PhD student research interests
Chia-Jung Lee PhD in English and American Studies
Education:
2004-2005 The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
MA, English Studies
2000-2004 National University of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
BA, Western Languages and Literature (First degree award)
Working title for PhD thesis:
'Between Reality and Reflection: Subjectivity as Self and Language as Other'
Supervisor: Dr. Alan Rawes
Research:
The primary concern of my study is the way William Wordsworth uses language to present his memories and self-identity in The Prelude. My argument is mainly that Wordsworth himself is already doing a deconstructive writing in his poetry and that he is well aware of his self-imposed limitation on his textual development of identity, which is testified by the sense of ambiguity revealed in the text. This study intends to remodel the textual constitution of identity, in which the poet, though attempting to write a poem glorifying the mind of man, is implicitly narrating the disturbing growth of the mind. In exploring how meaning is shaped through the working of language system, I intend to investigate how meaning is constructed and unsettled at once in the poet's writing. In this respect, Deconstruction takes on an important role in my analysis. The textual descriptions of past experiences, once put in the reflexive and substitutive system of language, can never escape its predicament that excludes whatever the poet wants to express. In the end, I shall also evaluate the New Historic critique and Ecocritic reading of the Romantic ideology by way of a deconstructive reading. I hope to offer a Wordsworthian deconstruction of them. Deconstruction holds something that New Historicism and Ecocriticism ignore. Through traditional close reading and cutting-edge theoretical analyses, this study aims to make a substantial reading of Wordsworth's main texts in the context of modern criticism.
Achievements and other interests:
I have presented at 'Faithful Identity' Conference at the University of Manchester in 2006. In 2000, I published a collection of my articles, which have been either published in newspapers or awarded a prize before. I am interested in swimming and hiking. I also enjoy experiencing different cultures and meeting people. I am now a committee member in one of University Accommodations and have been a volunteer of one international charity foundation before.
Email address: chiajungl@gmail.com