Professor David Brauner

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+ 44 (0) 118 378 7838
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Professor of Contemporary Literature
Postgraduate supervision
I am currently supervising PhD projects on the representation of New York in post-9/11 fiction and on contemporary British muslim women's fiction.
I have successfully supervised PhD dissertations on escapism in contemporary American fiction; on Martin Amis; on representations of Jewish-American lesbian identities in literature and film; and on Lorrie Moore (later published as Understanding Lorrie Moore with University of South Carolina Press, 2009). I have acted as an External Examiner for 18 PhDs.
Teaching
Within the Department I convene the following modules:
- Contemporary American Fiction
- American Graphic Novels
- Twentieth-Century American Literature
I also contribute to the following modules:
- Writing America
- Contemporary Fiction
- Research and Criticism
Research projects
My main research interests are in the fields of contemporary American fiction and twentieth-century Jewish literature. I also publish on graphic novels, Holocaust fiction, and on the representation of ethnicity, gender and sexuality in the modern novel. I would welcome applications from prospective PhD candidates in any of these areas.
I am currently working on an interdisciplinary monograph on authenticity and confessional culture in post-war America.
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Editorial Board, Philip Roth Studies
- Editorial Board, European Journal of American Culture
- Editorial Board, Humanities
- Editorial Advisory Board, Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature
Selected publications
I am the author of four books:
- Howard Jacobson (Manchester University Press, 2020)
- Contemporary American Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
- Philip Roth (Manchester University Press, 2007)
- Post-War Jewish Fiction: Ambivalence, Self-Explanation and Transatlantic Connections (Palgrave, 2001)
and the co-editor of:
The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), the recipient of the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries' Judaica Reference Award.
Publications
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Brauner, D.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2817-7847 and Cheyette, B. , eds. (2022) Howard Jacobson at eighty. European Judaism A Journal for the New Europe , 55. Berghahn (2). (ISSN 1752-2323)
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Brauner, D.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2817-7847 (2021) ‘Why is this girl telling us all this stuff?’: authenticity and the confessional impulse in Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation. Comparative American Studies , 18 (2). pp. 192-205. ISSN: 1741-2676 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14775700.2021.1982327
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Brauner, D.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2817-7847 (2021) Roth and Sexuality. In: McKinley, M. , (eds.) Philip Roth in Context. Literature in context Cambridge University Press , Cambridge. pp. 287-297. ISBN: 9781108489294
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Brauner, D.
ORCID: 0000-0003-2817-7847 (2021) Representations of Shylock in Arnold Wesker’s The Merchant, Howard Jacobson’s Shylock is My Name and Clive Sinclair’s Shylock Must Die. Humanities , 10 (2). pp. 59. ISSN: 2076-0787 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/h10020059
- Brauner, D. (2021) A bit of Jewish-American mischief: fictional metabiography in Alan Lelchuk’s Ziff: A Life? and Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost. Revue Française d'Etudes Américaines , 166 (1). pp. 46-61. ISSN: 0397-7870 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3917/rfea.166.0046
- Brauner, D. (2020) Howard Jacobson. Manchester University Press pp 248. ISBN: 9781526101495 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.7765/9781526101501
- Brauner, D. and Abrams, N. , eds. (2019) The interface between British contemporary Black and Jewish cultures. Jewish Culture and History , 20. Jewish Culture and History , 20 (3). pp. 199-203. ISSN: 1462-169X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462169X.2019.1639892
- Brauner, D. (2019) Reimagining the past, imagining the future: myth, history,and mystery in contemporary Jewish American fiction. In: Aarons, V. , (eds.) The New Jewish American Literary Studies. Cambridge University Press pp. 140-155. ISBN: 9781108665322 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108665322
- Brauner, D. and Shostak, D. (2019) Editors' note for special memorial issue of Philip Roth Studies. Philip Roth Studies , 15 (1). pp. 1-2. ISSN: 1547-3929 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5703/philrothstud.15.1.0001
- Brauner, D. (2019) The politics of identity: cultural appropriation and black-Jewish Relations in Zoe Heller’s 'The Believers'. Jewish Culture and History , 20 (3). pp. 263-276. ISSN: 1462-169X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1462169X.2019.1639332
- Brauner, D. (2019) My own private Philip Roth. Philip Roth Studies , 15 (1). pp. 39-44. ISSN: 1547-3929 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5703/philrothstud.15.1.0039
- Brauner, D. (2017) Bellow's short fiction. The Cambridge Companion to Saul Bellow. Cambridge University Press pp. 159-170. ISBN: 9781107108936
- Brauner, D. (2017) The Sons of Phil: Rothian self-satire and self-incrimination in Shalom Auslander’s 'Foreskin’s Lament' and Gary Shteyngart’s 'Little Failure'. Open Library of the Humanities , 3 (2). ISSN: 2056-6700 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.143
- Brauner, D. (2016) Performance anxiety: impotence, queerness, and the 'drama of self-disgust' in Philip Roth's 'The Professor of Desire and The Humbling'. In: Gooblar, D. and Pozorski, A. , (eds.) Roth After Eighty: Philip Roth and the American Literary Imagination. Lexington Books pp. 61-78. ISBN: 9781498514651
- Brauner, D. (2016) Absent presences: paradoxes of representation and self-representation in (post)-9/11 comics. In: Morley, C. , (eds.) 9/11 . Topics in Contemporary North American Literature Bloomsbury Academic pp. 61-81. ISBN: 9781472569707
- Brauner, D. (2015) Intertextuality, authenticity, and gonzo selves in Anya Ulinich’s 'Lena Finkle’s Magic Barrel'. Studies in Comics , 6 (2). pp. 253-269. ISSN: 2040-3232 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1386/stic.6.2.253_1
- Brauner, D. (2015) Queering Philip Roth: homosocial discourse in 'An actor’s life for me', 'Letting go', 'Sabbath’s theater' and the 'American trilogy'. Studies in the Novel , 48 (1). pp. 86-106. ISSN: 1934-1512 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sdn.2016.0003
- Brauner, D. and Staehler, A. (2015) Introduction: modern Jewish fiction. The Edinburgh companion to modern Jewish fiction. Edinburgh University Press , Edinburgh. pp. 1-15. ISBN: 9780748646159
- Brauner, D. (2015) History on a personal note: postwar American Jewish short stories. The Edinburgh companion to modern Jewish fiction. Edinburgh University Press , Edinburgh. pp. 105 -118. ISBN: 9780748646159
- Brauner, D. and Staehler, A. , eds. (2015) The Edinburgh companion to modern Jewish fiction. Edinburgh Companions to Literature Edinburgh University Press , Edinburgh. ISBN: 9780748646159
- Brauner, D. (2014) Jewish mothers and Jewish memory in contemporary memoirs. In: Valman, N. , (eds.) Jewish Women Writers in Britain. Wayne State University Press pp. 192-215. ISBN: 9780814332382
- Brauner, D. (2014) The turd that won't flush: the comedy of Jewish self-hatred in the work of Corinne Pearlman, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Miss Lasko-Gross and Ariel Schrag. In: Lightman, S. , (eds.) Graphic Details: Jewish Women's Confessional Comics. McFarland pp. 131-148. ISBN: 9780786465538
- Brauner, D. (2014) Fetishizing the Holocaust: comedy and transatlantic connections in Howard Jacobson's 'Kalooki Nights'. European Judaism , 47 (2). pp. 21-29. ISSN: 1752-2323 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3167/ej.2014.47.02.04
- Brauner, D. (2013) 'Stories never told : canonicity, history and herstory in Dan Jacobson's Her story and the godfearer'. In: Andermahr, S. and Pellicer-Ortin, S. , (eds.) Trauma narratives and herstory. Palgrave/Macmillan pp. 129-140. ISBN: 9781137268341
- Brauner, D. and MacPherson, H. (2012) Lorrie Moore: Mo(o)re than an interim assessment. Journal of American Studies , 46 (3). pp. 541-550. ISSN: 1469-5154 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021875811001927
- Brauner, D. (2012) No Man's Land: the transgendered voice in Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex and Rose Tremain's Sacred Country. In: Kim, R. and Westall, C. , (eds.) Cross-gendered literary voices: appropriating, resisting, embracing . Palgrave Macmillan pp. 148-163. ISBN: 9780230299870
- Brauner, D. (2012) Lorrie Moore collection, 'A Little Ethnic Kink Is Always Good to See”: Jewish performance anxiety and anti-passing in the fiction of Lorrie Moore. Journal of American Studies , 46 (3). pp. 581-602. ISSN: 1469-5154 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0021875811001940
- Brauner, D. (2012) Much ado about nothing: boredom, banality and bathos in late Henry Green and early John Updike. Yearbook of English Studies , 42 pp. 186-203. ISSN: 2222-4289 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.5699/yearenglstud.42.2012.0186 (Literature of the 1950s and 1960s)
- Brauner, D. (2011) American anti-pastoral: incontinence and impurity in 'American Pastoral' and 'The Human Stain'. In: Ivanovna, V. , (eds.) Reading Philip Roth’s American Pastoral. Universitaire du Mirail , Mirail, Toulouse. pp. 195-204. ISBN: 9782810701605
- Brauner, D. (2011) “What was not supposed to happen had happened and what was supposed to happen had not happened”: subverting history in American pastoral. In: Shostak, D. , (eds.) Philip Roth: American Pastoral, The Human Stain and The Plot Against America. Continuum Studies in Contemporary North American Fiction Continuum pp. 19-32. ISBN: 9780826422279
- Brauner, D. (2010) Masturbation and its discontents; or, serious relief: Freudian comedy in 'Portnoy's Complaint'. In: Siegel , B. and Halio, J. , (eds.) Playful and Serious: Philip Roth as a Comic Writer. University of Delaware Press pp. 47-67. ISBN: 9781611491470
- Brauner, D. (2010) Writing the triple whammy: Canadian-Jewish Québécois identity, the comedy of self-deprecation, and the triumph of Duddy Kravitz . Canadian Literature , 207 pp. 76-88. ISSN: 0008-4360
- Brauner, D. (2010) Jewish American fiction. In: Seed, D. , (eds.) A companion to twentieth-century United States fiction. Wiley-Blackwell , Oxford, UK. pp. 96-108. ISBN: 9781405146913
- Brauner, D. (2010) Contemporary American fiction. Edinburgh critical guides to literature Edinburgh University Press , UK. pp 256. ISBN: 9780748622672
- Brauner, D. (2009) "The days after" and "the ordinary run of hours": counternarratives and double vision in Don DeLillo's 'Falling Man'. Review of International America Studies , 3/4 (3/1). pp. 72-81. ISSN: 1991-2773
- Brauner, D. (2007) Fifty ways to see your lover: vision and revision in the fiction of Amy Bloom. In: Stähler, A. , (eds.) Anglophone Jewish literature. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature Routledge , Oxford. pp. 108-120. ISBN: 9780415414647
- Brauner, D. (2007) Philip Roth. Contemporary American and Canadian novelists Manchester University Press , Manchester. pp 272. ISBN: 9780719074240
- Brauner, D. (2006) Will the real King David please stand up?: unauthorized versions of the King David story in three post-war Jewish novels. In: Knight, M. and Woodman, T. , (eds.) Biblical religion and the novel, 1700–2000 . Ashgate Publishing , Aldershot. pp. 105-120. ISBN: 9780754651178
- Brauner, D. (2006) Bellow at your elbow, Roth breathing down your neck: gender and ethnicity in Linda Grant and Bernice Rubens. In: Tylee, C. , (eds.) "In the open": Jewish women writers and British culture. University of Delaware Press , Newark, USA. pp. 96-109. ISBN: 874139333
- Brauner, D. (2005) "Getting in your retaliation first": narrative strategies in Portnoy's complaint. In: Royal, D. , (eds.) Philip Roth: new perspectives on an American author. Praeger , Westport. pp. 43-57. ISBN: 9780275983635
- Brauner, D. (2004) American anti-pastoral: incontinence and impurity in Philip Roth’s 'American Pastoral' and 'The Human Stain'. Studies in American Jewish Literature , 23 pp. 67-76. ISSN: 1948-5077
- Brauner, D. (2004) Brilliant Jewish boys and gifted Jewish girls: the child prodigy in Bernice Rubens and Rebecca Goldstein. In: Behlau, U. and Reitz, B. , (eds.) Jewish Women's Writing of the 1990s and Beyond in Great Britain and the United States. Mainz University Studies in English Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier (5). pp. 217-226. ISBN: 3884766686
- Brauner, D. (2003) Arguing with himself: the criticism of Leslie Fiedler. Jewish Quarterly , 190 pp. 53-57. ISSN: 1456-640X
- Brauner, D. (2002) Louise Kehoe. In: Kramer, S. , (eds.) Holocaust literature: an encyclopedia of writers and their work. Routledge , London. pp. 625-627. ISBN: 9780415929851
- Brauner, D. (2002) Lisa Appignanesi. In: Kramer, S. , (eds.) Holocaust literature: an encyclopedia of writers and their work. Routledge , London. pp. 61-63. ISBN: 9780415929851
- Brauner, D. (2001) Post-War Jewish fiction: ambivalence, self-explanation and transatlantic connections. Palgrave Macmillan pp 236. ISBN: 9780333740354