Goldsmiths, University of London
Graduate Student, English and Comparative Literature
Thesis Title: Trashing national identity: how ethnic conflict troubles the novel in sub-Saharan Africa
Padraig Kirwan
About
So far, this research is interested in two particularly disruptive ways that ethnic conflict causes in literary writing across sub-Saharan Africa: i) the undermining of the ideological project of nationalism that is a significant part of the post-independence novel's development; ii) the material effects of civil war on the novel form, specifically regarding production and publishing.
The research is, at the moment, following a regional structure. I am currently researching the political history of South Africa and Angola, whilst investigating the work of Zoe Wicombe, Zakes Mda and Jose Eduardo Agualusa.
Research into the Biafran war in Nigeria is to follow, looking at the fiction that was produced directly after the civil war and with an emphasis on Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
I am as much interested in work that appears to avoid discussing ethnic division, despite employing historical events of internal conflict in their narratives, as with those that deal with it directly.
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I'm also a member of the administrative staff at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study (University of London), as well as tutoring at Goldsmiths on Effective Academic Writing Skills (a.k.a. 'Essay Writing Clinics').
