prof. dr. Odile Heynders

Bio

Bio

Odile Heynders is Professor of Comparative Literature at the Department of Culture Studies of Tilburg University. She was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Sciences (NIAS) in 1998/99 and 2004/05. She published numerous books and articles on European literature and authorship. Her book Writers as Public Intellectuals, Literature, Celebrity, Democracy (2016) appeared at Palgrave McMillan. Her current research (book) projects are on Experiences of Migration in Literature (book contract Cambridge Publishers) and on The Truths of Fiction in Digital Societies. 

Expertise

In my research I examine how literary strategies can be used in the analysis and understanding of current democratic public sphere(s).

My first interest is in how meta-modernism as a reflective genre of literature, offering a political scenario as well as specific literary mechanisms, is effective in digital public spheres and could help comprehending emerging phenomena such as fake news and the play with fabricated identities. 

My second interest is in how author positions develop in digitalised public spheres and how new forms of activism and cultural authority are effective in interventions in political debates.

Teaching

Bachelor Programme: Online Culture

Master track: Art & Media Studies

Honors Programme: The Societal Challenge of Migration

Courses

• Migrant Experiences, Narratives and Fictions
• Experiences of the Sublime
• MA Thesis Art & Media Studies
• The Truth of Fiction
• New Private and Public Spheres
• Urgent Media Topic: Climate Change
• Feminist Artists and Intellectuals in the Public Sphere
• Humanities in the Digital Age

Recent publications

1. Biography as Dialogue? The Case of Hella S. Haasse - Festschrift Lawr…

   Heynders, O. (2022). Biography as Dialogue? The Case of Hella S. Haasse: Festschrift Lawrence J. Friedman. Clio's Psyche.

2. Literaire Fictie in de Democratische Publieke Ruimte

   Heynders, O. (2022). Literaire Fictie in de Democratische Publieke Ruimte. In Diggit Magazine https://www.diggitmagazine.com/articles/literaire-fictie-de-democratische-publieke-ruimte

3. The route from West Africa to Europe, the precariousness of life in M…

   Heynders, O. (2022). The route from West Africa to Europe, the precariousness of life in Marie NDiaye's Three Strong Women. In R. Breeze, S. Gintsburg, & M. Baynham (Eds.), Narrating Migrations from Africa and the Middle East: A Spatio-Temporal Approach (1st ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.

4. Dissensus in Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet

   Heynders, O. (2021). Dissensus in Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet. Frame, 34(1).

5. Julian Barnes' The Man in the Red Coat: Celebrity Culture in the Bell…

   Heynders, O. (2020). Julian Barnes' The Man in the Red Coat: Celebrity Culture in the Belle Epoque [Review of the book The Man in the Red Coat, J. Barnes, 2019]. Diggit Magazine. https://www.diggitmagazine.com/book-reviews/barnes-man-red-coat