KNL | Prof. Brian Richardson (University of Maryland): “Representations of Readers in Modern Fiction: Paradoxes and Dilemmas”

The act of reading is prominently depicted in numerous modern and contemporary narratives, and often produce very mixed results, including disillusion and death. Reading is also often associated with sexual coupling. This talk outlines key moments from the rich history of the representation of reading in fiction and proposes a theoretical framework to embrace the more extreme examples.

// Brian Richardson is a Professor in the English department of the University of Maryland, where he teaches modern literature and narrative theory. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including Unnatural Voices: Extreme Narration in Modern and Contemporary Fiction (2006, Perkins Prize winner); Unnatural Narratives: Theory, History, and Practice (2015), A Poetics of Plot for the Twenty-first Century: Theorizing Unruly Narratives (2019), and Essays on Narrative and Fictionality: Reassessing Nine Central Concepts (2021), a collection of his recent articles on several basic narratological subjects. His latest book, The Reader of Modernist Fiction, is scheduled to be published in 2024. Richardson has edited or co-edited ten collections of essays on narrative theory, including the anthologies Narrative Beginnings: Theories and Practices (2008) and with Jan Alber, Unnatural Narratology: Extensions, Revisions, and Challenges. He guest-edited special issues of Style on Concepts of Narrative (34.2, 2000) and on The Implied Author (44.1, 2011), an issue of Conradiana on Conrad and the Reader (35.1, 2003), and a group of essays on Unnatural Narrative and Feminist Theory in Storyworlds (2016). An issue of Style devoted to an analysis of his work appeared in December 2017. He has published over 100 articles; these have explored reader response theory, narrative sequence, endings, character, fictionality, realism, African American and postcolonial narratives, the poetics of drama, and the narratives of literary history. His work has been translated into French, German, Czech, Portuguese, Danish, Magyar, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, and Chinese. In 2011 he served as President of the International Society for the Study of Narrative. His website is https://brianerichardson.weebly.com

Organized by the Department of Anglistik in colloboration with the IPP