Alice SundmanPostdoc
About me
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of English, Stockholm University. I received my PhD in English literature from Stockholm University in 2020, and I also hold an MA in Literature and Philosophy from University of Sussex, UK. My research interests include ecocriticism, place and space studies, Toni Morrison, genetic criticism, and the intersections between literature and philosophy.
My current research project explores the portrayal of intermediate places of water and land in literature written in periods leading up to what is now discussed in terms of the Anthropocene. I am particularly interested in human orientations to place in terms of seeing, attention, being moved, and ethical responsibility towards place.
My monograph Toni Morrison and the Writing of Place (Routledge, 2022), which is based on my PhD thesis, explores the creation and presentation of Morrison’s literary places. As one of the first studies analysing Morrison’s archived manuscripts, it investigates the author’s process of writing in conjunction with her textual choices and writerly strategies as presented in her published texts. Focusing primarily on the novels Beloved (1987), Paradise (1997), and A Mercy (2008), the book illuminates the manifold ways in which Morrison’s fictional places are formed as text.
Publications
A selection from Stockholm University publication database
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Toni Morrison and the Writing of Place
2022. Alice Sundman.
BookRead more about Toni Morrison and the Writing of PlaceHow does Toni Morrison create and form her literary places? As one of the first studies exploring Morrison’s archived drafts, notes, and manuscripts together with her published novels, this book offers fresh insights into her creative processes. It analyses the author’s textual choices, her writerly strategies, and her process of writing, all combining in shaping her literary places.
In a methodology combining close reading and genetic criticism, the book examines Morrison’s writing—her drafting and crafting—of her fictional places. Focusing primarily on the novels Beloved (1987), Paradise (1997), and A Mercy (2008), it analyses particular instances of written places, illuminating the manifold ways in which they are formed as text, and showing the centrality of the ideas of joining in Beloved, transformation in Paradise, and articulation in A Mercy.
Toni Morrison is a major literary figure in contemporary literature, and is commonly considered one of the most influential American writers of the post-1960s era. Investigating the conjunction of her texts and manuscripts, this book continues, extends, and supplements the rich body of Morrison scholarship by illuminating how the genesis and formation of her multifaceted literary places constitute vital parts of her fictional writing.
Show all publications by Alice Sundman at Stockholm University