Research Group Representations of Deviant Women
This international research project deals with representations of women who in one way or another break with normative assumptions of femininities in different cultures and times. These women make visible a norm by deviating from it and thus they are defined as deviant. The project challenges naturalised representations of deviant women by asking whose interests they serve, by exploring alternatives and by developing a critical consciousness that will seek to restore to these processes their history and their dynamic. Deviance is constructed as plural in relation to the plurality of the ever changing norms.
In the 14 individual contributions the different narratives of femininity are examined from several theoretical and methodological perspectives. The representative material and the theoretical approaches guarantee that a broad picture of female deviance is produced. Since gender is in constant change, also constant rewriting of narratives is needed. This is what the present project aims to do. It builds on earlier studies on ideology which emphasise that, since deviance by definition depends on socially constructed consensus, it is historically variable (Hall 1986). Such consensus does not merely arise but is the result of a complex process of social construction and legitimation which, as Durkheim (1997) showed, reinforces the internal solidarity of the moral community. Lukes (1975) suggests that this is a way to persuade the members of that community to accept their role in the existing order of things because they see it either as inevitable or natural.
Project leader: Tiina Mäntymäki
Research into Translation:
Professor Sirkku Aaltonen is currently the project leader of the following projects:
1) Translation and Marketing of Finnish Drama Abroad (Matkalippu maailmalle)
A collection of articles by well-known translators on the challenge of translating contemporary Finnish drama into other languages. The project involves some 20 invited writers, including translators, playwrights, compilers of anthologies and representatives of promotional organizations such as Tinfo. Partners sharing the financing of the project include Nordic Drama Corner, Finnish Translators' and Interpreters' Union, Finnish Playwright Association, Theatre Information Centre, and the Theatre Academy. The compilation is estimated to appear in November 2010 and it is published by LIKE. Its language is Finnish.
2) Translation in the Egyptian Theatre
The aim of this project is to explore the role of theatre translation in Egyptian theatre and for Egyptian playwrights. It will fall into two parts. The first part aims at exploring the role of translation in establishing the national theatre, in forming the repertoires of different theatres, in responding to both social and theatrical agendas. The analyses will be embedded in the socio-cultural and political context (sociology of theatre translation) of the productions as well as domestic theatrical context(s). The second part aims at exploring contemporary Egyptian drama in translation into English (and French?): the entire translation process (the commissioning and organising of translation), the plays available in translation (anthologies & book series), productions in theatre festivals in Britain and the US. The section includes some case studies of some western productions (the process from the text to the rehearsal room as well as the extratextual promotion). The study will cover the 20th and 21st centuries.
Preliminary list of participants: Ph.D. Areeg Ibrahim (Helwan University, Cairo), Associate Professor, Ph.D. Salwa Rashad Amin (Ain Shams University, Cairo), Professor Lobna Ismail (University of Cairo), and Ph.D. student Hazem Azmy (University of Warwick, England).
Estimated duration of project: 2 years, published as a compilation in England.
Research into Literature & Culture:
Professor Gerald Porter is currently involved in the following projects:
1) "Beyond Ireland: Cross-Currents in Literature and Culture", 2007-2011
- this is a broad Nordic Irish Studies Network (NISN) project into post-Celtic Tiger Irish literature with members from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. It includes international conferences (Dalarna 2007, Vaasa 2008) and the publication "Beyond Ireland" (Cork University Press; forthcoming). Funded by the Irish Embassy, Helsinki, and the University of Vaasa. The book Beyond Ireland, eds. Hedda Friberg-Harnesk, Joakim Wrethed and Gerald Porter is forthcoming (Peter Lang, 2011).
2) Database of Irish Studies research in Finland, 2009 - present
- the NISN (coordinator in Finland: Gerald Porter) is currently preparing with the Irish Ambassador a database of Irish Studies research in Finland (Personal Assistant funded by Embassy, started September 2009).
3) Compilation of international Encyclopaedia of Wonder Tales (University of Göttingen) under the chairmanship of Ulrich Marzolph, 2005 - present
4) Philosophy in Literature, 2010
- project in its formative stages with the intention of maintaining an international network (India, USA, Finland) to explore the relationship between philosophy and literature. First conference "Philosophy in Literature" held in the University of Vaasa 27-28.5.2010.
Forthcoming publication by Gerald Porter: "Ókot p´Bitek and Richard Rorty's Critique of Universalism".
Research into Sociolinguistics:
Lic.Phil Maj-Britt Höglund is involved in the following project:
- Discourse Research Group (diskurssitutkimusryhmä) of the Faculty of Philosophy.
Project leader: Professor Merja Koskela, Communication Studies
The research activities of individual members of the English studies staff are available in the CRIS database.
