PhD Research Project

My Shortlist0

This project is no longer listed in the FindAPhD database
and may not be available.

Click here to view other PhD studentship opportunities at University of Brighton.

Gothic Tropes of Haunting in Negotiating Violent Pasts

Institution:

University of Brighton

Dept/School/Faculty:

Doctoral College

PhD Supervisor:

Dr G Dawson

Co-Supervisor:

Ms V Margree

Application Deadline:

Applications accepted all year round

PhD Research Project

Click here to visit the University of Brighton website

The Faculty of Arts seeks PhD proposals for research that will explore Gothic tropes of haunting, ghosts, and the uncanny, as they function in the discourses and texts of cultures dealing with an unresolved past of violent conflict. We are especially interested in proposals that draw upon multiple discursive and disciplinary fields - including Gothic literary analysis, trauma studies, psychoanalysis, cultural memory and conflict transformation – with the aim of integrating these into a new interdisciplinary framework.

Literary project into Gothic fiction from the 18th century to the present has observed the functioning of tropes of haunting to express a sense of disrupted time. These literatures characteristically depict the eruption of the past into the present, the ghost or the revenant signalling that what had been thought surpassed in the march towards progress continues to exert a pull upon the present and to demand recognition and address. The research envisaged for this PhD project will explore the migration into, and adaptation of, such tropes in discourses produced within cultures coming to terms with a past of violent conflict. Gothic figurations are utilised in critical project exploring the psychic residues and socio-political legacies of the violent past. These are evident in narratives by and about the victims and survivors of violence to articulate experiences of loss, trauma, unresolved affect and attachments to the dead; and in other practices (artistic, judicial, memorial, political) concerned with the temporal disjunctions and ethical complexities involved in negotiating the past, the present and the future after conflict.

We invite proposals for research that investigates: (i) relations between the Gothic literary tradition and the utilisation of Gothic tropes in post-conflict cultures; (ii) the significance of Gothic tropes in figuring complex time, imagining new relationships to the dead, envisioning a transformed past and future, and other themes of conflict transformation. Sites of conflict to be explored might include, for example, South Africa in the post-Apartheid period or the Northern Ireland peace process, though submissions relating to any context of violent conflict and conflict transformation are welcome.

Application deadline

The university cannot guarantee that students can start at their requested date unless deadlines are met.

•UK/EU students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 August, for January entry it is the 1 November and for May it is the 1 March.

•International students: The deadline for the university to receive applications for an entry date of October is the 1 June, for January entry it is the 1 September and for May it is the 1 January.

Funding Notes:

Funding notes:
The Brighton Doctoral College is pleased to welcome applications from self-funded or externally sponsored students for programmes of research in this or a closely related area, beginning from October 2012. Applications are welcome from students wishing to study full time or part time, and applications are welcome from students in employment who have the support of their employers.

FindAPhD Scholarship available for this PhD opportunity!

We are offering nine Postgraduate Study Scholarships for students wishing to start a PhD in autumn 2013 at any European (EU) institution. Click here for more information on how to register to win a FindAPhD Scholarship.