Goldsmiths, University of London
Graduate Student, English and Comparative Literature
Thesis Title: The productive tension of commercial success and innovative short fiction in McSweeney's
About
I am in the third year of a PhD in the English Department of Goldsmiths. I am currently studying part-time.
My research centres around the contemporary literary journal McSweeney's (which has an excellent website at http://www.mcsweeneys.net, which will form some part of my thesis). It is the most visible and most interesting publication for short stories, and it has achieved an incredible level of success in a short space of time, expanding into a literary magazine and a short-film DVD magazine, as well as a prolific book-publishing division.
My interest is in the commercial aspects of McSweeney's, how it has created a niche market for itself, and its relationship with the periodical tradition. Though it is in a sense a subcultural publication, it has a presence that belies this, I think, and I am exploring how an investigation of publications like The New Yorker can help contextualise what McSweeney's have done differently.
My work often seems to cross between English Lit and Cultural Studies, and a lot of work I've done in the past has seemed to do this too! It's my way of rationalising literary pursuits, I think, to try and understand what function literature performs for its readers.
I have been involved in the organisation of the GLITS research seminars at Goldsmiths, and (for the second year in a row) I am teaching seminars on the undergraduate courses Introduction to American Lit and Culture and Approaches to Text. The latter matches very nicely with how I approach literary studies, with an emphasis on procedures and practical skills.
Contact Information
http://looceefir.wordpress.com/
