katrien bollen
Dr. Katrien Bollen holds an M.A. in Literature (2006) and an M.A. in European Studies (2007) from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. She also wrote a Ph.D. entitled "Underground or Six Feet Under? The Unbearables and the Fate of the Avant-Garde in New York City (1985-2007)" under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kristiaan Versluys and Prof. Dr. Bart Keunen at Ghent University. On the basis of archival research, author interviews and literary analysis, "Underground or Six Feet Under" analyzes the complex interplay between the avant-garde, postmodernism and the urban condition as represented by the Unbearables, a loose collective of anarchist writers in Downtown New York. This includes an attempt to answer three questions: how do the Unbearables position themselves in the contemporary literary field and towards the historical avant-garde? What, if anything other than an underground shibboleth, has the term ‘Unbearable’ come to signify in Downtown New York? And how does an analysis of Unbearable writing add to and complicate existing narratives on avant-garde practices in a postindustrial urban context?
research interests
- McSweeney's
- New York Downtown writing (The Unbearables)
- Avant-garde, bohemia, postmodernism and the urban condition
- Anarchist productions of space (Temporary Autonomous Zones)
- Literary magazines (Between C&D, Redtape, The Portable Lower East Side, etc.)
- Gothic fiction and bilingual education
teaching
- Ba1: English Literature I: Poetry and Drama (Ghent University)
- Ba2: seminars on narratology (Ghent University)
- Postgraduate Program in American Studies (Ghent University): guest lecture on American cities / suburbs
bibliography
Bollen, Katrien, and Sien Uytterschout. "Touching the Void. An Analysis of Patrick McGrath's Ground Zero." Submitted for publication.
Bollen, Katrien. "Guerilla Warriors on Brooklyn Bridge. A Case-Study of the Unbearables' Poetic Terrorism (1994-2001)". Accepted for publication by "ZAA". To be published in issue 60.2 (June 2012).
Bollen, Katrien and Kristof Baten. "Bilingual Education in Flanders: Policy and Press Debate (1999-2006)". The Modern Language Journal 94.3 (2010).
Bollen, Katrien and Raphael Ingelbien. "An Intertext that Counts? Dracula, The Woman in White, and Victorian Imaginations of the Foreign Other". English Studies 90.4 (August 2009): 403-20.