Laura Chapot

Thesis title: Décadence, Dekadenz, Dekadens: An Interdiscursive Exploration of Decadence in German and Scandinavian Literature and Culture at the Fin de Siècle

Biography

Background

I recently completed a PhD in Comparative Literature (German and Scandinavian studies) at the University of Edinburgh. My doctoral project was supervised by Prof. Peter Davies and Dr. Bjarne Thomsen, and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. 

 

My research interests revolve around combining different theoretical and methodological approaches to representation and signification. I am particularly interested in how literary and discourse theories can be related to computational and complex systems approaches.

 

In my doctoral research, I developed a theoretical and methodological approach to analyses of decadence at the fin de siècle, focussing on the German and Swedish cultural contexts. I combined systems theory, discourse theory and computational approaches to language and meaning in order to explore how decadence can be considered as discursive resource and strategy for self-consciously playing out processes of semantic destabilisation, exploration and change. In this approach, decadence is conceptualised as playing a particular semantic function — as opening up discursive resources and strategies for destabilising, exploring and reformulating different possibilities of meaningful configuration — and I combined different types of reading in order to explore these processes of (re)signification. I used a combination of word frequency, topic modelling and close reading methods for comparatively analysing corpora of literary, critical and academic texts on decadence (and related concepts) ranging from the 1870s to the 2010s. In particular, I explored discursive dynamics of (re)signification in relation to semantics of temporality and different logics of (textual) composition and arrangement, semantics of self, subjectivity and collectivity, and semantics of art and writing as practice for meaningful and epistemological exploration and configuration.

 

Alongside research and teaching activities, I have editing and peer-reviewing experience (as co-editor for the University of Edinburgh’s postgraduate journal FORUM in 2013) as well as experience in translation namely, in translation work from French to English, and in translating texts from analog to digital formats.

Qualifications

2012-2019 — PhD. in Comparative Literature (German and Scandinavian studies), University of Edinburgh

 

2010-2011 — MSc. in Comparative and General Literature, University of Edinburgh

 

2006-2010 — MA Hons. in European Union Studies and Modern European Languages (German and Scandinavian studies), University of Edinburgh

Undergraduate teaching

2014 — German 1B Language 1 (tutoring and marking language assignments)

2013-2015 — German 1B Literature (tutoring and marking literature essays)

Postgraduate teaching

2016 — "Digital Methods and Cultures" seminar in the Theories and Textual Practices seminar series at the University of Edinburgh

Seminar tutors: Dorothy Butchard and Laura Chapot

Seminar series organisers: Robert P. Irvine, Muireann Crowley and Yanbing Er.

Further information resources: http://theorytext.llc.ed.ac.uk/seminars/digital/

Research summary

My research interests revolve around combining different theoretical and methodological approaches to representation and signification. I am particularly interested in how literary and discourse theories can be related to computational and complex systems approaches.

 

Research interests and specialisations include: 

- Fin de Siècle and Decadence

- Comparative Literature, Fin de Siècle Scandinavian and German literature and culture (particularly works by Söderberg, Strindberg, Mann and Nietzsche)

- Literary and Cultural Theory, Discourse Theory, Systems Theory

- Digital and Computational Culture

- Computational Textual Analysis

- Semantics and Latent Semantic Analysis

Past project grants

2014 — AHRC Travel Grant for Study Visit Overseas

2012-2015 — AHRC (Bloc Partnership Grant) PhD Studentship

2010-2011 — AHRC (Bloc Partnership Grant) Postgraduate Studentship

Organiser

2015 — Nordic Research Network 2015 Conference, The University of Edinburgh, 18-20 February 2015

 

2013 — ReVision: Editing across Disciplines, FORUM Conference, The University of Edinburgh, 15-16th July 2013

Papers delivered

“‘Die Dekadenz ist da’: A Discourse Analysis of Decadence in Critical Discourses in Germany and Scandinavia post-1920s” at the Women in German Studies 17th Annual Conference, The University of Durham, 6-7th November 2015

 

“‘Sickness itself can be a stimulant to life: only one has to be healthy enough for this stimulant': Processes of Normalisation and Overcoming in relation to German Decadence” at the DAAD Postgraduate Summer School Conference, The University of Nottingham, 2nd-6th July 2013

Co-Edited volumes and journal issues:

2016  — Giles, Ian; Laura Chapot; Christian Cooijmans; Ryan Foster; Barbara Tesio (eds.) Beyond Borealism. New Perspectives on the North. Conference Proceedings from the 4th Nordic Research Network Conference 2015. (London: Norvik Press)

 

2014 —  Anker, Victoria and Laura Chapot (eds.) “ReVision Conference” in Forum — Edinburgh’s Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, Special Issue 3.

 

2013 —  Anker, Victoria and Laura Chapot (eds.) “Rites & Rituals” in Forum — Edinburgh’s Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, No. 17.

 

2013 —  Chapot, Laura and Lizzie Stewart (eds.) “Un/Natural Histories”in Forum — Edinburgh’s Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, No. 16.

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