Jenny Carton

Supervisors: Dr Jessica Dubow (Sheffield); Dr John Wylie (Exeter)
ESRC funded: (PTA-031-2004-00049)

Writing the self (after) non-representational theory

My doctoral research seeks to contribute to 'cultural geographies of the self', and aims to offer a performative exploration of the place of writing in theoretical, literary and corporeal registers.

Drawing on the works of Emmanuel Levinas, particularly Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence (1974) and Maurice Blanchot's The Infinite Conversation (1969) and The Space of Literature (1955), the project ostensibly aims to think through literature, or the moment of writing, as a particular spatial moment of exposure to alterity; an act through which the self can be understood as emergent. However, the notions of space that I wish to explore make departures from normative visual metaphors; bearing witness to the importance of space created by an aural and palpable exposure to alterity, via the medium of literature.

As such, the research seeks to ask, not what literature 'means', but how literature itself performs, and further how literature can be understood as a point from which the (writing) self can be seen, rendered passive, to emerge from an imperative to respond to this alterity. By positioning the subject thus, the research also seeks to explore how cultural geographers can think about an ethical subject which is be thought of as responsive rather than simply reactive; as relational and contingent rather than autonomous or creative. Indeed, the project argues that by recognising the writing self in this way we can finally overcome those normative claims to introspection and self-expression, and show the writing-self is performatively ethical in its orientation towards the 'other'.

Research Interests

• Cultural Geography
• Continental Philosophy (in particular; Deleuze, Blanchot, Levinas)
• Literature
• Corporeality and performance and passivity

Previous Research

BA Geography, University of Sheffield (2004) First Class honours
Dissertation: A reading of the constructions of masculinities in Welsh's Trainspotting

MA Human Geography Research, University of Sheffield (2005) Distinction
Dissertation: Unfolding onto the curves of an other: A performative intervention through Salsa-dance

Conferences Attended

Deleuze and Literature, Warwick (February 2006)
RGS IBG, London (August 2006)
Radical Passivity; Rethinking Ethical Agency in Levinas, Maastricht (November 2006)
Bodies, relations and spatiality workshop, Sheffield, September 2008

Teaching Experience

2005 - Teaching Skills for Research Students Course
Two intensive workshops ran in tandem with research students' own practical teaching experience. The course was designed to develop both practical and reflective skills in order to identify and cater for the learning needs of undergraduate students. It covered perspectives on learning, structuring learning, teaching in small groups, evaluating teaching, assessing students and giving feedback.

Workshop Tutor for the following modules

GEO254: Research Design in Human Geography
GEO208: Social and Political Geography
GEO153: Information and Communication Skills for Geographers

Contact Details

Address: University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7973
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7907
Email: J.Carton@Sheffield.ac.uk