Kiara Graham spent her undergraduate studies immersed in the sensations of fear, shock, arousal and horror. When she begins her graduate studies this fall, she witness subversion and censorship – between the covers.
Graham, BA/11, is continuing her examination of genres in English literature. While working toward her BA, Graham studied “sensation fiction” a subgenre that arose within Victorian Gothic literature between 1860 and 1880.
Unlike most Gothic novels, Graham says, sensation fiction was set within the then contemporary British society, and so was also known as domestic Gothic. “At first the term was used by critics to refer to a wide range of novels, including crime, mystery and horror novels.”
As the genre matured, it came to be defined by the sensations it evoked in its readers – emotions that ranged from horror to arousal.
Casting forward a century, Graham will now focus on a more contemporary form of horror.
“I am particularly interested in human rights literature and poetry of witness – literature which bears witness to atrocity and trauma from the perspectives of marginalized and oppressed peoples,” Graham explains.
Last winter, Graham took professor Carr-Vellino’s Poetry of Witness course. Within the subject material, Graham saw a parallel between the audiences – women and the working classes for gothic fiction and how these were viewed by cultural elites and the notion of subversion in contemporary literature.
The literary works she will study span continents, conflicts and peoples. These will include North American, South African, Chinese and feminist literatures.