Stunning success in AHRC Research Leave competition

Five members of the School have been awarded grants under the AHRC Research Leave scheme. Nationally, the scheme attracted a 49% success rate, but at Oxford Brookes the rate jumped to over 60%.

Nathalie Aubert (French), 'Christian Dotremont, d'un trait l'autre'

Although Belgian born poet Christian Dotremont was one of the founders of COBRA (acronym for Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam), one of the most important new revolutionary art movements in Europe in the immediate post-war years, there is no major study to date concentrating solely on his role, production and influence. Because Cobra was a relatively short-lived art movement (1949-1951) and also because he was in the shadow of painters of the calibre of Asger Jorn, Karel Appel and Pierre Alechinsky, his own work as a poet and painter was overlooked. This study is the first major critical one to reappraise and reinstate Dotremont's key role and production throughout a career that spans over 40 years.

Roger Griffin (History), 'On the Promontories of Time: Fascism's Tumultuous Relationship with Modernism'

The project is to complete a monograph which explores the relationship between fascism (conceived as an international twentieth-century phenomenon) and the various initiatives to regenerate society identified with artistic and political �modernism�. It is also conceived as the first volume of a multi-author series Fascism and the Modern World. In 1988 Professor Tim Mason called for Nazism to be located �within something much larger�. This monograph and its sequels will not only place Nazism within fascism, but fascism itself within several �larger� processes shaping modern social, cultural, and political realities.

Shirley Jordan (French), 'Private Lives, Public Display. Women and Exposure in Contemporary French Culture'

This project examines new articulations of the public/private divide and the emphasis on intimacy in French culture as these phenomena relate to women. Focusing on the politics and poetics of new modes of exposure it analyses selected autofiction, film, photography and conceptual art, as well as internet and televised forms, drawing out the issues raised by female-authored works in which self-revelation/voyeurism are especially pronounced. The project considers women as objects of representation and as producers of intimate-voyeuristic works. It also examines the political implications for women of the consumption of intimacy as cultural product.

Simon Kovesi (English), 'James Kelman: Language, Class, Politics and Masculinity'

The contemporary Scottish novelist, essayist and playwright James Kelman is one of the most influential and controversial writers of his generation. This book-length study is the first to assess all of Kelman�s work, from nascent short stories of the 1970s to controversial novels from the 1980s to 2004. It theorises Kelman�s representations of Glaswegian working-class life in the contexts of Scottish literary history, European existentialism, the postcolonial politics of language and contemporary masculinity. It considers the politics of his representations of the individual�s relations to institutions which complicate our understanding of power, language and class.

Claire Squires (Publishing), 'Marketing Literature: The Making of Contemporary Writing in Britain'

This monograph (under contract to Palgrave Macmillan) will examine the conditions of, contexts for, and some key instances of, the publishing of contemporary writing in Britain. The book will consider the changing social, economic and cultural environment of British publishing in the 1990s-2000s, and investigate its impact on genre, format, packaging, authorship and reading. This is a period of key importance in recent publishing history: due to changing industry structure and practice, there has been an intensification of marketing activity and competitiveness that has increased the commodification of literary fiction.

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