University of Aberdeen
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English Department · University of Aberdeen
King’s College · Aberdeen · AB24 3UB · Scotland · UK
Contact: novel@abdn.ac.uk
Director: Janet Todd · Associate Directors: David Duff, Catherine Jones
Since its inception in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the novel in English has become the dominant literary form in our culture. Critical analysis of the novel lies at the heart of modern literary scholarship and theory.
The Centre for The Novel at the University of Aberdeen has been created to promote the study of novels, novelists, and novelistic traditions, and the investigation of narrative theory and practice. Through symposia, conferences, visiting fellowships and postgraduate teaching and research, the Centre will explore the regional, national and international significance of the novel as an art form, and address such general topics as subjectivity and identity, medical theory and fiction, aesthetics, print culture, the sociology of reading, mass and elite fiction, and issues of nation, class, race and gender.
The Centre for The Novel is grounded in the exceptional material resources of Aberdeen University as well as its long intellectual tradition of rhetoric and literary criticism. Over its five-hundred-year history, the University has acquired an outstanding collection of printed works and a unique manuscript archive. It holds one of the best collections of popular fiction published between 1790 and 1830 of any university in the world; an extensive range of supportive material such as Enlightenment philosophical and medical literature, chapbooks, rhetorical handbooks, political pamphlets and conduct books; and complete runs of many eighteenth- and nineteenth-century periodicals (Gentleman’s, Blackwood’s, Dublin University Magazine and many more). The recent acquisition of the Sir Walter Scott Collection assembled by Bernard C. Lloyd has further enhanced the Library’s holdings. The Centre for The Novel aims to attract scholars and postgraduates to work on these collections.
Aberdeen is home to two major scholarly editions, the (External) Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen , edited by Janet Todd, and the Edinburgh Edition of the Waverley Novels of Walter Scott , edited by David Hewitt with Alison Lumsden. Staff of the English Department also contribute to scholarly editions of other major novelists such as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad.
Textual editing at Aberdeen is complemented by interpretative and biographical work across three centuries of the British novel: recent books by members of the Department include Isobel Murray’s award-winning biography of the Scottish novelist Jessie Kesson, Janet Todd’s Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life , Catherine Jones’s Literary Memory: Scott’s Waverley Novels and the Psychology of Narrative , Paul Schlicke’s Oxford Reader’s Companion to Dickens , Jeannette King’s The Victorian Woman Question in Contemporary Feminist Fictions , and forthcoming studies of Aphra Behn, Henry James, Jane Austen and the Glasgow Novel.
From 2006-7, the English Department is offering a unique taught Masters (MLitt) in the Novel, embracing all aspects of the theory and practice of the novel from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. The programme lasts one year full time or two years part-time. Students enrolled on the MLitt will be affiliated to the Centre and participate in its activities. Further details can be found on the Department's website at www.abdn.ac.uk/english/postgraduate/mlitt/novel.php
The Department also welcomes applications for postgraduate research on all aspects of the novel. Applicants from the UK and overseas are eligible to apply for generous PhD Studentships offered competitively by the College of Arts and Social Sciences. These cover the cost of home/EU fees plus maintenance of around £12,000 p.a. for three years. For details, see www.abdn.ac.uk/cass/funding.shtml
Short-term visiting fellowships are available to scholars wishing to work on the Library collections. Fellowships provide office space, computing facilities and library privileges. Fellows are expected to contribute to the activities of the Centre. Further information will be posted on this site shortly. For informal inquiries, contact novel@abdn.ac.uk
Jane Austen Celebration and Book Launch . Thursday 5 October 2006, James Mackay Hall, University of Aberdeen, at 5.15 pm. Readings from Jane Austen and talk by Linda Bree, Commissioning Editor for Cambridge University Press. Wine reception. All welcome. Contact novel@abdn.ac.uk
Henry James and the Art of the Novel . One-Day Symposium, Saturday 11 November 2006, Linklater Rooms, University of Aberdeen. Speakers: Tessa Hadley, Philip Horne, Matt Rubery, Andrew Taylor. Contact Hazel Hutchison h.hutchison@abdn.ac.uk
Jane Austen: Texts and Contexts . Day Conference, Saturday 18 November 2006, Senate House, University of London. Speakers: Linda Bree, Ed Copeland, Diego Saglia, Brian Southam. Contact Janet Todd j.todd@abdn.ac.uk
Popular Dickens . One-Day Symposium, Saturday 5 May 2007. Old Senate Room, University of Aberdeen. Speakers: Malcolm Andrews, John Drew, Juliet John, Michael Slater, Grahame Smith. Contact Paul Schlicke p.schlicke@abdn.ac.uk
The Novel and Its Borders . International Conference, 6-8 July 2008. Plenary speakers: Terry Castle, Jonathan Lamb, Malcolm Bowie. Contact novel@abdn.ac.uk
For details of any of these events, contact novel@abdn.ac.uk
Centre for the Novel
English Department · University of Aberdeen
King’s College · Aberdeen · AB24 3UB · Scotland · UK
Contact: novel@abdn.ac.uk
Page last updated: Thursday, 17-May-2007 17:59:33 BST
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