Dr David Rudrumd.rudrum@hud.ac.uk | 01484 472683
David Rudrum joined the English team at the University of Huddersfield in the summer of 2006. Previously, he taught at London Metropolitan University, at the University of London (in both Goldsmiths College and Royal Holloway College), and at the Open University. He was awarded his PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London for a study entitled ‘Wittgenstein and the Theory of Narrative.’
David has edited a book of essays entitled Literature and Philosophy: A Guide to Contemporary Debates (Palgrave: 2006), and a dozen or so articles in various scholarly books and journals. His first publication sparked a rather heated controversy with the distinguished narratologist Marie-Laure Ryan (see the journal Narrative, 2005-6). He is also a director of the Elmet Trust, an organisation dedicated to promoting the legacy and preserving the birthplace of the late poet laureate Ted Hughes.
Likes: the prose of Joseph Conrad; the plays of Samuel Beckett; the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein; the taste of a very fine Scotch whisky; the smell of napalm in the morning. Dislikes: Pointless bureaucracy; mushrooms; structuralism; cats.
I've published in a variety of journals, and have presented research papers in Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, and Malaysia. My research interests range across many areas, but most of them can be grouped under the following broad headings:
I'm currently working on a book-length study of the American philosopher Stanley Cavell, focusing on his writings on literature. This takes in a range of topics from Wordsworth to Beckett, from Shakespeare to Poe, and from tragedy to deconstruction (which are more closely linked than you might at first think).
Other work in progress focuses on the common ground between philosophers of the early twentieth century (Nietzsche, Bergson, Husserl, Wittgenstein, Heidegger) and novelists of the same period (Conrad, Joyce, Woolf, Kafka, Mann, Nathanael West, Gide, Celine and others). I'm trying to map out similarities between the ways philosophers conceptualise the idea of the self, and the ways novelists go about representing it.
Rudrum, D (2013) Stanley Cavell and the Claim of Literature . Baltimore, Maryland, USA: John Hopkins University Press .
Rudrum, D (2013) ‘Shooting a Donkey: Accidents and Mistakes in Austin and McEwan’ Philosophy and Literature . ISSN 0190-0013
Rudrum, D (2012) ‘How To Do Things With Wordsworth’. In: Stanley Cavell: Philosophy, Literature and Criticism. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. pp. 166-180. ISBN 978-0-7190-8431-7
Rudrum, D (2012) ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Called Lolita?’. In: Holmfirth Film Festival, 19th-26th May 2012, Holmfirth, UK
Rudrum, D (2011) ‘Homage From Catalonia, or, Why Have We Built No Shrines to Orwell?’. In: George Orwell Festival, ,
Rudrum, D (2011) ‘Greene on Screene’. In: Holmfirth Film Festival, 21st-28th May 2011, Holmfirth, UK
Rudrum, D (2010) ‘The Time of Tragedy: Thinking the Contemporary with Cavell and Agamben’. In: The Time of Tragedy: Thinking the Contemporary with Cavell and Agamben, 22nd October 2010, University of California, Irvine
Rudrum, D (2010) ‘Just an Ordinary American Tragedy: Towards a Cavellian Reading of Death of a Salesman’. In: International American Drama Conference, 29th-30th October 2010, Kean University, New Jersey
Rudrum, D (2010) ‘Alltaegliche Tragoedien: Cavell, Beckett, und die Bedeutung der Bedeutungslosigkeit’. In: Happy Days: Lebenswissen nach Cavell. Munich, Germany: Wilhelm Fink. . ISBN 978-3-7705-4725-8
Rudrum, D (2009) ‘From The Sublime to the Ordinary: Stanley Cavell's Beckett’ Textual Practice , 23 (4), pp. 543-558. ISSN 0950-236X
Rudrum, D (2009) ‘Murder - A Dying Art? Orwell, Chandler, and the Mysterious Death of English Crime Writing’ Southeast Asian Review of English , 49, pp. 15-25.
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘Slouching towards Bethlehem: Yeats, Eliot and the Modernist Apocalypse’. In: Ecstasy and understanding: Religious Awareness in English Poetry from the Late Victorian to the Modern Period. : Continuum. . ISBN 9780826498649
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘Narrativity and performativity: from Cervantes to Star Trek’. In: Theorizing narrativity. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 253-276. ISBN 9783110202441
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘The Mysterious Case of the English Murder: The Britishness of Crime Writing’. In: Britishness, Identity and Citizenship: the View from Abroad Conference, 5th - 6th June 2008, University of Huddersfield
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘From sublime to ordinary: Stanley Cavell's Beckett ’. In: Literature and Philosophy/Philosophy and Literature Inaugural Conference, 12th - 14th June 2008, University of Sussex
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘How to do things with Wordsworth’. In: Stanley Cavell and Literary Criticism Conference, 9th - 11th May 2008, University of Edinburgh
Rudrum, D (2008) ‘Murder - A Dying Art? George Orwell, Raymond Chandler, and the Mysterious Death of English Crime Writing’. In: Crime Cultures: Figuring Criminality in Literature, Media and Film International Conference, 14th - 16th July 2008, University of Portsmouth , pp. 14-15
Rudrum, D (2007) ‘Da Certeza e Doublethink: Orwell e Wittgenstein’ Caleidoscopio: Revista de Communicacao e Cultura , 8 (1), pp. 167-175. ISSN 1645-2585
Rudrum, D (2007) ‘Everyday Tragedies: Cavell, Beckett, and the meaning of meaninglessness’. In: Happy days: self, time and knowledge in the work of Stanley Cavell International Conference, 5th - 7th July 2007, University of Potsdam
Rudrum, D (2006) ‘Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Yeats, Eliot, and the Modernist Apocalypse’. In: English Division's Research Seminar, 4th October 2006, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK
Rudrum, D (2006) ‘On the Very Idea of a Definition of Narrative: A Reply to Marie-Laure Ryan ’ Narrative , 14 (2), pp. 197-204. ISSN 1063-3685
Rudrum, D (2006) ‘Ethics, Justice, Translation: Lyotard on Wittgenstein’. In: Translating Identity and the Identity of Translation. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 132-140. ISBN 9781847180438
Rudrum, D (2005) ‘Living alone: solipsism and Heart of Darkness’ Philosophy and Literature , 29 (2), pp. 409-427. ISSN 0190-0013
Rudrum, D (2005) ‘Silent dialogue: philosophising with Jan Svankmajer’. In: Film as Philosophy. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 114-132. ISBN 9781403949004
Rudrum, D (2005) ‘From narrative representation to narrative use: towards the limits of definition ’ Narrative , 13 (2), pp. 195-204. ISSN 1063-3685
Rudrum, D (2005) ‘What did Cavell want of Poe?’ Angelaki , 10 (3), pp. 91-98. ISSN 0969-725X
Rudrum, D (2002) ‘Narratology’ The literary encyclopedia . ISSN 1747-678X
Rudrum, D (2001) ‘Postmodernity, Ethics and the Novel: From Leavis to Levinas. By Andrew Gibson (book review)’ European journal of English studies , 5 (1), pp. 123-124. ISSN 1382-5577
Rudrum, D (1999) ‘Writing the Image After Roland Barthes. Edited by Jean-Michel Rabate (book review)’ European journal of English studies , 3 (3), pp. 354-356. ISSN 1382-5577
David Rudrum is happy to supervise research students (MA by Research, MPhil, PhD) in any of the following areas:
