Keywords
animal studies, contemporary fiction, continental philosophy, Judeo-Christianity, language, literary food studies
Research Areas
English Literature and Creative Writing, Media and Cultural Studies, Philosophy
Maria Christou
Research Student
County College
Lancaster University
Bailrigg
Lancaster
United Kingdom
LA1 4YD
Current Teaching
I currently teach the Part I English Literature undergraduate course ENGL 100
Research Interests
My research areas are 20th century literature (Modernist and Contemporary Fiction) and continental philosophy. I am particularly interested in animal studies and literary food studies.
Current Research
My thesis begins with an exploration of the treatment of food in the history of Western thought. I argue that the way the need for food (which is common to both human and animal existence) has been presented in philosophical, religious and psychoanalytic discourses has led to the creation of distinctions between humans and animals, distinctions that ultimately come to be viewed as ontological. The construction of ontology is, in this sense, in conjunction with the way food has been understood. In what follows, the emphasis shifts from food in general to a particular foodstuff ? the egg. If the way food has been presented in seminal examples of Western thought can be claimed to have contributed to the construction of ontology, then the way this specific foodstuff has been presented in various literary texts can be claimed to contribute to the creation of a philosophy that counters ontology, a philosophy I call ?oontology' (from the Greek oon, ?egg'). These literary texts, which include Samuel Beckett's ?Whoroscope', Paul Auster's City of Glass, Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, either hint at the possibility of the articulation of a philosophy of the egg that counters ontology and is aligned with potentiality, or present us with manifestations of such a counter-ontology. All these texts share a common preoccupation with religion (either Christianity or Judeo-Christianity) and engage with the question of language. In each chapter, elements of Judeo-Christianity (such as sacrificial lambs, the Tower of Babel, the Eucharist, the Virgin Birth) and aspects of language (for example, figures like metonymy and metaphor, and parts of speech like verbs and nouns) are examined from an ontological and an oontological perspective. As the chapters progress, the political and politico-economical implications of (extreme versions of) ontology and oontology are brought to the foreground.
Selected Publications
I Eat Therefore I Am: An Essay on Human and Animal Mutuality
Christou, M. expected in 2014 In: Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities. 19, 1
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
In Press
I Eat Therefore I Am: An Essay on Human and Animal Mutuality
Christou, M. expected in 2014 In: Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities. 19, 1
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article
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