Sophie Frazer

My research takes place at the intersection of literature and philosophy, with a keen interest in phenomenology of the body. Under the general aegis of phenomenological studies I work on literature (particularly the nineteenth-century novel) that explores states of heightened or extreme feeling and affect, such as desire, disgust, pain, anxiety and terror. I read literature with an eye to its theoretical and philosophical illuminations. My current book project is a study of the experience of pain in the fiction of George Eliot and Thomas Hardy, read alongside Benedict de Spinoza's theory of the affects. I have an abiding fascination with twentieth-century French phenomenology, especially Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, and Simone de Beauvoir. I welcome PhD proposals on literature of the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the phenomenology of literature, and the novel. If you are interested in research under my supervision, please contact me directly to discuss your proposal. Literature in French, Phenomenology, Literary studies