Prof.dr. F.W.A. (Frans-Willem) Korsten

Position:
  • Lecturer
  • Extraordinary professor (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Expertise:
  • Literary studies


Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2196
E-Mail: f.w.a.korsten@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Institute for Cultural Disciplines, Literatuurwetenschap
Office Address: Witte Singel-complex
van Wijkplaats 2
2311 BX Leiden
Room number 1.02c
Personal Homepage: hum.leiden.edu/​icd/​members-modern-contemporary/​korstenfwa.html

Fields of interest

Rhetoric (classical and modern)
Literature and Politics
Literature and Law
Politico-cultural organisation of Europe
Theatricality and Dramatization
(Pre-) history of Capitalism
Theory and Close reading

Research

Initially, my research focused on ideology criticism, rhetoric and politics. After completing my PhD thesis, in which I combined narratology with argumentation theory in an analysis of cultural critical texts, I wrote a new introduction to literary studies: Lessons in Literature, in which I combined a selection of historical periods in European literature with twelve different approaches to literature and with short analytical explorations. This book helped me to define better my interest in the major historical and cultural lines, nodes and recurring problems in the politico-cultural organization of Europe. Then I moved towards the theme of sovereignty in plays by the seventeenth century, baroque playwright Joost van den Vondel. This part of my research resulted in Vondel belicht: voorstellingen van soevereiniteit, Hilversum: Verloren, 2006), which was thoroughly rewritten in English. The result was Sovereignty as inviolability (Hilversum: Verloren, 2009). I am now wrapping up the baroque Vondel-phase as co-editor of  Joost van den Vondel: Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Meanwhile, in 2007, I started a new line of research. The points of connection between my former and recent research are: the Dutch Republic as a proto-capitalist society; Spinoza and the way in which he was reread in radical Italian political theories from the seventies and eighties; the issue of theatricality and dramatization; and the relation between literature, art, sovereignty and justice. Finally, another but closely connected  thread is ‘close reading’: either of texts of or cities.

Curriculum Vitae

F.W.A. Korsten (1959): At Utrecht University I studied Dutch Literature first, and then Comparative Literature and Literary Theory. I wrote my PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam, with Mieke Bal and Frans van Eemeren as promotors. Since 2007 I am Special Professor in Literature and Society at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. I have been working mainly, however, at the department of Film- and Literary Studies of Leiden University, since 1998. I became Director of Education of the Leiden Institute for Cultural Disciplines in 2010. I am responsible for the NWO internationalisation program Post/autonomia and precarity – the global heritage (2010-2014). I am a member of the editorial board (with Boom-The Hague Publishers) that is concerned with a new series of introductions into the philosophy of science (so far, I edited three volumes); member of the editorial board for the humanities with Amsterdam University Press; member of the editorial board of the open access Journal of Dutch Literature (AUP). I worked for the national Council for Culture as chairman for the section Letters, and I am a member of the Rotterdam Council for Culture.

PhD's

- June 200: Aldin Kaizilege Mutembei (with prof. dr. Mineke Schipper), Poetry and AIDS in Tanzania : changing metaphors and metonymies in Haya oral traditions
- June 2011 Helmer Helmers, cum laude (co-promotor: dr. Ton Hoenselaars), The Royalist Republic : literature, politics and religion in the Anglo-Dutch public sphere, 1639-1660

In progress
- Marie Anne Coebergh - Van der Marck (co-promotor dr. Janneke Lam) - the representation of incest in modern Dutch literature and film;
- Adam Hall (co-promotor dr. Jan-Frans van Dijkhuizen) - a metonymical reading of three Shakespeare plays;
- Tammy Lynn Castelein (with prof. dr. Hent de Vries) - heroism, war and the Heideggerian moment;
- Aamir Aziz - Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the cultural production of fear in the US;
- Berry Vugts (co-promotor dr. Yasco Horsman) - the idea of animal rights in literature and art;
- Frank van Doeselaar (co-promotor dr. Peter Verstraten) - the historical novel in the work of Rosenboom and its cinematographic quality;
- Marijn van Dijk (co-promotor dr. Esther Peeren) - language as music in the work of Vondel.

Conferences

- together with dr. Bram Ieven (UU): Waiting for the Political Moment (Rotterdam, June 2010) conference website; 
- together with dr. Joost de Bloois (UvA) and dr. Monica Jansen (UU): ‘What is post/autonomia today?’; first conference in a set of three; to be followed by two conferences in the years 2012-2013 organised by international partners: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ann Arbor (Michigan), and Paris Nanterre.

Teaching activities

- Three time nominee for best teacher of the University of Leiden.
- Responsible for the Honours College program of the Institute for Cultural Disciplines.  

Courses:
- Introduction to Literary Studies
- Literary Analysis - Introduction to Theatrical Media
- Rhetoric
- Theatricality and Dramatisation
- Literature and Politics
- Literature and Law

Publications

2011
- together with Jan Bloemendal (eds), Joost van den Vondel.Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age. Leiden: Brill (652 pp.). isbn 9789004217539.
-  ‘Apostrophe, witnessing, and its essentially theatrical modes of address – Maria Dermôut on Pattimura and Kara Walker on the New Orleans flooding’. Caroline Nevejan & Satinder Gill (eds), special issue of AI & SOCIETY:Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication.
- ‘Facing it: sovereignty and how to live with theft and violence in law – the case of Karel ende Elegast’. In Journal for Dutch Literature 2. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Pp 57-78. Issn 221-0879; isbn 9789089643766.
-  together with Piet Joostens en Daniël Rovers:  Jeroen Mettes, Weerstandsbeleid. Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek. (373 pp.) Isbn 9789028424203.
-  togetherwith Piet Joostens en Daniël Rovers:  Jeroen Mettes, N30+. Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek. (263 pp.). Isbn 9789028424210.
2010
-  ‘Moments of Indecision, Sovereign Possibilities – Notes on the Tableau Vivant’. In Willemien Otten, Arjo Vanderjagt & Hent de Vries (eds.), How the West Was Won. Essays on Literary Imagination, the Canon, and the Christian Middle Ages for Burcht Pranger. Leiden: Brill. Pp 17-38. isbn 13: 978 90 04 18496 1/
2009
- Sovereignty as Inviolability: Vondel’s Theatrical Explorations in the Dutch Republic. Hilversum: Verloren. isbn 978 90 8704 028-4
-  ‘The Irreconcilability of Hypocrisy and Sincerity.’ Ernst van Alphen (e.a. eds.), The Rhetoric of Sincerity. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Pp. 60-79. isbn 978 0 8047 5827 7
2008
- Plaats vinden: Literatuur in een gespleten stad - Rotterdam. Rotterdam: Douane.
- ‘Loss of Face or the Next Sentence.’ Katarina Zdjelar & Renée Ridgway, Another Publication. Rotterdam: Revolver. Pp. 13-17. isbn 978 3 86588 375 9
2007
- All Inclusive! The Poetic and Capitalism – Alles inclusief! het poëtische en het kapitalisme. Rotterdam: Douane. isbn 978 90 72247 10 0
2006
- Vondel belicht: voorstellingen van soevereiniteit. Hilversum: Verloren. isbn 90 6550 9348
2005
- Lessen in literatuur. Revised, second edition. Nijmegen: Vantilt. isbn 90 77503 46 3
2004
- together with E.J. van Alphen (eds.) ‘Hoe verder? Toekomstperspectieven in de Studie van de Nederlandse Letterkunde.’ Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde 4:120. Pp.289-297. issn 0040 7550

ICD Web Editors
Last Modified: 18-10-2011