Simon Trub

Thesis title: The Late Modernist Quest for a Human Community in post-1945 Epic Poetry: Reading David Jones's The Anathemata, William Carlos Williams's Paterson, and Charles Olson's The Maximus Poems with Georges Bataille's Summa Atheologica

Background

Originally from Zurich (Switzerland), where I had started my university education, I moved to Edinburgh in 2008 in the middle of my undergraduate degree. I have since obtained an MA with First Class Honours in English Literature, an MSc by Research with Distinction in Critical Theory, and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. My PhD dissertation examines post-1945 epic poetry from formal, philosophical and political perspectives.

Qualifications

  • MSc by Research with Distinction in Critical Theory
  • MA with First Class Honours in English Literature
  • HEA Associate Fellow

Responsibilities & affiliations

Memberships:

  • British Association for Modernist Studies (BAMS)
  • British Association for American Studies (BAAS)
  • The British Society for Phenomenology

Networks:

  • Scottish Network of Modernist Studies
  • The Northern Theory School

Undergraduate teaching

Tutorials:

English Literature 1 and 2

Research summary

  • Modernism, especially 'Late Modernism'
  • Poetry and poetics, especially the epic and the 'long poem'
  • Intersections of poetry, politics, and philosophy
  • Twentieth- and twenty-first-century continental philosophy

Current research interests

The poetics and politics of post-1945 epic poetry

Past research interests

The works and philosophy of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe

Papers delivered

  • 'Late Modernism and Liberal Humanism: The Case of William Carlos Williams'. Scottish Network of Modernist Studies Workshop. University of Edinburgh. 18 March 2017.
  • 'The Democratic Individual and Its Limits in William Carlos Williams's Paterson and Autobiography'. Conference: 'Finite, Singular, Exposed: Who's Afraid of the Modernist Individual?'. University of Córdoba (Spain). 30-31 October 2014.
  • 'The Anathemata: Between Modernist and Christian Typology'. Conference: 'David Jones: Christian Modernist?'. Regent's Park College and St Anne's College, University of Oxford (UK). 10-13 September 2014.
  • 'The (Im)possible "Community" of Humanity: Reading David Jones's The Anathemata with Georges Bataille'. Conference: 'Modernist Communities: Inaugural International Conference of the Société d'Etudes Modernistes'. Sorbonne Nouvelle University (Paris, France). 24-26 April 2014.
  • 'David Jones's The Anathemata: An Epic in Search of a "Community"'. Conference: New Work in Modernist Studies. The British Association of Modernist Studies. The University of Edinburgh (UK). 7 December 2013.

Book Chapters

'Christian and "Modernist" Typology in The Anathemata' in: David Jones: A Christian Modernist? New Approaches to His Art, Poetry and Cultural Theory (Brill). Forthcoming.

 

Reviews

Review of On Nietzsche by Georges Bataille. Trans. Stuart Kendall. French Studies 71.1 (2017): 123-4.

Review of Georges Bataille: The Sacred and Society by William Pawlett. The Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 48.1 (2017): 94-97.

  • College of Humanities and Social Science Postgraduate Research Scholarship 2012
  • LLC Bursary 2011