Projects & Grants




Feminist, psychoanalytical, and queer approaches to contemporary Anglophone literature
Project IdSGS01/FF/2024
Main solverMgr. et Mgr. Jan Beneš, Ph.D.
Period1/2024 - 12/2024
ProviderSpecifický VŠ výzkum
Statesolved
AnotationThe proposed project called Feminist, psychoanalytical, and queer approaches to contemporary Anglophone literature combines ethnic literatures, young adult literature, fan fiction, and Neo-Victorian literature with certain ever-evolving literary-critical approaches, particularly abolitionist feminism, (eco)feminism, psychoanalysis, and queer studies. Abolitionist feminism represents a theoretical approach well-suited for the analysis of prison literature, which, in the era of mass incarceration in the USA, has been growing, although it has been, so far, a little-used approach for the study of literature. (Eco)feminism is, on the other hand, a globally recognized critical approach and its inclusion continues its tradition at the Department of English and American Studies in Ostrava (Petr Kopecký's work, Karla Kovalova's book Black feminist literary criticism, and the GACR project Environmental justice in Ethnic American Literatures). Neo-Victorian studies are also growing in the western academia and build on traditional as well as innovative psychoanalytical and feminist approaches. However, in the Czech Republic, where psychoanalysis in American (literary) studies has been employed primarily in the study of Holocaust literature (see Stanislav Kolar's work), the application of psychoanalysis to Neo-Victorian literature has not yet taken root. Fan fiction studies combine pop culture studies with literary studies and have not been much developed in the Czech Republic so far, even though queer approaches to fan fiction and young adult literature are quite common outside of the country. Overall, the project aims to explore and investigate the aforementioned current genres and develop the above-mentioned critical approaches to literature in Czech academia. The planned publications include 3 journal articles, 2 proceedings chapters, 5 international conference presentations, 4 diploma thesis chapters, and one dissertation chapter.