Linda Grant: An Interview

Writer and journalist Linda Grant was born in Liverpool in 1951.1 The child of Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants, grandchild of Holocaust survivors, she belongs to what might be called the third generation of British-Jewish women authors who, like Jenny Diski and Zina Rohan, among others, “took centre stage” in the British literary panorama during the 1990s (Behlau and Reitz 2004, 12). Linda Grant read English at the University of York, between 1972 and 1975, and continued with MA and postgraduate studies in Canada. She started her career as a journalist when she returned to Britain in 1985 to work for The Guardian. In 2012 she gained an honorary doctorate from the University of York and she currently lives in North London. Her rst publication was a non- ction book on feminism entitled Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution (1993) which analysed the cultural changes brought about by the sexual revolution of the 1970s. From the origins of sexual freedom to the backlash against feminism experienced in the 1990s, this book can be read as an optimistic claim for the sexual empowerment of women in order to achieve equality and independence

Female re-writings of the Jewish diaspora: Metamemory novels and contemporary British-Jewish women writers

In keeping with the interdisciplinary dialogue featuring the fields of Diaspora and Memory Studies, some current fictions seem to have absorbed, reproduced and deconstructed those contemporary discourses that reflect on the complex relation between the individual and collective construction of memory in the diaspora. It is in this context that British-Jewish women authors deserve special attention since they have struggled with numerous memory tensions together with the multifarious identity factors of being Jews, immigrants (or their descendants) and women, adding their multifaceted perspectives on affiliation and belonging to the complexity that defines Jewish identity and culture. This article starts from the neurobiological notion of ʻmetamemoryʼ and the idea that its study leads to understand better both memory and diasporic phenomena. Some contemporary fictional creations by British-Jewish women writers exemplify what could be defined as ʻthe metamemory novelʼ. In particular, I focus on the fictional works of some pertinent second- and third-generation British-Jewish female authors—Lisa Appignanesi's The Memory Man (2004), Linda Grant's The Clothes on their Backs (2008), and Zina Rohan's The Small Book (2010). Following Birgit Neumann's notion of ‘fictions of metamemory’ (2008a, b), I detail the key narrative features that configure these novels, such as polyphony, metafictionality and the blurring of time dimensions. Moreover, I study the generational bonds that are (de)constructed in these stories, thanks to Hirsch's notion of ‘postmemory’ (2008), which acquire healing properties for the protagonists. Finally, I conclude that the formal experimentation identified in these writings may confirm that today's Jewish female writers are resorting to literature as a platform to make their diasporic identities more dynamic

Fragmentation and relationality in Brexit narratives: Linda Grant’s a Stranger City

The main purpose of this article is to explore the ways in which Linda Grant’s A Stranger City can be defined as illustrative of BrexLit. Many literary critics have argued that the majority of works within the genre of BrexLit primarily address this phenomenon from the British perspective, thus portraying its consequences only for the UK (mostly England) and British characters. I contend that A Stranger City is quite different from these works as it is concerned with the manifold experiences of various European citizens set in London against a background of xenophobia, nationalism and political tensions. Drawing on the tools provided by close reading, I will show how A Stranger City shows some narrative devices that characterise those newest fictions defined as fragmented narratives and networked novels in an attempt to identify the tensions between fragmentation and relationality that have been visible at a political and social level in the wake of Brexit. Using recent research in the fields of diaspora and vulnerability studies, I also aim to demonstrate that Brexit acts as the vertebral axis (dis)connecting Grant’s diasporic characters. In the end, I will attempt to show that this aspect seems to evoke a hopeful future in which the fragmented identities of post-Brexit Europeans have the possibility to flow in a more connected way than ever before

Casa de Muñecas: ¿Juguete victoriano o actual?

Henrik Ibsen’s path-breaking play A Doll’s House (1879) has been adapted in many occasions. The filmic version made by David Thacker in 1992 has been one of the most recent and relevant adaptations. The main purpose of this article is in the first place, to show how this film reflects Victorian society as regards women’s situation and family life from a historical perspective. Secondly, I will define and apply the concepts of the private and public spheres to the text from the perspective of materialist feminism. Finally, my intention is to examine how far the events depicted in the film still have significance today and how a text like A Doll’s House can be re-examined from new post-feminist perspectives in order to address contemporary social issues such us women’s situation. La obra de teatro de Henrik Ibsen La Casa de las Muñecas (1879) ha sido adaptada en numerosas ocasiones. Una de lasa versiones fílmicas más recientes e interesantes es la de David Tacker en 1992. El principal objetivo de este artículo es, en primer lugar, mostrar desde una perspectiva histórica cómo esta película reproduce la sociedad Victoriana en cuanto a la situación de las mujeres y la vida familiar de la época. En segundo lugar, definiré y aplicaré al texto los conceptos de las esferas pública y privada desde perspectivas del feminismo materialista. Y finalmente, mi intención es analizar hasta qué punto los acontecimientos reflejados en esta película siguen teniendo vigencia actualmente y observar la manera en la que un texto como La Casa de las Muñecas puede ser adaptado y enfocado desde las nuevas perspectivas post-feministas para tratar temas sociales como la situación de la mujer en el mundo contemporáneo

The ghost language which passes between the generations: transgenerational memories and limit-case narratives in Lisa Appignanesi’s losing the dead and the memory man

This article aims to uncover the tensions and connections between Lisa Appignanesi’s autobiographical work Losing the Dead (1999) and her novel The Memory Man (2004) and to point out that, in spite of belonging to different genres, they share several formal, thematic, and structural features. By applying close-reading and narratological tools and drawing on relevant theories within Trauma, Memory, and Holocaust Studies, I would like to demonstrate that both works can be defined as limit-case narratives on the grounds that they blur literary genres, fuse testimonial and narrative layers, include metatextual references to memory and trauma, and represent and perform the transgenerational encounter with traumatic memories. Moreover, Appignanesi’s creations will be contextualised within the trend of hybrid life-writing narratives developed by contemporary British-Jewish women writers. Accordingly, these authors are contributing to the expansion of innovative liminal autobiographical and fictional practices that try to represent what it means to be a Jew, a migrant, and an inheritor of traumatic experiences in the post-Holocaust world. Finally, I launch a further reflection on the generic hybridisation characterising those contemporary narratives based on the negotiation of transgenerational memories, which will be read as a fruitful strategy to problematize the conflicts created when the representation of the self and (family) trauma overlap

Using Gamification to Teach EFL in the 1st Year of Secondary Education: A Pilot Experience

Este trabajo de final de máster trata la gamificación como metodología para ser incorporada en el aula de inglés como lengua extranjera para mejorar las destrezas lingüísticas de los estudiantes y aumentar su motivación. Para la consecución de los objetivos establecidos en el trabajo, se ha realizado una investigación de las características de la gamificación, los elementos del método de enseñanza comunicativo y del aprendizaje basado en tareas. Previamente a la incorporación práctica de la unidad didáctica que integra los elementos de las metodologías anteriormente mencionadas, se analizan las perspectivas de 15 profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera (en cursos de Secundaria y Bachillerato) y de más de 40 alumnos de estos mismos cursos para tener en cuenta su manera de aprender el inglés. La valoración obtenida de la implementación de la unidad didáctica demuestra la relación entre del uso de la gamificación y las TIC en el ámbito educativo, aunque se debe analizar las posibles limitaciones de esta aplicación.<br /

Literatura y valores en inglés segunda lengua en el aula de educación secundaria: un proyecto literario sobre la violencia de género

This dissertation seeks to demonstrate that the introduction of a literary project focused on the short story genre written by women writers which have as central theme the problem of gender violence can help students in the Bachillerato stage to develop their key competences as well as their communicative competences, as they work on curricular themes and values such as gender violence and equality. I also intend to prove that a project as the one hereby proposed can increase students’s interest in literature and develop their skills for collaborative work. This study has been theoretically based on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Communicative Language Teaching (CLLT), Project-Based Language Learning (PBLL), and more specifically, on the use of Literature in the EFL classroom and Feminist Pedagogy with a focus on Secondary Education. This theoretical basis, as well as the curricula Spanish framework is at the core of a project designed to be implemented with Bachillerato students with the objective of using literature as a vehicle to educate against gender violence. This dissertation demonstrates that the EFL classroom is an adequate scenario for this aim because the communicative nature of the subject allows for development both of students communicative competence and critical thinking and values. The results obtained from the partial implementation of this project with real students reveals that the project proposed could be successfully implemented within the actual curriculum.Keywords: PBLL, literature, gender violence, Feminist Pedagogy<br /

The invisible reality: English teaching materials and the formation of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes (with a focus on primary education)

Gender stereotypes can be defined as those structured sets of beliefs about personal attributes of women and men (Basow, 1992, p.3). They have a great influence over self perspective, the way we interact with each other, and the organization and values of our society. However their effects are usually invisible for people, so a great effort should be made to develop awareness of their influence in the population. The origin of gender stereotypes is rooted in the gender-based division of labour and they arise from a socialization process to which people are exposed since childhood. Thus, school has an essential role to teach gender and sexual equality through the curricula, in all subjects and using teaching materials that are free of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes. The main aim of this study is to examine the influence of English teaching materials in the formation of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes in the context of the Spanish Primary School, mainly focusing on the last stage of Primary Education. This dissertation carries out qualitative and quantitative analysis of three English text books and, the students‟ and teachers‟ perceptions of the stereotypes thanks to an elaboration of a review of key concepts such as gender awareness, stereotypes, sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as, the presentation of various tools to evaluate the sexist content in the textbooks and offer some guide lines to avoid them in the English classroom

Introduction. Contemporary Literature in Times of Crisis and Vulnerability: Trauma, Demise of Sovereignty and Interconnectedness

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have been dominated by multifarious crises that have given way to individual and collective wounds resulting from environmental disasters, exile and migratory movements, war, terrorism, radicalism and other disturbing historical episodes. Our main contention is that trauma and/or excessive exposure to vulnerable situations can be relieved thanks to diverse narrative practices. Accordingly, we explore the field of Trauma Studies since its emergence to its current evolution towards the vulnerability paradigm, examining the different meanings of vulnerability not only from the perspective of the life sciences but also from the social sciences and its application to the humanities. Then, we move on to the notion of resilience and how it can help us articulate and/or move beyond trauma and vulnerability. In keeping with this, considering the ethical and political relationality between the self and other, we highlight one's tendency to be affected by the other''s wounds and vulnerability as well as the inevitability of interdependency and interconnectedness between people and non-human entities. Thus, we explore the role of literature in giving voice to the voiceless and to unheard experiences of suffering as well as in representing the demise of the sovereign self and the rise of human and non-human interconnectedness after being exposed to traumatic or disastrous events, as represented in contemporary literatures in English