Aleksondra Hultquist

EDUCATION

2008 PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Dissertation defense date: May 2008 Specializations: Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature and Culture; Drama; Women Writers

2003 MA, English Literature, San Francisco State University

Master's Thesis: “Sex and Death: Female Power Fantasies in Amatory Fiction”

Certificate in the Teaching of Composition

1997 BFA, Acting, with honors, Rutgers University (Mason Gross School of the Arts)

DISSERTATION

“Equal Ardour”: Female Desire, Amatory Fiction, and the Recasting of the Novel, 1680-1760

This dissertation explores the significance of amatory fiction in shaping the development of the eighteenth-century novel.   Works such as Aphra Behn's The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina challenge the seemingly dominant notion that female novelistic subjectivity must be based on absolute sexual virtue.   In demonstrating that novels by Behn and Haywood rivaled the popularity of male-authored “canonical” fiction, including Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and Richardson's Pamela, I argue that female selfhood in the early novel was contingent on the heroine's erotic desire, and that amatory fiction encouraged complex responses to love, marriage, and the sexual double standard.

Director: Professor Robert Markley
Committee: Professor Anthony Pollock, Professor Dana Rabin, Professor Lori Newcomb, and Professor Tita Chico (University of Maryland).

PUBLICATIONS

“Haywood's Re-Appropriation of the Amatory Heroine in Betsy Thoughtless,” in Philological Quarterly 85 (2006) 141-165. Forthcoming.

“Marriage in Haywood; or, Desire Rewarded,” in Women Novelists of the 1750s, edited by Susan Carlile. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 2008. Forthcoming.

“Nearly Novel Beginnings.” Review of Novel Beginnings: Experiments in Eighteenth-Century Fiction, by Patricia Meyers Spacks. The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation. 47 (2006): 8 pars. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/ecti/index.html.

“The Fair Cruel Heroine: Desire and the Female Protagonist in Adaptations of Behn's The History of the Nun.” (Submitted)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2003-08

ENGL 206: Introduction to Enlightenment Literature and Culture, Spring 2007

ENGL 218: Introduction to Shakespeare, Spring 2005, Fall 2006, Fall 2007

ENGL 102: Introduction to Drama, Fall 2005

ENGL 461: Theatre in England, Summer 2005, Summer 2008

ENGL 109: Introduction to Fiction, Fall 2004, Fall 2006

RHET 105: Principles of Composition, Fall 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2007

Teaching Assistant, San Francisco State University

ENG 501: The Age of Wit, Spring 2002

EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE

Editorial Assistant, The Eighteenth-Century: Theory and Interpretation, 2004-06

Editor-in-Chief, Interpretations: A Journal of Literary Criticism (San Francisco State), 2002.

Editor, Interpretations: A Journal of Literary Criticism (San Francisco State University), 2001.

HONORS AND AWARDS

English Depart. Outstanding Teaching Award for Graduate Teaching Assistants, nominated, 2007

Department Dissertation Fellowships, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2006, 2007-8

Graduate Travel Grant, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Study, 2006

Summer Humanities Fellowship, University of Illinois, Urban-Champaign, 2004

Graduate Essay Prize, Aphra Behn Society, 2003, “The ‘Liberating Space' of Fantasy”

Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students, Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Fall and Spring 2006

University of Illinois Graduate College Conference Travel Grants, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

Ellanore and Maurice Bassan Scholarship, San Francisco State University, 2001

Women's League of Rutgers—Theater Arts Department Scholarship, Rutgers University, 1996

Edward J. Bloustein Scholarship, Rutgers University, 1993

PROFESSIONAL AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Theatrical Self-Fashioning in The Fair Jilt and Roxana,” Aphra Behn Society Conference, Albuquerque, NM, 2007

“Recasting the Rise of the Novel: Miss Betsy, Haywood and the Amatory Form,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Study (ASECS), Atlanta, GA, 2007

“Sex as Survival or Fun?: Defoe's, Behn's, and Haywood's Whores,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies (GEMCS), Chicago, IL, 2007

“The Fair Cruel Heroine: Genre and the Contested Space of Female Desire in Adaptations of Aphra Behn's The History of the Nun,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Study (ASECS), Montreal, Quebec, 2006

“Amatory Fiction: Sexy Novels of Eighteenth-Century Britain,” Feminist Scholars' Series, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, October 2006

“Rubric Grading,” Department of Business and Technical Writing, Professional Development Seminar Series, October 2006

“Unhappily, Temporarily-After: Restoration Comedy to Amatory Fiction,” Aphra Behn Society Conference, Daytona Beach, FL, 2005

“Homosocial Endings in Popular Fiction: Defoe's Captain Singleton and Haywood's The City Jilt,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Study (ASECS), Las Vegas, Nevada, 2005

“Accounting for the Golden Age of Piracy and Pen Prostitution,” Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies (GEMCS), Orlando, FL, 2004

“‘Life Cannot Bear These Raptures'”: The Construction of Love in Eliza Haywood's Love in Excess,” Mid-West American Society for Eighteenth-Century Study, St. Louis, MO, 2004

“The ‘Liberating Space' of Fantasy,” Aphra Behn Society Conference, Buffalo, NY, 2003

“Matrimonial Murders: Fantasy of Power in Amatory Fiction,” Aphra Behn Society Conference, Oakland, CA, 2002

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Modern Language Association

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

Aphra Behn Society, Newsletter Editor

Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies

ACADEMIC SERVICE

Academic Advisory Board to Department Chair, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, (elected), 2005-06

Chair, Graduate Literature Association, San Francisco State University, 2001-2002

Student Representative, Graduate Literature Curriculum Committee (appointed), San Francisco State University, 2001-2002

Tutor, English Tutoring Center, San Francisco State University, 2001

REFERENCES

Professor Robert Markley, Department of English, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 608 South Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (rmarkley@uiuc.edu) (217) 244-6613

Professor Anthony Pollock, Department of English, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 608 South Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (ajp2@uiuc.edu) (217) 333-3575

Professor Dana Rabin, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 810 South Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (drabin@uiuc.edu) (217) 244-2090

Professor Tita Chico, Department of English, University of Maryland, 3101 Susquehannah Hall, College Park, MD 20742 (tchico@umd.edu) (301) 405-3811

Professor William J. Christmas, Department of English, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132 (xmas@sfsu.edu) (415) 338-7463

Professor Lori Newcomb, Department of English, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 608 South Wright Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (lnewcomb@uiuc.edu) (217) 333-3181

Complete dossier available upon request.