Current PhD Students

Xin Zhao

Thesis Title:

Rereading Exoticism: Race, Gender, and Intersectionality in Angela Carter

Supervisor:

Bryan Radley

Description:

My research examines Angela Carter’s construction of literary exoticism as an evolving project in The Magic Toyshop (1967), The Infernal Desire Machines of Dr Hoffman (1972), The Fireworks (1974), The Passion of New Eve (1977), The Bloody Chamber (1979), The Black Venus (1985), and selective essays and archival sources. Adopting an intersectional, interdisciplinary, and transnational approach, this project analyses exoticism in terms of race and gender in three phases – pre-Japan, in-Japan, and post-Japan – to explore how Carter’s representations of exoticism allows for the possibility of liberation of the exoticized other. It aims to shed new light on Carter’s oeuvre by examining her work through current and evolving postcolonial and feminist perspectives.

My wider research interests include contemporary women’s writing, girlhood, Gothic fiction, Orientalism, and travel writing. My BA in English Language and Literature was supported by a China National Scholarship, and I hold an MA with Distinction in English Literary Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (making the 2020 Dean’s Honours List). My doctoral research project is funded by the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities.