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Niall Geraghty

Research

Niall’s doctoral research focused on developing the common political and philosophical potential of works by the Argentine authors César Aira, Marcelo Cohen and Ricardo Piglia. Specifically, the thesis explored the intersections between literature, politics and philosophy in the work of each author and argued that together they provide a common analysis of Argentine politics in the latter half of the twentieth century. Although each author writes in a highly unique style and engages very different literary forms and genres, by considering their work collectively, and in the light of work by such thinkers as Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, Michel Foucault and Jean Baudrillard, the thesis argued that they develop a common analysis of both the changing nature of power relations and of resistance in Argentina over this period.

Niall’s research interests include investigating the intersections between critical theory, philosophy and politics within contemporary Latin American cultural production and the development of liberation theology in Latin America. Prior to commencing postgraduate study, Niall completed a degree in English Literature and Spanish at the University of Glasgow, lived and worked in Chimbote, Perú and worked with vulnerable and socially excluded young people in Glasgow.

Conference Papers and Presentations

  • ‘“Is There Any Thing Whereof it May be Said, See, This is New?” (In)discipline, Repetition and Difference in Two Works by Marcelo Cohen’ (Cambridge, Postgraduate Seminar, March 2013)
  • ‘Transposing the Past to Confront a Contemporary Crisis in César Aira’s La prueba’ (Liverpool, PILAS Conference, June 2013)
  • ‘Violent Reverberations: The Politics of History in César Aira’s Ema, la cautiva’ (Cambridge, History Department: Violence and Conflict Workshop, October 2013)
  • ‘For Whom is the Amusement Park Amusing? Control and Resistance in Marcelo Cohen’s El oído absoluto’ (Cambridge, PhD Research Day, January 2014)
  • ‘From Sovereign Indiscipline to Control: Marcelo Cohen’s ‘La ilusión monarca’ as a Transitional Text’ (London, Radical Americas Symposium, June 2014)

Publications

‘Ema is by Nature a Political Animal: Politics and Capitalism in César Aira’s Ema, la cautiva’, Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 2014 Vol. 23, No. 1, 33–50

View this article in full here.

Teaching

Niall supervised undergraduate students on contemporary Latin American culture, on translation and additional grammar supervision for Robinson College and supervised an undergraduate dissertation on the work of Colombian artist Doris Salcedo.