Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Netherlands
fellow
Oksana Starshova
2022-2023
Home institution
Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University in Mykolaiv
Country of origin (home institution)
Ukraine
Discipline(s)
Cultural studies
Literature
Theme(s)
Cities & States
Identity
Migration
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Oksana is a Safe Haven Fellow at NIAS during 2022-2023.
"Before the war in Ukraine I was teaching English and Literature at Petro Mohyla Black Sea University in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. I hold a PhD from Shevchenko Institute of Literature at National academy of sciences, Ukraine since 2008. In my PhD thesis I discussed the problem of the author in John Barth's works. I've been involved in several border studies projects hel together with the University of Saarland in Saarbrucken."
Research Project
Real and Imagined Spaces of New York in Migration Literature
The project focuses on the migration literature set in New York in the last two decades. What image of the city appears as a result of the fusion of the physical places and their myths created in a migrant's mind? Which places become meaningful for a human in transition between cultures, locations, and languages? What are their fictional representations?
New York is a very specific city that creates its own unique ambiance and at the same time relates to the whole of American culture and history. It is the entry point, the crossroads of civilizations, the open city, the embodiment of the American dream, the city of riches and the city of poverty. Any newcomer has to finds the own place here, however this search bears on the reality of the everyday life as well as on the myths and stereotypes created by various media. In this project I am going to explore the new mythology born by the migrant’s perspective and the modes of its representation in migration narratives.
Research Interests:
Migration narratives and urban space; Literary representations of place and belonging; Cultural mythology and displacement