2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Ghosts and Outsiders in Gothic Fiction
| Project/Area Number |
20K12955
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
Landau Samantha 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 特任准教授 (70739028)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | 英米・英語圏文学 / 英米文学 / 比較文学 / Gothic Fiction / ゴシック小説 / 怪奇小説 / Uncanny Studies / Supernatural Studies |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The Covid19 pandemic has made conducting research for this project extremely difficult. However, I had more success in 2021 than I had in 2020. My Yiddish lessons are going well, and I have started to examine online archival materials on the Jewish Occult.
The conference paper entitled “Re/Writing Jewish Folklore: Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride and the ‘Universal’ Zombie” that had been accepted in 2020 to the "Dark Economies 2021: Anxious Futures, Fearful Pasts" conference in Falmouth, UK that was postponed finally happened in hybrid format. I was able to give my paper via online format on July 7, 2021. It was well-received. I am now editing this paper for submission to the journal Gothic Studies.
I became a co-founding member of a new organization in Asia for the study of the Gothic, which we decided to call the Gothic in Asia Association. We completed the preparations for our society's website and membership system, and are launching in May 2022, and will have our inaugural conference in September 2022. Through the founding of this society, it will be easier to disseminate my research and there will be more opportunities to connect with other scholars across Asia who have been disconnected by pandemic mitigations and obstacles to travel.
I was also able to submit my abstract for a paper entitled “‘All of nature is a nightmare’: Trauma and the Supernatural in Isaac Singer’s Immigrant Fiction”
to be given at the panel I co-organized, “Trauma, Escapism, and the Gothic,” at the biennial International Gothic Association Conference in Dublin, Ireland in July 2022.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
As I had planned, I was able to coordinated with my co-founders and set up the Gothic in Asia Association, and also start our plans for our symposium to take place in September 2022. Also, as planned, I was able to give my conference lecture at Dark Economies.
Although I was able to get vaccinated, the COVID19 pandemic yet again delayed my ability to access archival materials at YIVO and at the Yiddish Book Center. During 2021, we were also not easily able to travel, at both the request of my institution and also because many institutions were not open for researchers to conduct their research. To ameliorate these delays, I have purchased books, and also accessed various documents online. However, this remains insufficient, and I need to visit the archives during 2022 to push forward with the research.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
This year, I plan to give 2 lectures at academic conferences via online format. The first will be at the International Gothic Association biennial conference (possibly online, as it may be difficult to travel to Dublin in late July, where the conference will be held), for which I have co-organized a panel, "Trauma, Escapism, and the Gothic." My lecture is entitled “‘All of nature is a nightmare’: Trauma and the Supernatural in Isaac Singer’s Immigrant Fiction.” The second lecture will be for an online conference I am co-planned for November on the Gothic and crime fiction, and will concern the image of US immigrants as criminals in Gothic crime fiction.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I intend to use the research funding to buy books for my research, pay for equipment such as a new laptop computer and a Nikon camera to take pictures of research documents, and for travel expenses for going to do archival research at YIVO, if it is safe to do so.
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| Remarks |
The website for our Gothic in Asia Association, prior to buying the domain name, is above.
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