Dr Alison Gibbons BA (Hons), MA, PGcertHE, PhD
Reader in Contemporary Stylistics
Summary
Alison’s research explores contemporary, innovative forms of fiction through the lens of cognitive stylistics/poetics and cognitive narratology. This sometimes also includes undertaking empirical reception research, with response data from real-readers or participants. Alison’s current research is split between two larger projects: (1) mapping the forms of contemporary autofiction and its reading experience, including developing a cognitive account of fictionality; (2) charting the stylistic and narratological strategies as well as the literary tropes and thematic resonances of contemporary metamodernist fiction, including autofiction and Anthropocene fiction. In connection with this latter project, Alison is also interested in how global literature (such as Arab Spring Fiction) might contribute to our critical understanding of metamodernism as a cultural paradigm.
About
Alison is the author of Multimodality, Cognition, and Experimental Literature (Routledge 2012, pbk 2014, Chinese Trans. forthcoming) and editor of Mark Z. Danielewski (Manchester University Press 2011, pbk 2015; with Joe Bray), the Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature (Routledge 2012, pbk 2014; with Joe Bray and Brian McHale), Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism (Rowman & Littlefield International 2017; with Robin van den Akker and Timotheus Vermeulen), Pronouns in Literature: Perspectives and Positions in Language (Palgrave 2018; with Andrea Macrae), and Style and Response: Minds, Media, Methods (John Benjamins 2021; with Alice Bell, Sam Browse, and David Peplow). She has also published widely in edited collections and peer-reviewed journals including Ariel, Contemporary Fiction, Critique, Multimodal Communication, Narrative, and Narrative Inquiry, amongst others.
Specialist areas of interest
Contemporary Fiction
Autofiction
Fictionality
Metamodernism and Metamodernist Fiction
Anthropocene Fiction
Arab Spring Fiction
Cognitive Stylistics, Cognitive Poetics and Cognitive Narratology
Teaching
Department of Humanities
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Subject area
English
Courses
- BA English
- BA English Language
- BA English Literature
Modules
I teach across linguistics, stylistics, literature, and creative writing on the following modules, including:
Contemporary Fiction; Experimental Writing; Dissertation; Language, Learning, and Wellbeing; Reading and the Mind; Rethinking Language; Style and interpretation.
香蕉视频
Alison is currently writing a monograph, titled Reading Contemporary Autofiction: A Cognitive Stylistics of Fictionality (for John Benjamins). She is also currently working on two editorial projects: Reading the Contemporary Author: Narrative, Authority, Fictionality (for Ohio State University Press; with Elizabeth King), and Fictionality and Multimodal Narratives (for University of Nebraska Press; with Torsa Ghosal).
Publications
Journal articles
Gibbons, A. (2023). . Journal of Literary Semantics, 52 (1).
Gibbons, A. (2022). . American Book Review, 43 (2), 32-36.
Gibbons, A. (2022). . English Studies: a journal of English language and literature.
Gibbons, A. (2021). . Style (DeKalb), 55 (3), 406-429.
Gibbons, A., & Whiteley, S. (2021). . Language and Literature, 30 (2), 105-126.
Gibbons, A. (2020). Rev. of Autofiction in English. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 35 (3), 793-796.
Gibbons, A. (2020). . Critique - Studies in Contemporary Fiction.
Gibbons, A. (2019). . Narrative Inquiry, 29 (2), 391-417.
Browse, S., Gibbons, A., & Hatavara, M. (2019). . Narrative Inquiry, 29 (2), 245-267.
Gibbons, A., Vermeulen, T., & van den Akker, R. (2019). . European Journal of English Studies, 23 (2), 172-189.
Gibbons, A. (2019). . Journal of Language and Discrimination.
Gibbons, A. (2019). . a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 34 (2), 316-324.
(2019). Rev. of The Phenomenology of Autobiography: Making It Real. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 34 (2), 360-364.
Gibbons, A. (2019). Book Review: Jane Lugea, World Building in Spanish and English Spoken Narratives. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 28 (1), 99-102.
Gibbons, A. (2018). Was Kommt Nach Der Postmoderne? [What comes after Postmodernity?]. evolve, 17, 67.
Gibbons, A. (2018). . Textual practice, 33 (2), 280-299.
Gibbons, A. (2017). . Narrative, 25 (3), 321-341.
Gibbons, A. (2017). Postmodernism is dead. What comes next?: Considering the new cultural paradigm and its renewed interest in truth and realism. TLS - The Times Literary Supplement.
Gibbons, A. (2016). The Mobile Story: Narrative Practices with Locative Media (edited by James Farman). Gramma: Journal of Theory and Criticism, 23, 167-168.
Gibbons, A. (2016). . .
Gibbons, A. (2016). 'I haven't seen you since (a specific date, a time, the weather)': Global identity and the reinscription of subjectivity in Brian Castro's Shanghai Dancing. Ariel : A Review of International English Literature, 47 (1-2), 223-251.
Gibbons, A. (2016). . Multimodal communication, 5 (1), 15-29.
Gibbons, A. (2015). . Contemporary Literature, 55 (4), 611-634.
Gibbons, A. (2015). Moral Obligations. American Book Review, 37 (1), 21-22.
Gibbons, A. (2015). Eyes of the World. American Book Review, 36 (5), 11-12.
Gibbons, A. (2015). 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how quickly your life can change鈥. Notes on Metamodernism.
Gibbons, A. (2014). . The blue notebook: Journal for artists鈥 books, 8 (2), 6-13.
Gibbons, A. (2014). An Interview with Adam Thirlwell. Contemporary Literature, 55 (4), 610-634.
Gibbons, A. (2014). 鈥淚 agree to this鈥: Third Angel and the Price of Fame. Notes on Metamodernism.
Gibbons, A. (2013). THE FIFTY YEAR SWORD. AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW, 34 (5), 17-18.
Gibbons, A. (2013). Multimodal metaphors in contemporary experimental literature. Metaphor and the Social World, 3 (2), 180-198.
Gibbons, A. (2013). A Tale for the Time Being. Notes on Metamodernism.
Gibbons, A. (2013). Sewing, Stabbing, and Semantics. American Book Review, 34 (5), 17-18.
Gibbons, A. (2013). Profit over History. American Book Review, 34 (4), 11.
Gibbons, A. (2012). . Electronic book review.
Gibbons, A. (2011). Book Review: Multimodal Metaphor by Charles J. Forceville and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds), 2009. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Applications of Cognitive Linguistics), pp. 470. ISBN 978 3 11 020515 2 (hbk). Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 20 (1), 78-81.
Gibbons, A. (2008). . Hermes journal of language and communication in business, 41, 107-124.
Book chapters
Gibbons, A. (2023). 鈥淚 wanted to be present to hear her last words鈥: A Cognitive Approach to Multimodal Autobiographical Elegy. In Gibbons, A., & King, E. (Eds.) Reading the Contemporary Author: Narrative, Authority, Fictionality. University of Nebraska Press:
Gibbons, A. (2023). 鈥淚 wanted to be present to hear her last words鈥: A Cognitive Approach to Multimodal Autobiographical Elegy. In Gibbons, A., & King, E. (Eds.) Reading the Contemporary Author: Narrative, Authority, Fictionality. University of Nebraska Press:
Gibbons, A. (2023). Fictionality and Multimodal Anthropocene Fiction. In Gibbons, A., & Ghosal, T. (Eds.) Fictionality and Multimodal Narratives. University of Nebraska Press:
Gibbons, A. (2023). Fictionality and Multimodal Anthropocene Fiction. In Gibbons, A., & Ghosal, T. (Eds.) Fictionality and Multimodal Narratives. University of Nebraska Press:
Ivansson, E., & Gibbons, A. (2023). Important Artifacts and Literary Media in Archival Autofiction. In The Routledge Companion to Literary Media. (pp. 99-110). Routledge:
Gibbons, A. (2022). Reading Celebrity Autofiction. In The Routledge Companion to Narrative Theory. (pp. 313-326). Routledge:
Gibbons, A. (2022). Ben Lerner. In O'Donnell, P., Burn, S.J., & Larkin, L. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Fiction. Wiley-Blackwell
Effe, A., & Gibbons, A. (2022). . In Effe, A., & Lawlor, H. (Eds.) The Autofictional. Approaches, Affordances, Forms. (pp. 61-81). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan:
Gibbons, A., Vermeulen, T., & van den Akker, R. (2021). Reality Beckons: Metamodernist Depthiness beyond Panfictionality. In Bell, A., & Alber, J. (Eds.) Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Narratives. (pp. 52-69). Routledge
Bell, A., Browse, S., Gibbons, A., & Peplow, D. (2021). Responding to Style. In Style and Reader Response: Minds, Media, Methods. (pp. 1-20). John Benjamins:
Gibbons, A. (2021). . In Gibbons, A., Bell, A., Peplow, D., & Browse, S. (Eds.) Style and Reader Response: Minds, media, methods. (pp. 101-121). John Benjamins:
Gibbons, A. (2021). . In Gibbons, A., Bell, A., Peplow, D., & Browse, S. (Eds.) Style and Reader Response: Minds, media, methods. (pp. 101-121). John Benjamins:
Gibbons, A. (2019). Remediation, Oral Storytelling, and the Printed Book: The Stylistic Strategies of Mark Z. Danielewski鈥檚 The Fifty Year Sword. In New Directions in Book History. (pp. 179-202). Springer International Publishing:
Gibbons, A. (2019). Fragments of a Postscript. In Dr膮g, W., & Guignery, V. (Eds.) The Poetics of Fragmentation in Contemporary British and American Fiction. (pp. 197-207). Vernon Press
Akker, R.V.D., Gibbons, A., & Vermeulen, T. (2019). Metamodernism: Period, Structure of Feeling, and Cultural Logic 鈥 A Case Study of Contemporary Autofiction. In New Directions in Philosophy and Literature. (pp. 41-54).
Gibbons, A., & Macrae, A. (2018). Positions and Perspectives on Pronouns in Literature: The State of the Subject. In Pronouns in Literature. (pp. 1-14). Palgrave Macmillan UK:
Gibbons, A. (2018). 鈥淭ake that you intellectuals鈥 and 鈥淜aPOW!鈥: Adam Thirlwell and the Metamodernist Future of Style鈥. In Fjellestad, D., & Watson, D. (Eds.) The Futures of the Present: New Directions in (American) Literature. (pp. 29-43). Routledge
Gibbons, A. (2018). . In Gibbons, A., & Macrae, A. (Eds.) Pronouns in literature: Positions and perspectives in language. (pp. 75-96). Palgrave Macmillan:
Gibbons, A. (2018). . In Gibbons, A., & Macrae, A. (Eds.) Pronouns in literature: Positions and perspectives in language. (pp. 75-96). Palgrave Macmillan:
Gibbons, A. (2017). . In Van Den Akker, R., Gibbons, A., & Vermeuleun, T. (Eds.) Metamodernism: Historicity, affect, and depth after postmodernism. (pp. 117-130). London: Rowman & Littlefield International:
Gibbons, A. (2017). . In Van Den Akker, R., Gibbons, A., & Vermeulen, T. (Eds.) Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism. (pp. 83-86). London: Rowman & Littlefield International:
Gibbons, A. (2017). . In Van Den Akker, R., Gibbons, A., & Vermeulen, T. (Eds.) Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect, and Depth after Postmodernism. (pp. 83-86). London: Rowman & Littlefield International:
Gibbons, A. (2017). . In Van Den Akker, R., Gibbons, A., & Vermeuleun, T. (Eds.) Metamodernism: Historicity, affect, and depth after postmodernism. (pp. 117-130). London: Rowman & Littlefield International:
Gibbons, A. (2016). . In Gavins, J., & Lahey, E. (Eds.) World building: Discourse in the mind. (pp. 71-89). Bloomsbury academic:
Gibbons, A. (2015). . In Jones, R.H. (Ed.) Routledge handbook of language and creativity. (pp. 293-306). Abingdon: Routledge:
Bray, J., & Gibbons, A. (2015). Introduction. In Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 1-14). Manchester University Press:
Gibbons, A. (2014). . In Norris, S., & Maier, C.D. (Eds.) Interactions, images, and texts: A reader in multimodality. (pp. 371-380). Boston: De Gruyter Mouton:
Gibbons, A. (2014). Fictionality and ontology. In The Cambridge Handbook of Stylistics. (pp. 408-423). Cambridge University Press:
Gibbons, A. (2012). . In Pohlmann, S. (Ed.) Revolutionary leaves: The fiction of Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 167-182). Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
(2012). Altermodernist fiction. In The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. (pp. 254-268). Routledge:
(2012). Multimodal literature and experimentation. In The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. (pp. 436-450). Routledge:
(2012). Introduction. In The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. (pp. 17-34). Routledge:
Gibbons, A. (2011). . In Bray, J., & Gibbons, A. (Eds.) Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 17-32). Manchester University Press:
Gibbons, A. (2011). . In Bray, J., & Gibbons, A. (Eds.) Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 17-32). Manchester University Press:
Gibbons, A., & Bray, J. (2011). Introduction. In Gibbons, A., & Bray, J. (Eds.) Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 1-13). Manchester University Press
Gibbons, A., & Bray, J. (2011). Introduction. In Gibbons, A., & Bray, J. (Eds.) Mark Z. Danielewski. (pp. 1-13). Manchester University Press
Gibbons, A. (2010). . In Grishakova, M., & Ryan, M.-.L. (Eds.) Intermediality and Storytelling. (pp. 285-311). De Gruyter:
(n.d.). New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. Routledge:
Books
Gibbons, A., & King, E. (Eds.). (2023). Reading the Contemporary Author: Narrative, Authority, Fictionality. University of Nebraska Press.
Gibbons, A., & Ghosal, T. (Eds.). (2023). Fictionality and Multimodal Narratives. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Gibbons, A., van den Akker, R., & Vermeulen, T. (Eds.). (2021). Metamodernizm: Postmodernizm Sonras谋 Tarihsellik, Duyu艧sall谋k ve Derinlik [Turkish Translation of Metamodernism: Historicity, Depth and Affect after Postmodernism]. (Turkish Translation). T眉n Kitap Books.
Bell, A., Browse, S., Gibbons, A., & Peplow, D. (Eds.). (2021). Style and Reader Response: Minds, Media, Methods. John Benjamins.
Browse, S., Gibbons, A., & Hatavara, M. (2019). Special Issue: Real Fictions Fictionnality, Factuality and Narrative Strategies in Contemporary Storytelling.
Gibbons, A., & Whiteley, S. (2018). . Edinburgh University Press.
Gibbons, A., & Macrae, A. (Eds.). (2018). . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gibbons, A., & Macrae, A. (Eds.). (2018). . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Van Den Akker, R., Gibbons, A., & Vermeulen, T. (Eds.). (2017). . London: Rowman and Littlefield.
Bray, J., Gibbons, A., & McHale, B. (Eds.). (2012). . Oxon: Routledge.
Bray, J., Gibbons, A., & McHale, B. (Eds.). (2012). . Oxon: Routledge.
Bray, J., & Gibbons, A. (Eds.). (2011). . Manchester University Press.
Bray, J., & Gibbons, A. (Eds.). (2011). . Manchester University Press.
Gibbons, A. (n.d.). Multimodality, Cognition, and Experimental Literature. Routledge.
Theses / Dissertations
Ivansson, E.A.C. (2023). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Gibbons, A., Bell, A., & Peplow, D.
Other activities
External Examining: Teaching Programmes
2018-2021: BA in English Language and Literature, British University of Egypt (BUE) in Cairo [validated by London South Bank University (LSBU)]
2013-2017: External Examiner for the MA in English Studies (online), University of Sheffield.
External Board Positions
2019: Poetics And Linguistics Association (PALA) Ambassador for the Société de Stylistique Anglaise.
2011-2017: Secretary, International Association of Literary Semantics.
Postgraduate supervision
I am currently supervising three PhD projects, which have the following working titles:
The Archival Turn in Multimodal and Electronic Literature
A Text-Worlds Exploration of Therapeutic Group Reading Interventions for Children's Social and Emotional Development
A Schematic Analysis of Emoji Usage in Digital Discourse
PhD projects that I have supervised to completion are:
Reading Technologies, Literary Innovation, and a New Fiction
Media
Alison’s research focuses on contemporary narrative experiences, both in terms of form and content. She is interested in the composition of contemporary texts, such as the way in which they are written, the potential combination of word and image, and the medium through which they are delivered. As a result, Alison is an expert on contemporary autofiction (which blurs the boundaries between autobiography and fiction), visual fiction, and other innovative narrative forms such as mobile narratives and immersive theatre. Connected to this, Alison researches how readers and users process and engage with these contemporary forms of fiction. Alison is also interested in how we define the contemporary moment as a cultural sensibility beyond the postmodern (e.g. metamodernism).