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The LCCT team covers the whole gamut of English studies, but by the side of the more traditional fields we find our major strengths in the following areas:

• Modernist and Postmodernist poetics
• Medieval and Elizabethan prose, poetry and drama
• Contemporary drama
• Reception, translation and reader-response theories
• Narratology, discourse analysis, semiotics, liminality theory, interface cultures, intertextuality, intermediality
• Popular culture (Gothic and Horror fiction, thriller, the comics, song, film, the media)
• Women’s Literature and Gender Studies
• Canadian, Asian-American, Asian-Canadian, Australian, postcolonial literatures

 

* Check our professors' CVs for more information about their specific lines of research (see section "Staff" in this website").

 

PERMANENT SEMINARS AND OTHER RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

Gender Studies Graduate Seminar:

The Gender Studies Seminar of the Department of English Studies was founded by Eulalia Piñero and Julia Salmerón in 1998 with the purpose of promoting the interdisciplinary study of gender, feminism and women’s studies in the field of Anglo American literature at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid. During the last twenty years, we have organized seminars, international conferences, exhibitions, book presentations and courses on these topics which have promoted debate and discussion on gender issues. The Gender Studies Post Graduate Seminar has been happening now for over twenty years. Every year we organize one-day seminar for our Master and Doctoral students so that they can present their current research in themes relating to gender, feminist criticism and sexualities. These academic events have promoted research among our graduate students and several M.A. and Ph.D. dissertations have been defended in our department on gender topics. 

Literary Games Seminar:

Literature is a game. The very essence of figurative language is playful, since it aims at establishing an oblique and evocative relationship with reality; playing the game of literature involves accepting certain rules by means of which the reader becomes a co-producer; a literary version of the “cooperative principle” governs all the exchanges in this game.

The Twentieth century was marked by a deliberate transgression of these rules, a wish to break the stable relationship between author, text and reader that had defined the literary manifestations of the Nineteenth Century (a step ahead in the game). This impulse triggered the aesthetic quest of the avant-garde and modernist agendas until the 1920s, and it also forged the tradition of what were called “anti-novels”, formal experiments that played with narrative conventions in order to dismantle the reader’s expectations.

The formal and philosophical theories appended to postmodernism spoke repeatedly about the concept of “play” underlying all the signifying processes, and simultaneously authors devoted themselves passionately to the production of metafictional and parodic narratives, expanding thus even farther the playful condition of literary practice. Irony was the dominant mode in the literature of the second half of the Twentieth century, and it reached the digital era, with the advent of hypertext culture; the substructure of many electronic works is essentially intertextual, their meaning being always the consequence of their dialogue with other texts, which creates a network of signifying possibilities.

It is the goal of this seminar to study and discuss how different authors of any age have perceived and exploited the playful potential of literature, and how readers often become an active part in the ludic and dynamic cosmos prompted by a literary piece.  

Modern Drama Seminar:

The Modern Drama Seminar was founded by Dr. Antonia Rodríguez Gago in 1998 as a venue where postgraduate students, professors interested in drama and theatre and theatre-lovers could meet with distinguished national and international drama and theatre scholars and practitioners. Dr. Noelia Hernando Real joined the organization of this seminar in 2001. This yearly seminar is always based on one topic, for which a general CFP is sent. Specialists in the topic are invited to give keynote lectures, while there is always room for other professors, post-graduate students and doctoral candidates to send their proposals on Anglo-American theatre and drama and present them in the Modern Drama Seminar.  Distinguished past speakers have included: Prof. Ruby Cohn, (University of Davis, California), Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi (Prof. Emerita Colorado State University and Tel Aviv University), Prof. Enoch Brater (University of Michigan), Prof. Matthew Roudané (Georgia State University), Prof. Barbara Ozieblo (University of Málaga), Prof. Emeline Jouve (Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurés- Champollion University),  to name just a few. Well-known playwrights, theatre critics, actors, directors, scenographers and translators have also participated in the MDS, including, José Monleón (theatre critic), Javier Aguirre (film director) , Miguel Martínez-Lage (translator),  Jesús Campos (playwright), Miguel Narros, Julio Castronuovo, Rodolfo Cortizo, Juan Berzal and  Miguel Torres (theatre directors),  Andrea D’Odorico (scenographer), and Paz Ballesteros, Maite Brik and Eva Varela (actresses).

Mythical Projections Seminar​:

Permanent Research Seminar on Classical Myths and its Reception in Anglosaxon Culture (since 2019).

Coordinated by Ana González-Rivas (UAM), Cristina Salcedo (UAM).

This Seminar aims at the analysis of classical mythology and its reception in English literature, as well as other forms of artistic expression (films, comic books, painting, etc.). Each seminar will focus on one particular theme, that will be examined from multiple comparative perspectives. The seminar is specifically addressed to MA and postgraduate students, and means to be a learning complement to their regular classes. Participation of MA students is encouraged and very welcome. Both contributions and attendance will be certificated.

Seminar on Scottish Literature:

Scottish literature began to be taught in the Master of Literary and Cultural Studies of Great Britain and the English-speaking Countries of the UAM in the 2017-18 academic year.  The course draws on postcolonial and gender theories in order to approach the texts.The initiative was led by Professor Pilar Somacarrera, coordinator of the seminar. Currently, the UAM is the only Spanish university offers Scottish Literature at the Master's level. The Permanent Seminar of Scottish Literature was held for the first time in2018 with the participation of two leading international specialists in Scottish Literature: Professor Carla Sassi (University of Verona and Dr Silke Stroh (University of Münster).

The objective of the seminar which is held every other year is, firstly, to disseminate Scottish literature as a literary tradition different from English one, albeit not disconnected from the second. Secondly, to show how in Scotland Literature and the struggle for political autonomy have always followed parallel paths. The seminar showcases the relationship of the Scottish literary phenomenon with aspects such as geography, language (Scotland is a trilingual nation), ethnicity, gender and religion. Lastly, the seminar encourages research on Scottish literature at the post-graduate level.

Spenser Study Group:

Because his work is situated fairly and squarely on the limen which exists between Mediaeval and Renaissance poetics, Edmund Spenser is a very difficult writer to deal with: so much so that over a decade ago Esteban Pujals, Daniel Essig and myself decided to remove all but a couple of sonnets of the Amoretti  from the 3º (obligatory) Mediaeval to Renaissance course. However, he is far too important to be ignored, given that his work bridges the gap between Chaucer, the Italian trecento/ quattrocento and Classical lyric, particularly the work of such Alexandrian poets as Callimachus and Theocritus.Together with Gabriel Harvey he is responsible for introducing Classical scholarship into English verse. Not only that, but his habit of including a marked autobiographical element into his work in imitation of John Skelton, William Dunbar and other 15th century Scottish and  English Chaucerians transforms his poetry into an invaluable historical document by the use of heavily disguised satirical commentary. The seminars are thus intended to fill a very important gap in Renaissance Studies for intersted,dedicated researchers.One member of the group is writing his doctoral thesis on the Anglo-Irish  political subtext of Book V of The Faerie Queene and several article publications are already in the Works.

The LCCT Research Seminar

The LCCT Research Seminar provides a forum for debate and research that can bring together students and staff; it serves as back-up for Module 1 and accordingly touches on issues of theoretical or methodological interest such as periodization, demarcation, reception, historiography, conceptualization and theory. It consists of a number of specific activities; these are autonomous but integrated within the Seminar.

The Madrid Fantasy Seminar:

A permanent seminar on Fantasy Literature, offered to MA and Degree students since 2017. Coordinated by PhD students Elena Bermejo and Jennifer Harding, and organised by Manuel Aguirre (Emeritus). It replaces the Madrid Gothic Seminar, which ran between 2010 and 2016. Of variable format, it aims at defining the complex field of fantasy. It convenes on a monthly basis and includes informal talks by both the organisers and the students themselves, always followed by debates.

Transitions Seminar:

A permanent seminar on liminality in literature, offered to MA and PhD students. Coordinated by Manuel Aguirre (Emeritus) with the participation of Drs. Belén Piqueras (UAM), Robert Shepherd (UAM), Isabel Soto (UNED), Beatriz Sánchez (EOI), Trevor Westmoreland (U. Nebrija) and a group of PhD students. It began informally in 2014 as a means of gathering various research strands around the concepts of liminality and transition. It meets monthly, and consists generally in talks and debates; it seeks to lead to the construction of short working papers that may serve as tools for textual analysis, as well as for theoretical thought. It ties in with the website LIMEN & TEXT (www.limenandtext.com).