Camilla Hoel

Academic Interests

Commons Groups

HC

Recent Commons Activity

deposited Secret Plots: The False Endin… in the group Victorian Studies
deposited Secret Plots: The False Endin…

About

I have a PhD in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh, and have worked as an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. I am currently working at the Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy as an associate professor of English.

The main body of my research (including my PhD) has been on the reception of unfinished serial narrative and its implications for the figure of the author. I am exploring the function of endings in the reading of narrative texts, and more specifically who has the authority to posit an ending and how the attitude to the perceived authority of the author determines how we react to the unfinished text. The main focus for this research is Charles Dickens’ unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but it draws on other Victorian and Edwardian literature as well as the theories of Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Walter Benjamin and others.

As an extension of this, I have recently been working on the early fan reception of the Sherlock Holmes stories, seeing ideas of authorship in light of the development of the Holmesian Great Game. In addition, I have recently done some research on contemporary (post-)apocalyptic fiction and ethical choice, and more widely on science fiction literature, ethics and power.

Alongside my academic work I am a general bibliophile, a geek, a knitter (& spinner) and a feminist.

Education

Phd, English Literature, University of Edinburgh, 2012: Completing Edwin Drood: Endings and Authority in Finished and Unfinished Narratives. Supervisors: Dr Simon Malpas and Dr Jonathan Wild.

MA, General and Comparative Literature, University of Edinburgh, 2007: Neo-carnivalesque laughter: the parodic universes of Douglas Adams, Malcolm Pryce and Terry Pratchett. Supervisor: Prof. Jon Usher.

BA, General Literature and Comparative Religion, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2006. Additional subjects: Ancient Cultures, History.

Work Shared in CORE

Articles

Essays

Fascinasjonen ved det utilgjengelige: “Love and Tensor Algebra”

Other Publications

“Science Fiction.” In Lesa Scholl (ed) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women’s Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

“Secret Plots: The False Endings of Dickens’s Novels”. Victoriographies 8.3 (2018). https://doi.org/10.3366/vic.2018.0316

“The Final Problem: Constructing Coherence in the Holmesian Canon”. Authorship 6.1 (2017). http://www.authorship.ugent.be/article/view/4836

“Fascinasjonen ved det utilgjengelige: ‘Love and Tensor Algebra’ ”. RISS 1 (2015). 88-94.

“Sherlock Holmes” Oxford Bibliographies in British and Irish Literature. Ed. Andrew Hadfield. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199846719/obo-9780199846719-0114.xml

“The Ludic Parody of Terry Pratchett”. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts. Special Issue 2 (2008) http://www.forumjournal.org/article/view/598

Conference papers:

“‘A Wholly Posthumous Dickens’: T. P. James’ Spirit Pen Adventures”. VPFA, University of Greenwich, Mind, Matter(s), Spirit: Forms of Knowledge in Victorian Popular Fiction and Culture (July 2019).

“‘Write Like the Dickens’: The Spirit Pen Adventures of Bockley Wickleheap”. Brunel University, Dickens Adapting, Dickens Adapted (January 2018).

“‘The Mystery, not the History, of Edwin Drood’: The Interwar Speculations”. University of York, After Dickens (December 2016).

“Fake, Forgery or Fulfilment: Perception of authenticity in completions of Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood”. VPFA (London). (July 2015).

“Imitating the inimitable: Attempts to Complete Edwin Drood”. UCL, Victorian Popular Fiction Association, The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Solutions and Resolutions (October 2014). Co-author: Tor Nordam.

“The ”Spirit Pen” Solution and Charles Dickens’ Authority as an Author”.
University of California, Santa Cruz, Dickens! Author and Authorship in 2012 (July 2012).

“The Apocalypse as a defining moment of ethical action in Nick Harkaway’s novels”.
University of Kent, Skepsi conference, Don’t Panic! The Apocalypse in Theory and Culture (May 2012).

“The End of the World as a Defining Moment of Ethical Action”. University of Umeå, Science Fiction Across Media: Alternative Histories, Alien Futures (April 2012).

“The Ludic Parody of Terry Pratchett”. University of Edinburgh, FORUM conference, Play (May 2008).

Outreach:

“Zelenskyj-fenomenet: Tre grep var avgjørende”. Interview. Dagbladet 06.04.2022 https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/tre-grep-var-avgjorende/75762748

“Nyhetsmorgen: Zelenskyjs popularitet”. Interview. NRK (tv/radio) 31.03.2022 https://tv.nrk.no/serie/nyhetsmorgen-tv/202203/NNFA05033122/avspiller

“Beundringen av Zelenskyj har satt verden i bevegelse”. Morgenbladet 24.03.2022 https://www.morgenbladet.no/ideer/kronikk/2022/03/24/zelenskyj-fandomen-har-galvanisert-store-deler-av-verden/

“Alternative Alien Alterity: Thinking the Other through Science Fiction”. Kunsthallen i Trondheim, GenderHub, NTNU (December 2017).

“The Default She: Power Inversion in Feminist Science Fiction”.
Litteraturhuset i Trondheim, STARMUS (June 2017).

“The Book” We the Humanities (February 2017).
http://www.wethehumanities.org/blog/the-book

“Reading intersectionally” We the Humanities (December 2015).
http://www.wethehumanities.org/community/reading-intersectionally

“The Narrative Significance of Dickens’ Death”. Cloisterham Tales (August 2015).
https://cloisterhamtales.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/narrativesignificance/

“Androids, Aliens, and the Other: Being Human in Science Fiction”. Torucon (August 2014).

“Pride and Prejudice in the 21st Century: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries”.
Trondheim Folkebibliotek, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, 1813-2013 (November 2013).

Dr

Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy