Zoë Van Cauwenberg MA

PhD candidate

Area(s) of interest: Cultural Studies, European History, Gender, Identity, Languages & Literature

Cohort/Start PhD: 2020-2021

History as “Fairy-ground”: Scottish and Irish Female Voices and the Gothic Imagination (1780-1830)
Ghent University
Supervisor(s): Tom Toremans (KU Leuven) en Steven Vanden Broecke (UGent)

This FWO-funded project aims to recover Gothic texts authored by Scottish and Irish female writers in the Romantic Period (1780-1830). It examines how these authors engage with questions of national and cultural identity as well as how their responses relate to gender identity. It proposes a comparative study between female authors from Ireland and Scotland to examine their use of the imaginative practices of the Gothic aesthetic to negotiate the cultural past in terms of identity-building, projection and subterfuge. The focus on Scottish and Irish authors aims to clarify the importance of historical trajectories and how power structures (dominance and subjugation) impact regional literary production. By elaborating on female authors from Ireland and Scotland, this project engages with questions of canon-formation, cultural nationalism and the role of the female agent in the construction of a historical imagination.