Amadeus Kang-Po Chen

Thesis title: Rethinking Obscenity: L'érotisme Sacré in William Blake's Poetry

Research summary

Amadeus Kang-Po Chen obtained his MA degree in English literature by presenting a thesis on William Blake's poetical revisionism of Christian archetypes at National Chengchi University, Taiwan, and embarked on a PhD study since 2015 at the University of Edinburgh. His doctoral project aims to reconceptualize the idea of "obscenity" in the Romantic period and examine the erotic images and motifs as a unique aesthetic phenomenon in works of Blake, Shelley, and Keats. 

  • "A Christian Devil: Lord Byron's Cain: a Mystery." Postgradaute Research Seminar. Department of English, National Chengchi University: June 2014.
  • "The Arche-typological Antithesis in William Blake's America: a Prophecy."The Eighteen-Cnetury Research Seminar. The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh: 21 March, 2016.
  • "Revisiting the Concept of Obscenity: a Romantic Anti-aesthetics." Romantic Legacies: the 13th Annual Wenshan International Conference. National Chengchi University: 19 November, 2016.
  • "William Blake's Erotic Resonances in Visions of the Daughters of Albion: Darwin, Tissot, and Rousseau." Romantic Improvement: BARS 2017 International Conference. University of York: 30 July, 2017.
  • “Erotic Love, Poetic Imagination, and Self-Annihilation: the Pathological Poetics in John Keats’s Isabella.” The Nineteenth-Century Research Seminars, Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities, University of Edinburgh, 26 April 2018.

 

Academic Journal Articles:

Published:

  •  "'...to poison and corrupt her soul': Shelley's Poetic Designs of Incest in The Cenci." FORUM: Univesity of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts, vol. 24, no. 1 (2017). 

Accpeted, awaiting publication:

  • "Violence, Death, and Autoeroticism: The Alternative 'Self-annihilation' in Visions of the Daughters of Albion." Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly (accpeted in November 2019, to be published in 2021). 
  • “‘Of heaven with upward eyes for all that they desire’: Sacredness and Eroticism in Keats’s The Eve of St. Agnes.” The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture  (accepted in May 2019, scheduled to be published in June 2020).
  • “‘Sick within the rose’s just domain’: the Material Sublime and Pathological Poetics in Keats’s Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil.” Romantik: Journal for the Study of Romanticisms (accepted in March 2019, to be published in December 2019).

Other Online Articles:

  • "Crossing the Boundaries: Cross-dressing in Japanese Pornography." Pop Culture Academia. 16 August 2015. Web.
  • "Georges Bataille's L'Erotisme: a Short Introduction" Pop Culture Academia. 16 August 2015. Web.
  • "Punished or Not: the Problematic Ending of Don Giovanni." Inciting Sparks. 16 May. 2016. Web.
  • "Inspiration for Murderers: the Blakean Images in Popular Culture." Inciting Sparks. 6 September 2016. Web.
  • "The Aesthetics of Cannibalism in the Hannibal Lecter Series." Pop Culture Academia. 6 January. 2017. Web.
  • "A Glimpse of Blake’s Biblical Eroticism: An Illustration of Job." Inciting Sparks. 20 February. 2017. Web.
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