Professor David Brauner

Email:
d.brauner@reading.ac.uk
Phone:
+ 44 (0) 118 378 7838
Job title:
Professor of Contemporary Literature

Postgraduate supervision

I am currently supervising PhD projects on the representation of architecture in graphic novels and on contemporary British Muslim women's fiction.

I have successfully supervised PhD dissertations on escapism in contemporary American fiction; on Martin Amis; on representations of Jewish-American lesbian identities in literature and film; and on Lorrie Moore (later published as Understanding Lorrie Moore with University of South Carolina Press, 2009). I have acted as an External Examiner for 22 PhDs.

Teaching

Within the Department I convene the following modules on the BA English Literature programme:

American Graphic Novels
Modern American Culture and Counter-Culture

and the following modules on the MA English Literature:

Contemporary Literature and Ethnicity
Dissertation

I also contribute to the following modules on the BA English Literature programmes:

Writing America: Perspectives on the Nation
Contemporary Fiction
Prose: Writing Identities

Research projects

My main research interests are in the fields of contemporary American fiction and twentieth-century Jewish literature. I also publish on graphic novels, Holocaust fiction, and on the representation of ethnicity, gender and sexuality in the modern novel. I would welcome applications from prospective PhD candidates in any of these areas.

I am currently working on an interdisciplinary monograph on authenticity and confessional culture in post-war America.

Professional bodies/affiliations

Editorial Board, Philip Roth Studies
Editorial Board, European Journal of American Culture
Editorial Board, Humanities
Editorial Advisory Board, Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature

Selected publications

I am the author of four books:

Howard Jacobson (Manchester University Press, 2020)
Contemporary American Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
Philip Roth (Manchester University Press, 2007)
Post-War Jewish Fiction: Ambivalence, Self-Explanation and Transatlantic Connections (Palgrave, 2001)

and the co-editor of:

The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), the recipient of the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries' Judaica Reference Award.