Research Team 1: LITERATURES IN ENGLISH

USC Senior MembersMargarita Estévez-SaáPatricia Fra López, Constante González Groba, Susana María Jiménez Placer, Laura Lojo Rodríguez, Manuela Palacios González, Noemí Pereira AresJorge Sacido Romero, Jesús Varela Zapata

Research Lines:

  • Cultural, linguistic and literary relations between Galicia and Ireland. 

  • Gender studies and contemporay short-story writing in Britain. 

  • Literature of the U.S. and postcolonial studies. 

Research Line 1: Cultural, linguistic and literary relations between Galicia and Ireland

It brings together experts interested in the intersections between literature, gender studies and ecocriticism. Additionally, this literature team also carries out comparative studies between the cultural and literary realities in Galicia and Ireland. All these research interests are at the core of Eco-fictions: Emergent Discourses on Woman and Nature in Galicia and Ireland (FEM2015-66937-P, 2016-2018), a recent research project led by Manuela Palacios González and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The members of the D&I group have published widely along these research lines, including articles in prestigious scholarly journals in the area as well as books and volumes in international publishing houses: Forked Tongues. Galician, Basque and Catalan Women’s Poetry in Translations by Irish Writers (Shearsman Books, 2012), edited by Manuela Palacios González; Creation, Publishing, and Criticism: The Advance of Women’s Writing (Peter Lang, 2010) coedited by Manuela Palacios, Laura Lojo and Mª Xesús Nogueira; Writing Bonds: Irish and Galician Contemporary Women Poets (Peter Lang, 2009), edited by Manuela Palacios and Laura Lojo; The Scallops of Saint James, an Old Pilgrim’s Hoard”: Reading Joyce from the Peripheries (Netbiblio, 2006), coedited by group members Susana Domínguez Pena and Margarita Estévez-Saá; or A Pilgrimage from Belfast to Santiago de Compostela: The Anatomy of Bernard MacLaverty’s Triumph over Frontiers (2002), written by Margarita Estévez-Saá and Anne MacCarthy. Members of the group working in this research line have also organized multiple events such as the International 2018-AEDEI Conference: ‘Eco-Fictions and Irish Studies’ (2018), the International Seminar on ‘Creation, Editing and Criticism: Irish and Galician Poets’ (2009) or the course Gender Studies: Literature in Feminine/Masculine (2006). Since 2009, group members have been awarded more than 5 research projects. Additionally, Manuela Palacios González works in conjunction with literary and cultural institutions such as the Instituto Cervantes (Dublin), The Arts Council (Ireland), CIPPCE (Research Centre for Emerging Cultural Processes and Practices), Ireland Literature ExchangeAsociación de Escritores en Lingua Galega, as well as with Irish and Galician publishing houses and foreign universities such as University College Cork (UCC) and University College Dublin (UCD).

Web page: http://irgal.es/

Research Line 2: Gender studies and contemporary short-story writing in Britain.

Members of the group working within this research line conduct research in women’s literature in the UK, paying specific attention to the short-story genre. This line of research has achieved national funding through two research projects:  “Women’s Tales”: The Short Fiction of Contemporary British Writers (FEM2013-41977-P) and Intersections: Gender and Identity in the Short Fiction of Contemporary British Women (FEM2017-83084-P). Both projects are centred on the overlaps between gender and the short story genre, exploring and analysing how different British writers have used the genre to challenge patriarchal authority and to redefine the position of women in society. As a result of this research interest, several contributions have been publishedGender & Short Fiction: Women’s Tales in Contemporary Britain (Routledge, 2018), edited by Jorge Sacido Romero and Laura Lojo Rodríguez; Moving across a Century: Women’s Short Fiction from Virginia Woolf to Ali Smith(Peter Lang 2012), edited by Laura Lojo  Rodríguez; ModernismPostmodernism, and the Short Story in English (Rodopi / Brill2012), edited by Jorge Sacido Romero. The results of this research project have also been disseminated in national and international fora as well as in the seminars  Borders, Intersections and Identity in the Contemporary Short Story in English (2018), Women’s Tales in Motion: Contemporary Literature in the British Isles (2015) and Gender and Short Fiction: Women’s Tales in Contemporary Britain (2016), both held in Santiago de Compostela and organized by the members of the team in collaboration with the USC Office for Gender Equality.

Research Line 3: Literature of the U.S. and postcolonial studies.

It covers various research sub-lines related to U.S. and Post-Colonial literature. Regarding the study of U.S. literature, members of the group working in this vein centre their studies on southern literature and the complex interactions of gender, race and class in this region. Some recent publications along this line are Unsteadily Marching On: The U. S. South in Motion (2013)and Hijas del Viejo Sur: La mujer en la literatura femenina del sur de los Estados Unidos (2012), both edited by Constante González. The team has completed several competitive research projects: “Women, space, gender, and race in the fiction of southern women since 1890” (MEC 2007-2010); “The civil rights movement in U. S. fiction and drama” (MEC 2011-2013); “Women’s autobiography from the U. S. South: Genre, Gender, Race, Region” (MINECO 2014-2017). Team members have participated in other projects like “Via Lactea” and the European Union’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency and are members of the board of referees of Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglonorteamericanos, The Grove: Working Papers on English Studies, and Moravian Journal of Literature and Film. The team has organized important academic events like the XII International Conference of the Southern Studies Forum: “Southern Destinations / The South in Motion” (15-17 September, 2011), and the Symposium on Southern Autobiography: “Writing the Self, Writing the South” (1-3 June, 2016).