparative Literature
  • Critical and Literary Theory
  • Cultural Studies
  • Drama and Theatre Studies
  • Film Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • English and American Literature
  • Literature and Psychoanalysis
  • Literature, Science and Technology
  • Popular Culture
  • Postcolonial Studies
  • Singapore and Southeast Asian Literature and
        Culture
  • World Literature
    • The study of modern literature is a relatively young discipline. It emerged in the course of the nineteenth century, came of age in the early twentieth century, and placed itself at the forefront of intellectual debate in the 1960s. It embraces a very wide number of fields of enquiry, from the study of ancient manuscripts and texts, through the collation of different editions, the in-depth study of national traditions, national and historical periods and major authors, to the exploration of the multitude of different critical theories that have arisen over the last half century.

    The Division of English fosters research in many of the different fields that make up the discipline. It has a special interest in the study of Singaporean and South-East Asian literature. It also oversees research, in all the major genres (poetry, drama, fiction), through all the major periods of English Literature (Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, the eighteenth century, romanticisms, the Victorian period, modernism, the twentieth century and contemporary literature) and American Literature (early American literature, the nineteenth century, the twentieth century, native and ethnic American literature), as well as the investigation of new tendencies that have emerged within these (Asian American literature and film; British-Asian literature). It is also conducting research in the intersection of narrative and film, the history, criticism, and theory of film, gender theory, postcolonial studies, comparative literature, European and World Literature, and ethical theory and criticism.

        
    William Shakespeare            John Milton

    Related Link:
    Division of English, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

    		  

     NameResearch Interests
    Assoc Prof Adam Joel KneeCurrent research interests include new Southeast Asian cinemas (especially Thai cinema); film genre (especially horror and science fiction) and genre theory; race and gender in American film; film stardom; American television in the 1950s-60s.
    Asst Prof Andrew Corey YerkesProfessor Yerkes's areas of interest are nineteenth and twentieth century American literature and culture, realism, naturalism, modernism, postmodernism, narratology, sociological theories the novel, philosophical determinism, and ideological critique.
    Asst Prof Angela Anne FrattarolaModernism, Auditory Technology, Twentieth-Century Literature
    Asst Prof Bede Tregear ScottPostcolonial literature and theory, with an emphasis on South Asian and African literature; colonial literature and narratives of empire; magical realism; decolonization theory; and narratives and theories of social violence.
    Asst Prof Brian Keith Bergen-AurandHis primary research interests include Comparative Studies, Film Theory and Criticism, Ethics, and Embodiment.
    Assoc Prof Cheung Chiu-YeeSince 1982, my research has concentrated on a comparison of Lu Xun and Nietzsche. Because of my extensive study of Lu Xun, I am also familiar with the history of modern Chinese literature, Western influence on Chinese writers and thinkers, the intellectual history of modern and contemporary China, and ancient Chinese philosophy. Related to their comparison, I have been working on modern Chinese intellectual history, the problems of Chinese culture and modernisation, the influence of Western philosophy and literary theories in China, and Lu Xun’s legacy in contemporary China.
    Assoc Prof Cornelius Anthony MurphyNeil Murphy is the author of Irish Fiction and Postmodern Doubt (2004) and has co-edited two collections of scholarly essays, British-Asian Fiction: Framing the Contemporary (2008), and Literature and Ethics (2008). He is currently editing a collection of essays on the novelist Aidan Higgins, and is acting as advisor for the scholarly edition of Higgins' novel, Balcony of Europe. In addition he has published numerous articles and book chapters on Irish literature, contemporary fiction, postmodernism, and theories of reading and is currently writing a book on contemporary fiction.
    Assoc Prof Crossland-Guo ShuyunDunhuang Studies (Dunhuang Manuscripts & Cave Arts) Chinese Oral Literature Folk Operatic Performance Arts Oral-Formulaic Theory Modern & Contemporary Chinese Literature
    Asst Prof Daniel Keith JerniganModern and Contemporary British Literature; Modern and Postmodern Drama; Narrative Theory; Playwriting
    Asst Prof Emma Jane FlattEmma Flatt's research concentrates on the History of South Asia, with a special emphasis on the Medieval Deccan. Her work focuses on the social and cultural history of Indo-Islamicate courts and courtiers including investigations into practices of letter-writing, perfume making, astrology and magic, and the use of courtly social spaces like gardens. She is interested in the history of emotions and the cultural constructions of the five senses. She is about to commence a research project into the philosophies and practices of friendship and sociability in Medieval India. Selected publications: 'The Ethic of Jawanmardi: Wrestling and Sword fighting in the Ta?lim of the Deccan,' in Anand Pandian and Daud Ali eds., Genealogies of Virtue: Ethics in South Asia, Indiana University Press, (in press). 'Heavenly Gardens: Astrology and Magic in the Garden Culture of the Medieval Deccan,' in Daud Ali and Emma Flatt, eds., Fragrance Symmetry and Light: The History of Gardens and Garden Cultures in the Deccan (in press).