Lisa Feklistova, Newnham

Biographical Information

I read English Literature and Film & Television Studies at Glasgow University (Honours of the First Class), before obtaining an MSc in Literature and Modernity from Edinburgh University (Distinction). While conducting my doctoral work (PhD dissertation now submitted) at the University of Cambridge, I co-convened the Twentieth Century and Contemporary Research Seminar, appeared on the Modernist Podcast, and gave a literary tour as part of the Festival of Ideas; the tour inspired a sixth former to study English at university according to public feedback forms (available on request). I also gave taster lectures for the Sutton Trust and the HE+ Programme, as I believe passionately in widening access to higher education. I read, write and study short stories, and am proud to be an active member of the European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR). 

Research Interests

Intuitively, new transportation technologies lessen insularity, facilitate interpersonal connection, and encourage individulal mobility. My doctoral dissertation examines short stories by Thomas Hardy, James Joyce, Jean Rhys, Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence which articulate concerns about precisely the opposite occurring. The short stories of these authors posit that new forms of paralysis, entrapment and disconnection emerged between 1880 and 1930, as a result of railway networks expanding, voyages on cruise-ships becoming increasingly accessible, and motor-cars, omni-busses and bicycles revolutionizing tourism and the commute. 

Further research interests include:

Houses of fiction; Gothic and horror fiction; cities of literature and film; literature and visual culture; Expressionism; psychogeography; fin de siècle literature and culture; writing by 'New Women'; modernist prose (especially short prose); writing of the First World War and the Interwar period; folk tales and ballads; short story theory; novellas. 

Favourite authors include Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, Jean Rhys, Daphne du Maurier, Franz Kafka, Hermann Hesse, Aldous Huxley, Vladimir Nabokov, Sylvia Plath, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Julian Barnes. 

Selected Publications

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:

‘Singlehood as Ghostliness in the Modernist Novels of Jean Rhys and Hermann Hesse’, in Gothic Modernism, edited by Catherine Enwright and Daniel Doherty. Clemson University Press. (comissioned)

'The Singular Effect of Brevity - Why Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly" Could Not Have Been a Novel.' Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, vol. 10, no. 2, October 2020, pp. 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1386/fict_00024_1.

'Joseph Conrad and the Concept-City - Reconstructing London in The Secret Agent.' The Conradian, vol. 44, no. 2, Autumn 2019, pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.47113.

Podcasts

I appeared on Episode 18 of the Modernist Podcast to talk about Jean Rhys' short stories: https://soundcloud.com/modernist-podcast/episode-18-jean-rhys

The episode was listened to my approximately 2000 people. 

Academic Blog Posts

‘Tales of (Dis)connection.’ European Network For Short Fiction Research (ENSFR), 28 January 2022, https://ensfr.univ-angers.fr/2022/01/28/tales-of-disconnection/.

‘Review – His Dark Materials (Jack Thorne, 2019).’ Fantasy/Animation, 28 November 2019, https://www.fantasy-animation.org/current-posts/2019/11/28/review-his-dark-materials-jack-thorne-2019.

‘“Women’s Spaces, Pleasure, and Desire in the Belle Époque” Conference – Reflections by Lisa Feklistova.’ TORCH – The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities – University of Oxford, 17 June 2019, https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/article/womens-spaces-pleasure-and-desire-in-the-belle-epoque-conference.

Creative Writing

‘Bespoke’ – A short story longlisted for the Exter Story Prize, 2021. https://www.creativewriting matters.co.uk/2021-exeter-story-prize-and-trisha-ashley-award.html

‘Phenomenology.’ Black Middens - New Writing Scotland 31, edited by Carl MacDougall and Zoë Strachan, Association for Scottish Literary Studies, 2013. https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws31/