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Violeta Sotirova

Associate Professor in Stylistics, Faculty of Arts

Contact

Biography

My research focuses on the representation of narrative consciousness. I have published a book on D.H. Lawrence and Narrative Viewpoint and a book on Consciousness in Modernist Fiction, as well as articles and book chapters on narrative viewpoint and the linguistic representation of consciousness. I edited the Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics and I am Assistant Editor of the international journal of the Poetics and Linguistics Association - Language and Literature. I am also interested in the historical development of narrative style and in the process of authorial revisions as evidence of authorial intention.

Expertise Summary

BA (Sofia, Uppsala, Hull), MPhil (Cantab), PhD (Manchester) Areas of expertise - stylistics, narrative theory, discourse analysis, critical theory, history of the novel.

Teaching Summary

At UG level I teach Literary Stylistics; at MA level I teach Narratology and Consciousness in Fiction. I also teach Literary Linguistics and Narratology on the Distance Learning MA Programmes.

Research Summary

My research focuses on the presentation of narrative consciousness. I have published a book on D.H. Lawrence's stylistic techniques which redefines the study of point of view by showing that… read more

Recent Publications

  • 2024. Language and Style. In: The Bloomsbury Handbook to D.H. Lawrence Bloomsbury. 2650290
  • 2022. 'Pedagogical Stylistics and the Integration of Linguistic and Literary Criticism. In: Pedagogical Stylistics in the 21st Century Palgrave Macmillan. 31-53
  • 2020. The Status of the Narrator in Modernist Fiction Journal of Literary Semantics. 49(2), 75-97
  • 2019. ‘Petersburg and the Problem of Consciousness in Modernist Fiction’. In: A Reader's Guide to Andrei Bely's Petersburg University of Wisconsin Press. 287-309

Current Research

My research focuses on the presentation of narrative consciousness. I have published a book on D.H. Lawrence's stylistic techniques which redefines the study of point of view by showing that narrative consciousness is interactive. My second book on consciousness in Modernist Fiction explores the dialogic presentation of consciousness in D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, arguing that these three major Modernist authors respond stylistically to the crisis of knowledge in the early twentieth century. I have published articles and book chapters on the linguistic mechanics of narrative viewpoint and on the development of Lawrence's and Woolf's style. I edited The Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics and I co-edited Linguistics and Literary History for the John Benjamins series Linguistic Approaches to Literature. I am Assistant editor of the international journal of the Poetics and Linguistics Association - Language and Literature, and I am a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Literary Semantics. I am also interested in the historical development of literary style, free indirect style and in the process of authorial revisions as evidence of authorial intention. My most recent publication - an article in the Journal of Literary Semantics - explores the positioning of the narrator in Modernist fiction. I am currently working on a monograph on The Language of Modernism.

Past Research

My research so far has focused on the presentation of narrative viewpoint in fiction. In particular, I have worked on the stylistic practice of viewpoint presentation in D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. I approach the analysis of narrative perspective in a discourse framework which allows me to draw parallels between shifts in perspective and some everyday conversational practices. I have also studied empirically real readers' responses to narrative point of view.

Future Research

My future research plans include the investigation of the historical development of free indirect style, a technique used for the presentation of narrative consciousness and the assessment of authorial revisions in D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

  • 2024. Language and Style. In: The Bloomsbury Handbook to D.H. Lawrence Bloomsbury. 2650290
  • 2022. 'Pedagogical Stylistics and the Integration of Linguistic and Literary Criticism. In: Pedagogical Stylistics in the 21st Century Palgrave Macmillan. 31-53
  • 2020. The Status of the Narrator in Modernist Fiction Journal of Literary Semantics. 49(2), 75-97
  • 2019. ‘Petersburg and the Problem of Consciousness in Modernist Fiction’. In: A Reader's Guide to Andrei Bely's Petersburg University of Wisconsin Press. 287-309
  • AUER, A., GONSALEZ-DIAZ, V., HODSON, J. and SOTIROVA, V., eds., 2016. Linguistics and Literary History: In Honour of Sylvia Adamson John Benjamins.
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2016. Dismantling Narrative Modes: Authorial Revisions in the Opening of Mrs Dalloway. In: AUER, A., GONSALEZ-DIAZ, V., HODSON, J. and SOTIROVA, V., eds., Linguistics and Literary History 25. John Benjamins. 171-194
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2016. Empirical Stylistics as a Learning and Research Tool in the Study of Narrative Viewpoint. In: BURKE, M., ZYNGIER, S. and FIALHO, O., eds., Scientific Approaches to Literature in Learning Environments 24. John Benjamins. 227-252
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2015. Introduction: The Discipline of Stylistics. In: SOTIROVA, V., ed., The Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics Bloomsbury. 1-18
  • SOTIROVA, V., ed., 2015. The Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics Bloomsbury.
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2015. The Enactment of Feeling: A Stylistic Analysis of Love Scenes in The Rainbow The D.H. Lawrence Review. 79-96
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2014. Production and Intentionality. In: STOCKWELL, P. and WHITELEY, S., eds., Handbook of Stylistics Cambridge University Press. 132-148
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2013. Consciousness in modernist fiction: a stylistic study Palgrave Macmillan.
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2011. D.H. Lawrence and narrative viewpoint Continuum.
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2010. The roots of a literary style: Joyce's presentation of consciousness in Ulysses Language and Literature. 19(2), 131-149
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2009. A comparative analysis of indices of narrative point of view in Bulgarian and English. In: HÜHN, P., SCHMID, W. and SCHÖNERT, J., eds., Point of view, perspective, and focalization: modeling mediation in narrative Walter de Gruyter. 163-182
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2007. Shifts in Point of View: From Paul Morel to Sons and Lovers Etudes Lawrenciennes. 37, 143-165
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2007. Biblical Language and Patterns of Orality in D.H. Lawrence Etudes Lawrenciennes: The Bible Revisited. 35, 157-176
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2007. Woolf's Experiments with Consciousness in Fiction. In: LAMBROU, M. and STOCKWELL, P., eds., Contemporary Stylistics Continuum. 7-18
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2007. Historical Transformations of Free Indirect Style. In: HOOVER, D. and LATTIG, S., eds., Stylistics: Prospect and Retrospect 3. Rodopi. 129-142
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2006. Charting stylistic change: D. H. Lawrence's handling of point of view English Studies. 87(4), 466-489
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2006. Reader responses to narrative point of view Poetics. 34(2), 108-133
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2005. Repetition in Free Indirect Style: a dialogue of minds? Style. 39(2), 123-136
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2004. Connectives in free indirect style: continuity or shift? Language and Literature. 13(3), 216-234
  • SOTIROVA, V., 2002. In: Textual Secrets: The Message of the Medium. Proceedings of the 21st PALA Conference.

School of English

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The University of Nottingham
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telephone: +44 (0) 115 951 5900
email: english-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk