Working Group on Narrative
The Center for the Study of the Novel (CSN) invites expressions of interest for the 2023-2024 Working Group on Narrative.
The WGN, which meets in person or virtually two to three times per quarter, aims to provide a space for the presentation and discussion of new work on narrative by advanced graduate students. Dinner and drinks are always provided, and papers are pre-circulated to facilitate engaged discussion. The tenor of the group is informal and collegial; the purpose is to help students get helpful feedback on work in progress in a supportive, low-stakes environment. CSN staff will also assist presenters in finding appropriate (and sometimes unconventional) respondents, either from their home department or throughout the university.
Interested advanced graduate students who work on the novel are encouraged to get in touch with Jessica Monaco (jmmonaco@stanford.edu). Please provide a brief overview of your research project (a detailed description of the chapter or paper is not required), and an indication of the quarter in which you would like to present.
We are also eager to receive requests or recommendations for future events that will gather Stanford graduate students around a common commitment to the study of narrative, such as reading groups, group workshops, or screenings, including tie-ins with courses.
We welcome any questions you may have about the Working Group and its activities.
Next Events:
Past Working Group meetings
2022-2023 Academic Year
May 4th, 2023
Made in Mexico: A History of Langston Hughes’ “Troubled Lands”
Presenter: Alan Burnett Valverde, PhD candidate in English
Respondent: Vaughn Rasberry, Associate Professor of English at Stanford
February 8, 2023
Logistics/Quest: Forms of Circulation in Samuel R. Delany’s Nova
Presenter: Walter Gordon, IDEAL Karr Family Provostial Fellow
Respondent: Ramón Saldívar, Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Hoagland Family Professor of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford
2021-2022 Academic Year
April 28, 2022
Panel on Humanitarian Narrative
Presenters: Olga Ovcharskaia, PhD candidate in Slavic, Irene Kuo, PhD candidate in German, and Gavin Jones, Frederick P. Rehmus Family Professor of Humanities, Stanford
May 19, 2022
Exhibiting Bodily Affect: Thomas Hardy’s Betraying Heart Century Literary Portraits
Doug Battersby, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford
Respondent: Michaela Bronstein, Assistant Professor of English at Stanford
April 21, 2022
Narrative Mask-Making in Nietzsche and the Novel
Alexander Lin, PhD student in Comparative Literature at Berkeley
Respondent: Nancy Ruttenburg, Professor of English at Stanford
Nov 17, 2021
Eighteenth Century Literary Portraits: The Repurposing of a Seventeenth-Century Socialite Practice
Cynthia Laura Vialle-Giancotti, PhD candidate in French and Italian
Respondent: Christophe Schuwey, Assistant Professor of French at Yale
Nov 3, 2021
Deforming Modernity: The Experience of Horror in Italian Literature
Andrea Capra, Ph.D. Candidate, French and Italian
Respondent: Joshua Landy, Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French, Stanford
2020-2021 Academic Year
Oct 27, 2020
"On the Technology of the Sublime in Modern Chinese Narratives"
Maciej Kurzynski, Ph.D. Candidate, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Respondent: Robert Clewis, Professor of Philosophy, Gwynedd Mercy University
2019-2020 Academic Year
May 14th, 6-8pm
”Domestic Crisis, Masonic Egress, and the Potential for Queer Utopias in Tolstoy and Pisemskii” Evan Altermann, Ph.D. Candidate, Slavic Department
Respondent: Ardel Haefele-Thomas, Professor and Chair of LGBTQ at CCSF
May 21st, 6-8pm
”Tú lo que quieres es gozar:” collecting, self-fashioning, and the historical consciousness of franco-colombian decadence”
Victoria Zurita, Ph.D. Candidate, CompLit Department Respondent: Lisa Surwillo, Professor and Chair of ILAC, Stanford
May 28th, 6-8pm
”Sounding; or, Recovering the Role of Touch in Antebellum Seascapes” Emilia Le Seven, Ph.D. student at the Université de Paris LARCA - UMR 8225 Respondent: Margaret Cohen, Professor of English, Director of the CSN
2018/2019 Academic Year
March 5, 2019
”Interpellation and the Second-Person Address: The Case of J.D. Salinger”
Chen Edlesburg, Postdoctiral Fellow, DLCL
May 20, 2019
”The Idea of Conservatism”
Linda Liu, Ph.D. candidate, English
June 4, 2019
”Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger and Milton: A Study of Miltonic Chiaroscuro in a Postcolonial Novel”
Radhika Koul, Ph.D. candidate, DLCL
2017/2018 Academic Year
April 24, 2018
”Scaling the Early American Soldier”
Chelsea Davis, Ph.D. candidate, English
May 23, 2018
”An Eluant Transfer: Sonic Opacity in Delany’s Dhalgren and Mackey’s Bass Cathedral”
Max Suechting, PhD candidate, MTL and Gabriela Salvidea, PhD candidate, English
Center for the
Study of the Novel
Margaret Jacks Hall, 460-411
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2087
Director
Graduate Coordinators
Caroline Bailey
Jessica Monaco
Vesta Pitts
Programs
Department of English
Division of Literatures,
Cultures, and Languages
Stanford Literary Lab