Research projects

Some currently under development and/or seeking funding include:

• The use of life story collections in the construction of narratives of genocidal survival and restorative justice. The aim of this project is to explore the possibilities of and problems with the use of life story collection in the construction of narratives of the experience of genocide survivors in three main areas. Firstly, the political and legal use of life narratives in post genocide projects of gaining global recognition and achieving justice and restitution. Secondly, the therapeutic use and potential of life story telling in the process of healing and dealing with trauma. Thirdly, the potential to move beyond justice/compensation based applications of life story collection by victims towards the restorative justice potential of the collection, comparison and display of the life stories of both victims and perpetrators of genocide.
• Writers on Writing: film series directed by CLN associate Japhet Asher, academy award nominated documentary filmmaker.
• The Life of Louisa Ferry, joint project to be undertaken with Natural History Museum (Dr Margaret Clegg). This would be a short biography of the life of a 19th c English murderess who was sent to Van Dieman's land and whose remains wound up accidentally at the Natural History Museum, mistaken for those of a Tasmanian man.
• AHRC Research Networks bid to link researchers from CLN with those at the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research at University of Sussex and the School of English, Literature and Linguistics at University of Newcastle enabling postgraduates in each of the three institutions to share in the research programmes and activities of their partners.

Research proposal (Hungarian State Eotvos Fellowship, postdoctoral category, 2008)

Rhetorical Figures of Reading

My field of interest is rhetoric and deconstructive rhetorical reading, while the context of my research is given by my doctoral thesis on irony. In my dissertation titled On the Concept of Irony - With (Continual) Reference to Kierkegaard I study several ironological (irony-theoretical) texts of primary importance. While I analyzed the texts dealing with the (possible) theorization of irony, my attention gradually turned towards the interpretation of rhetoric in literary, philosophical and theoretical texts. The analyses of the conceptual understandings of irony have resulted in a peculiar reading practise that can be called 'ironical reading' and can mostly be associated with deconstructive interpretative practise. On the other hand, I have realised that the analyses of these texts provide useful ideas about rhetoricity of our narratives and the process of textual understanding, or, reading in general. In July I published my book in Hungarian titled Beyond Irony - Rhetorical Readings (Tul az ironian - retorikus olvasatok. Budapest: Kijarat, 2007, 268 pp.), in which not only some relevant chapters of my doctoral dissertation, but also the latest results of my research on the rhetoricity of reading can be found. The completion of the collection was aided by my Deak Ferenc Scholarship granted by the Hungarian Ministry of Education in the school-year of 2004/2005.

Presently I have been working on my book written in English titled Rhetorical Figures of Reading greatly related to my previous papers and studies. So far I have finished approximately 120 pages (6 chapters) and during the three months of the Eotvos Fellowship I intend to write 2-3 papers completing my book. One of the planned papers is concerned with rhetoric of the narrative voices in deconstructive theoretical texts (Paul de Man's and Joseph Hillis Miller's works), mainly focusing on the figural language (metaphors, allegory and irony) the speakers use in their textual analyses. I am also interested in the connections between theoretical texts and autobiographical writings; here I emphasise the importance of the figures clustering around Narcissus (e.g. de Man's works and Derrida's Memoires for Paul de Man). Studying de Man's and Derrida's writings I have also realized that the myth of Narcissus becomes the central allegory of reflexivity and memory being frequently cited or referred to in the texts. During the three-month fellowship I would like to go on analyzing these 'loci classici' in de Man's The Rhetoric of Romanticism, Romanticism and Contemporary Criticism and Allegories of Reading. The interpretation of these writings also involves the reading of such autobiographical, literary and theoretical pieces as Rousseau's Confessions and Narcisse, or Freud's "On Narcissism: An Introduction" and "Mourning and Melancholy". Though Derrida's Mémoires gives the background of my research with its deconstructive rhetorical approach, in the understanding of de Man's analyses related to classical and romantic texts I can greatly rely on my other fields of interest, English Romanticism. To this part of my research, the work and sources of the Research Centre are especially beneficial.

The second text (titled "Pygmalions Reading of Pygmalions' Reading") is concerned with the question of life-writing and life work in literary criticism. Here I also pay attention to the rhetorical devices and figures of the theoreticians' understanding and reading their own works. In this paper there will also be a central classical figure: Pygmalion, who frequently referred to and whose story is often alluded to in deconstructive critical writings (e.g. de Man's Allegories of Reading and J. H. Miller's Versions of Pygmalions).

In the third planned paper, I intend to return to irony, the rhetorical trap, which has become one of the central topics of critical writings recently. Although the term has a fascinating history starting from its earliest appearance in the Greek philosophers', Plato's and Aristotle's, then in the Roman rhetoricians', Cicero's and Quintilian's works through the Jena-Romantics' and Hegel's fragmentary statements to Kierkegaard's outstanding doctoral dissertation (and life-work), our age seems to be dedicated to the narrative of irony. Departing - or rather, growing out of - the conventional 'saying something but meaning something else' definition, we cannot avoid speaking about/in ironic narratives and contexts, as language is overtly ironic due to its rhetoricity. In the last, summarising and concluding, paper I am trying to discuss the most important trends of 'ironising', since irony is thematised in post-postmodern literary theory, in philosophy and in literature from the 80s. Moreover, in the rhetoric of my report there are some tracable key-words, as pluralism, re-collection (de Man and Derrida), re-writing (Rorty), and utopianism.

Having obtained the scholarship I can definetely find more material related to my special research in a university library in the UK and I intend to do intensive research in the library of the University. I will not only work on the planned texts but also revise the already written ones of the book 'up-dating' the used secondary sources as well. And by the end of the 3-month fellowship I do intend to finish my book on the rhetoricity of critical readings. Returning, I am also planning to have courses on deconstructive rhetorical readings and autobiographical writings at the Departments of Philosophy and English Studies at the College.