Stephen Thomson

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+44 (0) 118 378 5023
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Lecturer
- I convene the module 'Family Romances: Genealogy, Identity, and Imposture in the Nineteenth-century Novel'.
Areas of interest
I am particularly interested in ways in which ideas of agency and responsibility shape, and are shaped by, literary form and aesthetics. My recent work on the figure of the sleepwalker - someone who does things without conscious decision - examines these questions with regard to a number of topics, including the narrative role of servants in the nineteenth century, the spectres of history in W.G. Sebald, and the role of the culture critic as opponent of totalitarianism in the 1930s.
My work is interdisciplinary, examining the meeting points of science (mainly physiology), social science, and literature. It also has a strong comparative element, dealing with French and German, and to a lesser extent Italian and Spanish, letters.
Postgraduate supervision
I have supervised three PhD theses to successful completion.
I would welcome enquiries from potential doctoral students in any area of nineteenth-or twentieth-century literature, particularly relating to ideas and problems of modernity, politics, and agency; and dealing with literary theory, especially Derrida. I would also be interested in projects with a comparative element, particularly relating to twentieth-century European literature.
Teaching
I have contributed to courses in:
- 19th-CenturyAmerican Literature
- Modern Poetry and Fiction
- Literary Theory
- Film
Selected publications
- 'Jeu d'ecarts: Derrida's Descartes', Oxford Literary Review 39:2 (December 2017)
- 'Ancillary Narratives: Maids, Sleepwalking, and Agency in Nineteenth-centry Literature and Culture, Textual Practice 29:1 (2015), pp. 91-110Textual Practice 29:1 (2015), pp. 91-110
- 'Sleepwalking Certainties: Agency, Aesthetics, and Incapacity in W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz and Hermann Broch's The Sleepwalkers', Comparative Literature 65:2 (Spring 2013)
- '"A tangle of tatters': ghosts and the busy nothing in Footfalls', in Beckett and nothing: Trying to understand Beckett ed. by Daniela Caselli (MUP, 2010), pp.65-83
Publications
- Thomson, S. (2021) Derrida somnambule. Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities , 26 (5). pp. 101-106. ISSN: 1469-2899 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2021.1963084
- Thomson, S. (2021) Whatever: Giorgio Agamben's gender trouble. Textual Practice , 35 (5). pp. 787-807. ISSN: 0950-236X | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2020.1731585
- Thomson, S. (2020) Topographies of liberal thought: Rand and Arendt and race. In: Cocks, N. , (eds.) Questioning Ayn Rand: Subjectivity, Political Economy, and the Arts. Palgrave Studies in Literature, Culture and Economics Palgrave Macmillan pp. 181-206. ISBN: 9783030530730
- Thomson, S. (2017) Jeu d'écarts: Derrida's Descartes. Oxford Literary Review , 39 (2). pp. 189-209. ISSN: 0305-1498 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.3366/olr.2017.0221
- Thomson, S. (2015) Ancillary narratives: maids, sleepwalking, and agency in nineteenth-century literature and culture. Textual Practice , 29 (1). pp. 91-110. ISSN: 1470-1308 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0950236X.2014.955820
- Thomson, S. (2013) Sleepwalking certainties: agency, aesthetics, and incapacity in W.G. Sebald’s 'Austerlitz' and Hermann Broch’s 'The Sleepwalkers'. Comparative Literature , 65 (2). pp. 162-181. ISSN: 1945-8517 | doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00104124-2143152
- Thomson, S. (2010) 'A tangle of tatters': ghosts and the busy nothing in Footfalls. In: Caselli , D. , (eds.) Beckett and nothing: trying to understand Beckett. Manchester University Press , UK. pp. 65-83. ISBN: 9780719080197
- Thomson, S. (2007) The forlorn ear of Jeff Hilson. In: Purves, R. and Ladkin, S. , (eds.) Complicities: British poetry 1945-2007. Litteraria Pragensia , Prague. pp. 153-167. ISBN: 9788073081942
- Thomson, S. (2007) 'La justice, c'est la femme à barbe!': the bearded lady, displacement and recuperation in Apollinaire’s 'Les mamelles de Tirésias'. In: Lesnik-Oberstein, K. , (eds.) The last taboo: women and body hair. Manchester University Press , Manchester. pp. 83-102. ISBN: 9780719075001
- Thomson, S. (2004) The child, the family, the relationship. In: Lesnik-Oberstein, K. , (eds.) Children's literature: new approaches. Palgrave Macmillan , Basingstoke. pp. 144-167. ISBN: 9781403917379
- Thomson, S. (2003) The instance of the veil: Bourdieu's Flaubert and the textuality of social science. Comparative Literature , 55 (4). pp. 275-292. ISSN: 1945-8517