Jago Morrison

Jago Morrison is a specialist in contemporary literature. His key areas of expertise are:

· Postcolonial writing in English, with a special interest in Chinua Achebe
· Contemporary women’s writing
· Literary approaches to ageing

Jago welcomes expressions of interest from research students interested in studying to MPhil and PhD level in his specialist areas, including from candidates wishing to pursue critical/creative research projects.
Jago is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Peer Reviewer and represents Brunel at the Council for College and University English (CCUE).

Research Overview

Jago’s five books reflect the breadth of his research interests:
 
Contemporary Fiction (Routledge, 2003) was a pioneer among the ‘new school’ approaches to contemporary writing. Exploring nine major international writers, it draws out a number of common themes and concerns ranging from the crisis of historical representation, through the changing nature of ‘race’ discourse to literary deconstructions of gender and the body.
 
Scandalous Fictions (ed. with Susan Watkins, Palgrave 2006) re-examines ten iconic twentieth century texts, exploring their problematic, often scandalous relationship to the public sphere. Three were the subject of famous trials for obscenity, others were accused of being blasphemous, libellous, even racist. Challenging the critical consensus, the book asks readers to think afresh about the twentieth century novel as a tradition of transgression, always caught between licence and licentiousness, erudition and sedition.
 
The Fiction of Chinua Achebe (Palgrave, 2007) is the most wide-ranging guide to the field of Achebe studies available, exploring all of the major debates surrounding the ‘Godfather of African writing’ and including important Nigerian scholarship that is little known or inaccessible.
 
The Post-War British Literature Handbook (ed. With Katharine Cockin, Continuum, 2010) is a book for students, introducing the (sometimes dauntingly complex) field of contemporary criticism in a user-friendly way. The book includes sample readings of key texts, keynote chapters by influential critics and overviews of all the major critical approaches.
 
Coming of Age (with Bazalgette, Holden, Tew & Hubble, Demos, 2011) is an innovative example of applied literary studies. Using a rehabilitated form of reader response analysis in combination with Mass Observation techniques, it explores older people’s changing perceptions of ageing in contemporary Britain, exposing the gaps between the lived experience of twenty-first century ageing and the outdated assumptions that often underpin public policy debate.
 
Jago is currently working on two monographs: Chinua Achebe in Manchester University Press’s Contemporary World Writers series, and Ageing in Contemporary Fiction with Routledge, New York.

Teaching Activity

Jago teaches modules in post-war and contemporary writing, and in postcolonialism. He is convenor of the MA Contemporary Literature and Culture at Brunel, and supervises research to PhD level.

Modules currently convened:

EN2011 Postcolonial Writing
EN3019 Postcolonial Perspectives
EN3069 Post-War and Late Twentieth Century Writing
EN5013 Postcolonialism

Selected Publications

‘Ageing Re-imagined: Exploring Older Women’s Attitudes to Ageing through Reader Response’ Contemporary Women’s Writing, 6:1 (forthcoming, Jan 2012).

Coming of Age (London: Demos, 2011). With Louise Bazalgette, John Holden, Nick Hubble & Philip Tew. www.demos.co.uk/publications/comingofage

The Post-War British Literature Handbook, eds. Cockin, K. & Morrison, J. (London: Continuum, 2010)
The Fiction of Chinua Achebe: A Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

‘ ‘Who cares about gender at a time like this?’ Love, Sex and the Problem of Jeanette Winterson’ Journal of Gender Studies, 15:2 (2006) 169-80.

Scandalous Fictions: The Twentieth Century Novel in the Public Sphere, eds. Morrison, J. and Watkins, S.  (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

‘Imagined Biafras: Fabricating Nation in Nigerian Civil War Writing’ ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 36:1-2 (2005), 5-26.

Contemporary Fiction (London: Routledge, 2003)

 

Publications

Journal Papers

(2006) Morrison, J., 'Who cares about gender at a time like this?': Love, sex and the problem of Jeanette Winterson, Journal of Gender Studies 15 (2) : 169- 180

(2005) Morrison, J., Imagined Biafras: Fabricating nation in Nigerian civil war writing, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature 36 (1/2) : 5- 26

(2001) Morrison, J., Narration and Unease in Ian McEwan's Later Fiction, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 42 (3) : 253- 268

Books

(2014) Morrison, J., Chinua Achebe. Manchester University Press

(2011) Bazalgette, L., Holden, J., Tew, P., Hubble, N. and Morrison, J., Coming of age. Demos

(2009) Cockin, K. and Morrison, J., The Post-War British Literature Handbook. Continuum

(2007) Morrison, J., The fiction of Chinua Achebe. Palgrave MacMillan

(2006) Morrison, J. and Watkins, S., Scandalous fictions: the twentieth century novel in the public sphere. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

(2003) Morrison, J., Contemporary fiction. London: Routledge