As a PhD student you will participate in the VIDI project “The Politics of Irony in Contemporary Latin-American Literature on Violence”. This project is funded by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and directed by Dr Brigitte Adriaensen (principal investigator).
The project investigates the functions of irony in the representation of violence in three contemporary narrative genres in Latin American literature: the post-dictatorial novel, the crime novel and the drug novel. Through literary discourse analysis, the project will analyse the ideological, ethical and cultural dimensions of irony in the representation of violence.
Your research should result in a doctoral thesis and will focus on the relationship between irony and violence in one specific narrative genre (the post-dictatorial or the crime novel), as it manifests itself in different cultural regions of Latin America. At the same time, your research should contribute to the development of a novel theoretical model about the politics of irony in the representation of violence in literature. You will be based at Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Arts, Research Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS).
PhD student 1: You will examine the politics of irony in the post-dictatorial novel (Argentina and Chile, 1973 - today).
PhD student 2: You will investigate the politics of irony in the crime novel (Chile, Mexico and Cuba, 1976 - today).
Organization
Radboud University Nijmegen is one of the leading academic communities in the Netherlands, renowned for its leafy campus, modern buildings, and state-of-the-art equipment. It has seven faculties and enrolls over 17,500 students in approximately 90 study programmes. The university is situated in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, close to the German border, on the banks of the river Waal. Nijmegen has a rich history and its city centre is one of the liveliest in the Netherlands.
Your research will be embedded in the institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies (HLCS) at the Faculty of Arts. Research at HLCS is centred around five themes: The Ancient World, Christian Cultural Heritage, History after the Middle Ages, Studying Criticism and Reception Across Borders, and the Performances of Memory.
Website: http://www.ru.nl/hlcs
Conditions of employment
Employment: 0,8 fte
The gross starting salary is €2,042 per month based on full-time employment.
Additional conditions of employment
The total duration of the contract is 4.3 years. You will be offered an initial contract for 18 months with the possibility of extension by 2.8 years. The sub-projects will start preferably on May 1st, 2011.
Two PhD Positions in Latin American Fiction
