Dirk van Rens
@dirkvanrens.bsky.social
Doctoral Researcher anglophone literature, University of Eastern Finland
New publication: My review of Daphne Lamothe's monograph Black Time and the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects (2023) was published in the latest issue of American Studies in Scandinavia yesterday!
rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/as... (Open Access)
rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/as... (Open Access)
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
lnkd.in
May 28, 2025 at 9:10 AM
New publication: My review of Daphne Lamothe's monograph Black Time and the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects (2023) was published in the latest issue of American Studies in Scandinavia yesterday!
rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/as... (Open Access)
rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/as... (Open Access)
New publication: My novel review of @colsonwhitehead.com's Harlem Shuffle is now out in Transfers!
I focus on how the novel offers a mapping of New York which produces a pertinent interrogation of the way ‘race’ and capital govern space and mobility in the city and beyond.
doi.org/10.3167/TRAN...
I focus on how the novel offers a mapping of New York which produces a pertinent interrogation of the way ‘race’ and capital govern space and mobility in the city and beyond.
doi.org/10.3167/TRAN...
Novel Reviews
David Machado, The Shelf Life of Happiness, trans. Hillary Locke (Seattle: Amazon Crossing, 2016), 236 pp., $14.95 (paperback). Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle (New York: Doubleday, 2021), 336 pp., $...
doi.org
May 9, 2025 at 8:47 AM
New publication: My novel review of @colsonwhitehead.com's Harlem Shuffle is now out in Transfers!
I focus on how the novel offers a mapping of New York which produces a pertinent interrogation of the way ‘race’ and capital govern space and mobility in the city and beyond.
doi.org/10.3167/TRAN...
I focus on how the novel offers a mapping of New York which produces a pertinent interrogation of the way ‘race’ and capital govern space and mobility in the city and beyond.
doi.org/10.3167/TRAN...
"Each time I encounter a meaningful work of art, I feel like I have received an unexpected gift, something to cherish." (Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies, 2016: 293).
May 2, 2025 at 1:47 PM
"Each time I encounter a meaningful work of art, I feel like I have received an unexpected gift, something to cherish." (Viet Thanh Nguyen, Nothing Ever Dies, 2016: 293).
New publication: My paper on Nana Oforiatta Ayim's novel The God Child (2019) was published online in Matatu last week! The article is part of the Special Issue 'Africa in Europe, Europe in Africa’: Transcultural Histories in African Anglophone Literature and Media.
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com
March 17, 2025 at 11:52 AM
New publication: My paper on Nana Oforiatta Ayim's novel The God Child (2019) was published online in Matatu last week! The article is part of the Special Issue 'Africa in Europe, Europe in Africa’: Transcultural Histories in African Anglophone Literature and Media.
brill.com/view/journal...
brill.com/view/journal...
yle.fi/a/74-20134039 Glad to see this issue get some attention, but I don't see anything changing soon. Best bit of the article is the PhD who was finally offered a job--to pick up dog shit. Maybe some will now understand why PhD students are miserable most of the time, esp when closer to graduation
”On aika hurjaa, jos tällä osaamisella ei työllisty” – Elina Ahokangas on tohtori, joka ei löydä töitä
Suomessa on 1 400 työtöntä tohtoria, joista iso siivu pitkäaikaistyöttömiä. Yrityksillä on tarve työntekijätason osaamiselle, ei niinkään tohtoreille, sanoo asiantuntija.
yle.fi
January 7, 2025 at 8:36 AM
yle.fi/a/74-20134039 Glad to see this issue get some attention, but I don't see anything changing soon. Best bit of the article is the PhD who was finally offered a job--to pick up dog shit. Maybe some will now understand why PhD students are miserable most of the time, esp when closer to graduation
New publication: My article on Michael Ondaatje's Warlight (2018) is now out (open access) in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction!
👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
“When He Comes, He Will Be Like an Englishman”: Space, Spy Fiction, and Englishness in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight
This paper examines the appropriation of the spy fiction genre in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight by means of a spatial approach. By adopting and at times subverting spy fiction tropes, Ondaatje’s nove...
www.tandfonline.com
December 9, 2024 at 11:47 AM
New publication: My article on Michael Ondaatje's Warlight (2018) is now out (open access) in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction!
👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Arrived in Helsinki for the biennial Maple Leaf & Eagle conference. On Fri I’ll be discussing the intersection of crime, mapping the city, and postcolonial trauma in @colson.bsky.social’s Harlem Shuffle. Had to drop Crook Manifesto because Harlem Shuffle already was chock-full of great bits.
May 15, 2024 at 8:28 PM
Arrived in Helsinki for the biennial Maple Leaf & Eagle conference. On Fri I’ll be discussing the intersection of crime, mapping the city, and postcolonial trauma in @colson.bsky.social’s Harlem Shuffle. Had to drop Crook Manifesto because Harlem Shuffle already was chock-full of great bits.
"Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. [He listens.] But habit is a great deadener.
April 16, 2024 at 12:10 PM
"Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave-digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. [He listens.] But habit is a great deadener.
”’Did you see the cross burning last night?’ [sheriff Jetty] asked.
’That was a cross?’ Jim shook his head. ’I didn’t know what that was. I thought it was a car fire or something.’ …
’You mean like a KKK cross burning?’
The sheriff nodded.
’I wish I had known,’ Jim said. ’I forgot to be scared.”
’That was a cross?’ Jim shook his head. ’I didn’t know what that was. I thought it was a car fire or something.’ …
’You mean like a KKK cross burning?’
The sheriff nodded.
’I wish I had known,’ Jim said. ’I forgot to be scared.”
March 16, 2024 at 11:33 AM
”’Did you see the cross burning last night?’ [sheriff Jetty] asked.
’That was a cross?’ Jim shook his head. ’I didn’t know what that was. I thought it was a car fire or something.’ …
’You mean like a KKK cross burning?’
The sheriff nodded.
’I wish I had known,’ Jim said. ’I forgot to be scared.”
’That was a cross?’ Jim shook his head. ’I didn’t know what that was. I thought it was a car fire or something.’ …
’You mean like a KKK cross burning?’
The sheriff nodded.
’I wish I had known,’ Jim said. ’I forgot to be scared.”