BA, MA (SOAS)
- Alexandria Milton
- Email address:
- Thesis title:
- Beyond the Periphery: Spatial Approaches to Human Experience in the Short Story
My current research focuses on the development of short story criticism with an emphasis on Middle Eastern, Latin American, and North American literatures, particularly as they relate to issues of spatiality (geography, cartography, rhythm) and human experience. I previously completed an MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, focusing my thesis on constructions of gender and beauty in the Egyptian novel of the '90s Generation.
I am currently on the Editorial Board of the SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research.
My research uses space as a theoretical approach to fill the void between social being (physical and imaginative experience) and literary expression in the short story, using Latin American and Middle Eastern short stories as case studies.
The concept of space is of special importance in the structure of the short story because of its compactness, intensity, and reliance on metaphor, symbolism, innuendo, and the unsaid. It makes particular use of imagination to drive its point and connect it to wider issues of society; space is what allows the short story to be compact yet revealing.
My research hopes to advance scholarship of both the short story and space, with special attention paid to the function of the unsaid in literature and how it informs our understanding of the relationship between society, imagination, and literary production in general.
- Milton, A. (2014, Fall). Experiential Rhythm in the Short Story. Retrieved Nov 12, 2014, from SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, Vol 7
- Milton, A., & Fernández Ramos, I. (2014, Fall). Introduction: From the Speech to the Act: Performativity on the Margins. Retrieved Nov 12, 2014, from SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, Vol 7
- Title: ‘From the Speech to the Act: Performativity on the Margins’. SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) Postgraduate Conference. SOAS, University of London, UK. 13 June 2014
- Title: 'Writing the National: The American Bedouin and Sarmiento’s Imaginary Modern Argentine'. British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) 2014 Conference ‘The Middle East in Global Perspective: Interactions Across Time and Space’. University of Sussex, UK. 16 June 2014
- Title: 'A Legacy of Performative Rhythms in a Latin American Short Story'. SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) Postgraduate Conference, ‘From the Speech to the Act: Performativity on the Margins’. SOAS, University of London, UK. 13 June 2014
- Title: 'Borges & Kant: A Treatment of Aesthetic Universalism in the Latin American Short Story'. SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) Postgraduate Conference, ‘Critical Methods Beyond Eurocentrism’. SOAS, University of London, UK. 14 June 2013
My research interests incorporate highly visual elements from the fields of aesthetics, phenomenology, geography, philosophy, and fine and performance arts.