Chloe Avril
Senior Lecturer
Department of Languages andAbout Chloe Avril
Background
I was born in France and came to Sweden originally as an Erasmus student to do part of my BA from the Université Lumière Lyon II. After completing my BA and MA in Lyon I returned to Sweden and the University of Gothenburg to do a Ph.D. in American Literature. My thesis on the utopian novels of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935), defended in 2006, was then published under the title The Feminist Utopian Novels of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Themes of Sexuality, Marriage, and Motherhood (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008). After completing my Ph.D. I have worked as lecturer in English literature both at the University of Gothenburg and at the Centre for Languages and Literature in Lund.
Research
My research interests include American literature, women’s and gender studies, African American studies and popular culture. After completing my PhD on Charlotte Perkins Gilman, I have worked on other research projects including a study of the representation of surrogacy in contemporary TV series, as well as on a number of articles on the autobiographies written by leaders of the Black Power movement. Currently, I am interested in the work of Richard Yates, best known for his novel Revolutionary Road (1961). My first article on Yates focused on the representation of disgust through the mother figure in Cold Spring Harbor. Other issues that interest me in relation to his work include gender politics, existentialism and realism.
Since 2010, I have been an active board member for the Swedish Association of American Studies (SAAS), for which I am currently serving as Vice-President. I am also co-editor of the Nordic Journal of English Studies (NJES).
Selected Publications
- “Aversion as Diversion: The Politics of Disgust in Cold Spring Harbor”. In Jennifer Daly, ed. Richard Yates and the Flawed American Dream: Critical Essays. Jefferson: McFarland. 2017. pp. 70-86.
- “Race, Gender and Class in the Autobiography of Huey P. Newton”. Nordic Journal of English Studies vol. 11 n. 2. 2012. 5-35.
- “The Politics of Motherhood in Charlotte Perkins Gilman”. Letterature D’America vol. XXXI n. 134. 2011. pp. 5-21.
- “More for the Fit: Gender and Class in the Representation of Designated Adoption in a Selection of U.S. Television Series”. Nordic Journal of English Studies vol. 9 n. 3. 2010. pp. 173-195.
- “‘Burn, baby, burn!’: Walter Mosley’s Little Scarlet and the Watts Riots.” Riots in Literature. David Bell and Gerald Porter eds. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. pp. 129-150.
- The Feminist Utopian Novels of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Themes of Sexuality, Marriage and Motherhood. Lewiston, N. Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008.
Teaching
At the Department of Languages and Literatures (SPL), I teach primarily courses in literature and cultural studies. I am also involved in several programs, The International Language Program and the Teacher Education Program both at SPL and at the Department for Education and Special Education (IPS) where I teach courses in Children’s literature and Literary history. Together with Sara Ehrling from the Department of Languages and Literatures (Latin), I have also worked on a pedagogical project that aimed to increase pedagogical collaboration across the languages at the Department. This project has resulted in particular in one new in-depth undergraduate course: SPL134 Gender in Literature: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (7.5 HECs). The course is taught in English and offered every term.
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"Why can’t y’all be like Perry Mason?": Black Panther Autobiography Meets Crime
Fiction
Chloé Avril
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2020 -
Foreword to the Special Issue "Literature, Language, and Politics: Essays in Honour of Ronald
Paul"
Chloé Avril
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2020 -
Literature, Language and Politics: Essays in Honour of Ronald
Paul
Chloé Avril, Zlatan Filipovic, Marius Hentea, Houman Sadri, Ulla Åkerström
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2020 -
“I beg your pardon?”: The uses and abuses of language in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the
Day
Chloé Avril
Kawauso: simmandes i språkströmmen. Festskrift till professor Yasuko Nagano-Madsen / Misuzu Shimotori & Fusae Ivarsson (red.) - 2019 -
”Aversion as Diversion: The Politics of Disgust in Cold Spring
Harbor”
Chloé Avril
Richard Yates and the Flawed American Dream : Critical Essays / edited by Jennifer Daly - 2017 -
Nya rasisminstitutet alltför styrt av politiska
agendan
Chloé Avril, Zahra Bayati, Andrea Castro, Yael Feiler, Mia Eriksson, Zlatan Filipovic, Sandra Grehn, Adrián Groglopo, Annica Karlsson Rixon, Patricia Lorenzoni, Mikela Lundahl, Lena Martinsson, Lena S. Sawyer, Therese Svensson, Veronica Svärd, Juan Velasquez, Hanna Wikström
Dagens Nyheter - 2015 -
Nytt centrum mot rasism får fel vetenskaplig
inriktning
Zahra Bayati, Lena S. Sawyer, Therese Svensson, Lena Martinsson, Chloé Avril, Andrea Castro, Mia Eriksson, Yael Feiler, Zlatan Filipovic, Sandra Grehn, Adrián Groglopo, Annica Karlsson Rixon, Patricia Lorenzoni, Mikela Lundahl, Veronica Svärd, Juan Velasquez, Hanna Wikström
Göteborgs Posten - 2015 -
Att samarbeta pedagogiskt över
språkgränserna.
Chloé Avril, Sara Ehrling
2013 -
Race, Gender and Class in the Autobiography of Huey P.
Newton
Chloé Avril
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2012 -
The Politics of Motherhood in Charlotte Perkins
Gilman
Chloé Avril
Letterature D'America - 2011 -
More for the Fit: Gender and Class in the Representation of Designated Adoption in a Selection of U.S. Television
Series
Chloé Avril
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2010 -
Introduction
Chloé Avril
Nordic Journal of English Studies - 2010 -
The portrayal of the 1960s race riots in contemporary U.S. crime
fiction
Chloé Avril
At Home in the World - 2008 -
At Home in the
World
Chloé Avril, Ronald Paul
2008 -
The Feminist Utopian Novels of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Themes of Sexuality, Marriage and
Motherhood
Chloé Avril
2008 -
"Burn, baby burn!": Walter Mosley's Little Scarlet and the Watts
Riots
Chloé Avril
Riots in Literature - 2008 -
The Future of Marriage: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s
Herland
Chloé Avril
Topic: The Wahington and Jefferson College Review - 2007 -
Introducing: Anna
Livia
Chloé Avril
Moderna Språk - 2007 -
"Burn, baby, burn!": Skildringen av rasupploppen i den moderna amerikanska
deckarromanen
Chloé Avril
Humanistdagboken - 2007 -
"Who Should Know but the Woman": Sexuality, Marriage and Motherhood in the Utopian Novels of Charlotte Perkins
Gilman
Chloé Avril
2006 -
[T]oo rigid a restraint": Women and emancipation in Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane
Eyre'.
Chloé Avril
Moderna språk - 2005 -
Gilman and Sexual
Politics
Chloé Avril
The Charlotte Perkins Gilman Newsletter - 2005 -
Sexuality and Power in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s
Herland
Chloé Avril
Moderna Språk - 2004 -
Hur kan den feministiska utopin förändra
verkligheten?
Chloé Avril
Humanistdagboken - 2004 -
Freedom in Death: a Gendered Reading of Seamus Heaney’s Clearances 2, In Memoriam M. K. H.
1911-1984
Chloé Avril
Moderna Språk - 2002 -
Images of Women and Patriarchy in Helen Zahavi’s Dirty
Weekend
Chloé Avril
Moderna Språk - 2002