To imagine

My research centers on narrative in 20th-century and contemporary English literature.

I focus specifically on what kind of communication occurs between the narrator and the listener—the ‘I’ telling the story and the ‘you’ listening—and how this unique relationship shapes and changes the entire narrative.

Of course, not every story features a clear ‘you’ listener. Sometimes, the narrator never addresses anyone. Other times, the address is clearly directed at a specific person. The narrator might suddenly reveal a hidden desire for an audience.

A narrator has something to tell. However, as we know from our own lives, we cannot always properly express our deepest experiences, emotions, and feelings.

I believe that the unspoken, unorganized feelings, those things that cannot be clearly communicated in a polished sentence, wait to be imagined and realized within that very relationship: the unique communication that happens when a narrator tells a story "to someone."