Dr Duco van Oostrum
School of English
Senior Lecturer in American Literature
+44 114 222 8468
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
ºù«Ӱҵ
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I have taught in the School of English since 1995.
After a book monograph on Henry James and Henry Adams, my research has encompassed more contemporary fields in African-American culture, sports literature, urban contemporary fiction, and autobiography.
I have always tried to put research-led teaching into practice, and as a result, became more and more involved in pedagogy and the student learning experience. As part of a group of like-minded individuals across the Arts and Social Sciences, I was part of the successful HEFCE Centre of Learning and Teaching Excellence grant for CILASS (Centre For Inquiry-Based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences).
In 2005, I became the first CILASS Academic Fellow and, together with Richard Steadman-Jones, set up major research-led teaching projects within the School of English. In 2003, I received a University Senate Award for Teaching, followed in 2007 with a National Teaching Fellowship.
- Research interests
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Male Authors, Female Subjects: The Woman Within/Beyond the Borders of Henry Adams, Henry James and Others (1995) reflects my interest in late nineteenth-century American Literature, representations of gender by men, and autobiography.
I also work on African-American Literature and Sports Literature, writing on such diverse people as:
- Toni Morrison
- Bill Russell
- Jack Kerouac
- John Edgar Wideman
- Michael Jordan and many others
Autobiography and the manner in which stories are told remain at the centre of this research. I am fascinated by ghost-written autobiographies (such as slave narratives and most sports autobiographies) which complicate notions of a written self.
- Publications
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Books
- Male Authors, Female Subjects The Woman Within/beyond the Borders of Henry Adams, Henry James and Others. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.
- . BRILL.
Journal articles
- . Dutch Crossing, 44(1), 45-80.
- . Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture, 7(3), 556-566.
- . Dutch Crossing, 27(2), 253-268.
- The printed dimension: the battle for authorial control in the football autobiographies of Tony Adams and David Beckham. Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature, 21(1), 25-45.
- . Journal of American Studies, 33(1), 89-200.
- Visions from ‘The Unregistered Dimension’: H.D.’s Literature on World War II. Borderlines: Studies in American Culture, 2(3), 216-236.
- A Postholocaust Jewish House of Fiction: Anne Frank’s Het Achterhuis (The Diary of a Young Girl) in Philip Roth’s The Ghostwriter. Modern Jewish Studies, 9(3-4), 61-76.
- . Dutch Crossing, 14(42), 85-95.
Chapters
- The Breath of Freedom In McKay D (Ed.), We Slaves of Suriname Polity
- Der Atem der Freiheit In Erdmann B (Ed.), Wir Sklaven von Suriname
- 'All that it had to say': Henry Adams and the Rock Creek Memorial, Memory and Memorials: From the French Revolution to World War One (pp. 147-159).
- , Memory and Memorials (pp. 147-159). Routledge
- , Teaching, Technology, Textuality (pp. 122-131). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Transatlantic Exchanges: Mediating Student Learning through e-Discussions, TEACHING, TECHNOLOGY, TEXTUALITY: APPROACHES TO NEW MEDIA (pp. 122-131).
- "Slam History" In Janssens R & Kroes R (Ed.), Post-Cold War Europe, Post-Cold War America (pp. 194-202). Amsterdam: Virago Press.
- The Black Athlete's Battle Royal of the 1960s: Anti-American Protests in American Sports In Draxlbauer M, Fellner AM & Froeschl T (Ed.), (Anti-) Americanisms (pp. 268-285). Wien: Lit Verlag.
- "Born to Play": Discipline and Play in Jack Kerouac's Narratives of Football In Bent, van der J, Elteren, van M & Minnen, van C (Ed.), Beat Culture The 1950s and Beyond (pp. 159-173). Amsterdam: Vu University Press.
- Posthumous Life and the Alibi of Autobiography: The Adams Memorial In Bak H & Krabbendam H (Ed.), Writing Lives American Biography and Autobiography (pp. 29-42). Vu University Press Amsterdam
- Literary Responses to America in 1987: "The Double Vision" of Larry McMurtry's Texasville and Toni Morrison's Beloved In Bak H, Holthoon, van F & Krabbendam H (Ed.), Social and Secure? Politics and Culture of the Welfare State : a Comparative Inquiry (pp. 202-217). Amsterdam: VU University Press.
- Dear...I have no objection to anything": Constructing Identities in apartment buildings in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire and Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City In D'haen T & Bertens H (Ed.), Writing Nation and 'Writing' Region in America (pp. 117-128). Amsterdam: Vu University Press.
- Wim Wenders's Euro-American Construction Site: Paris, Texas or Texas, Paris In Chapple R (Ed.), Social and Political Change in Literature and Fil, (pp. 7-21). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
- Men Speaking for Women and American Literature: The Case of Henry Adams alias Frances Snow Compton In Verhoeven WM (Ed.), Rewriting the Dream: Reflections on the Changing American Literary Canon (pp. 75-101). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
- , Memory and Memorials, 1789–1914 (pp. 147-159). Taylor & Francis
Book reviews
- Making the team: The cultural work of baseball fiction. JOURNAL OF AMERICAN STUDIES, 33, 164-166.
Website content
- How the Story of an Enslaved Boy Transformed Into a Shared Dutch History.
Scholarly editions
- De Adem der Vrijheid: Wij Slaven van Suriname als Literatuur. Atlas Contact.
- Male Authors, Female Subjects The Woman Within/beyond the Borders of Henry Adams, Henry James and Others. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.
- Research group
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I welcome research students in most fields of American literature, and in particular those with interest in African-American culture, urban and consumer literature, and sports.
Current research students, for example, are working on research topics such as, John Edgar Wideman, Oprah Studies, Female Consumer Fiction, and Mountaineering Literature, to name a few. Completed PhDs include topics such as the letters of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Contemporary American Consumer Fiction, Representation of White Women in African-American female fiction. I am also the convenor of the MA pathway in American literature and, as part of that MA, teach the module, Tales of the City: Urban Space in Contemporary American fiction.
- Teaching activities
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See the 'profile' for a resume of my interests in teaching.
Roots Routes: The CILASS team have put together a stunning website, with resources, explanations, and many video and podcast links which highlight my approach to learning and teaching.