Amos Abrahams

Thesis title: Modernist Theatre, Theatricality, and Twentieth-Century Physics

Background

Amos Abrahams studied for his undergraduate degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2013. Immediately following that, he relocated to Edinburgh to undertake an MSc in Literature and Modernity. After a brief spell away from academia, Amos returned to Edinburgh in 2015 and began a PhD under the supervision of Professor Olga Taxidou. His research is supported by the Wolfson Foundation.

Undergraduate teaching

2017/18 - English Literature 1

2018/19 - Scottish Literature 1

Research summary

My general areas of research are Modernism and theatricality, and the theories and philosophies concerning those.  I also have a strong interest in the history and philosophy of science, as well as an abiding fascination with question of tragedy and the tragic as an aesthetic.

Current research interests

My current research interest, and the subject of my doctoral thesis, is the relationship between art and science in the twentieth century, with a particular focus on Modernist dramatists and theatre makers. Examining the significant epistemological, and ontological, ramifications that the development of a quantum mechanics had for what might called 'the scientific project', I further consider the ways in which these issues were received outside of the scientific community. Considering the thought and theatres of Gertrude Stein, Bertolt Brecht, and Samuel Beckett, I argue that the advancements that were being made in physics were perceived to offer new ways to discuss and to conceptualise theatricality.

Past research interests

I have previously written on: violence and aesthetics in the work of Roberto Bolano and Cormac McCarthy; time and space-time in Modernist fiction; tragedy and psychoanalysis; the historical synthesis of Freudian psychoanalytic theory; and, global avant gardes.

Current project grants

Wolfson Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship in the Humanities 2015-2018

Papers delivered

May 2018: 'Theatrical philosophy, mathematic science'. Mathematics and Modern Literature Conference. University of Manchester.

March 2017: 'Quantum mechanics and the theatre of Bertolt Brecht.' Scottish Network of Modernist Studies AGM. University of Edinburgh.

June 2016: '“What am I”: Issues of scientific enlightenment and subjectivity in Gertrude Stein’s 'Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights.EGO 'Progress' Conference, University of Oxford.

 

'Quantum mechanics'. The Edinburgh Dictionary of Modernism. Eds. Vassiliki Kolocotroni and Olga Taxidou. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2018. 307-309.