Research and Publications

Areas of Research

  • Modernism and Music
  • British and Irish Literature
  • Victorian Periodicals
  • Archival Research and Genetic Scholarship
  • Children's Literature
  • Literary Theory

List of Publications

Monographs, Edited Collections/Journals

Book Chapters and Articles in Peer Reviewed Journals

  • Witen, Michelle. "Twentieth-century Wonderlands: Introduction to Modernism in Wonderland." Modernism in Wonderland: Legacies of Lewis Carroll. Eds. John Morgenstern and Michelle Witen. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024.

  • Witen, Michelle. "‘singsigns to soundsense’: Music and the Nonhuman in Finnegans Wake." Finnegans Wake – Human and Nonhuman Histories. Eds. Richard Alan Barlow and Paul Fagan. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (forthcoming 2024).

  • Witen, Michelle. " 'no music for him like poor old Balfe': James Joyce and Irish Popular Music." Edinburgh Companion to James Joyce and the Arts. Eds. Cleo Hanaway-Oakley and Keith Williams. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (forthcoming 2024)

  • Fagan, Paul and Michelle Witen. "Live Flowers and Fabulous Monsters: Nonhuman Life and Extinction in Through the Looking-Glass." Through the Looking-Glass: A Companion. Eds. Franziska Kohlt and Justine Houyaux. Peter Lang. (forthcoming 2024)

  • Witen, Michelle. "The ‘Eastern’ and ‘Irish’ Questions: Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the Periodicals," Transnationale Literaturen und Literaturtransfer im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert. Eds. Matteo Anastasio, Margot Brink, Lisa Dauth, Andrew Erickson, Isabelle Leitloff, Jan Rhein. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2023. 211-34. 

  • Witen, Michelle. "James Joyce. Ulysses. A Novel." Lexikon Schriften über Musik, Band 2: Schriften zur Musikästhetik. Eds. Hartmut Grimm, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, and Felix Wörner. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 2022. 422-25.

  • Ebury, Katherine and Michelle Witen. "Guest Editors’ Introduction." James Joyce Quarterly (Special Issue): "Joyce and the Non-Human." 58.1-2 (Fall 2020-Winter 2021). 11-17
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "The Story of Brexit: A Ladybird Guide to Nostalgia and Parody." Brexit and Beyond: Nation and Identity. Swiss Papers in English Language and Literature 39 (2020): 145-66
     
  •  Witen, Michelle. "Object Lessons and Staged Irishness in Darby O’Gill and the Little People." Irish Studies in Europe. Eds. Paul Fagan, Dieter Fuchs, and Tamara Radak. 10 (2021): 149-69. 
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "From Passion to Mania: Frankenstein as a Tale of Hysteria." Nightfall: The Gothic Imagination since Frankenstein Eds. Justine B. Moeckli and Merel Van Tillburg. Los Angeles, Geneva: DoPe Press et Musées d’art et d’histoire, 2016-17. 372–383. http://edoc.unibas.ch/58712/ 
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "‘A Musical Pattern of Sound’: Absolute Music and Four Quartets." The Edinburgh Companion to T. S. Eliot and the Arts. Eds. Frances Dickey and John Morgenstern. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. 179–88.
     
  •  Habermann, Ina and Michelle Witen. "Introduction." Shakespeare and Space: Theatrical Explorations of the Spatial Paradigm. Palgrave Shakespeare Studies Series. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2016. 1–13.
     
  •  Witen, Michelle. "The Sound of Sirens: Joyce’s Fuga Per Canonem and Absolute Music." Variations. Vol. 31 (Spring 2012): 151–72. http://edoc.unibas.ch/49713/ 
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "The Mystery of the Fuga Per Canonem Reopened?" Genetic Joyce Studies. Vol. 10(Spring 2010). http://www.geneticjoycestudies.org/GJS10/GJS10_MichelleWiten.htm, http://edoc.unibas.ch/49712


Book Reviews and Other

  • Witen, Michelle. "Review of Music and Myth in Modern Literature by Josh Torabi." James Joyce Quarterly. (in press 2023)

  • Witen, Michelle. "Review of David Norris Reads from Finnegans Wake." James Joyce Quarterly. 55.3-4 (Spring/Summer 2018): 475-77.

  •  Witen, Michelle. Review of The Great American Songbooks: Musical Texts, Modernism & The Value of Popular Culture by T. Austin Graham. Time Present: The Newsletter of the T. S. Eliot Society. Vol. 84 (Fall 2014): 8–11.
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "T. S. Eliot’s Condition of Music." Time Present: The Newsletter of the T. S. Eliot Society. Vol. 77 (Summer 2012): 14.
     
  • Witen, Michelle. "This One Time at Joyce Camp: A report on the 2008 Dublin James Joyce Summer School, July 6–13, 2008." James Joyce Literary Supplement. Vol. 23.1 (Spring 2009). http://edoc.unibas.ch/49865

In the Media & Public Outreach

Invited Lectures, Round Tables, and Conference Papers

Invited Lectures

  • "Ulysses as Irish and Modernist Text." Invited Lecture in Stephanie John's Survey: Irish Literature. Technische Universität Braunschweig, DE, 23 January 2024.
     
  • "Dracula and Victorian Politics," Invited Lecture, Irish Studies and Cultural Theory Summer School, Vienna, AU, 10-14 July 2023.
     
  • "Banshees of Inishirin: Iconic or Iconoclastic," Invited Lecture, Irish Studies and Cultural Theory Summer School, Vienna, AU, 10-14 July 2023.
     
  • "‘Poor old Balfe’: Joyce, Musical Performance, and Popular Music," Invited Lecture, Trieste Joyce School, Trieste, IT, 25-30 June 2023.
     
  • "Darby O’Gill, Irish Folklore, and the Nonhuman," Guest Seminar, Irish Film Studies, KSM, Flensburg, DE, 18 April 2023.
     
  • "Introducing James Joyce’s Ulysses," James Joyce Lecture Series, EUF, 13 October 2022
     
  • "The ‘Eastern’ and ‘Irish’ Questions: Bram Stoker’s Dracula in the Periodicals," Invited Research Talk, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolloquium, EUF, 27 Oct 2022.
     
  • "Joyce’s Place in Cultural History," Invited Lecture, Lecture Series: James Joyce: Works, Contexts, Impact, Zürich, CH, 9 Nov 2022.
     
  • "Ulysses at 100," SAUTE Jubilee Invited Talk (Keynote). University of Basel, CH, 20 May 2022.
     
  • "From Britain to Ireland to Europe: Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the Victorian Periodical," Invited Research Talk, Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies, EUF, Flensburg, DE, 9 Dec 2021.
     
  • "James Joyce’s Ulysses," Invited Lecture, Ringvorlesung: Großer Bücher: Wie funktioniert der literarische Kanon?, Kiel, DE, Jan 21, 2021. 
     
  • "A Small Island of Great Literature: The Irish Literary Revival," Invited Lecture as part of Schleswig-Holstein’s "Literatursommer Irland 2020," Akademiezentrum Sankelmark, DE, August 25, 2020.
     
  • "Animals and Irish Folklore: Darby O’Gill meets the Nonhuman Turn," Guest Lecture, Annual Vienna Irish Studies and Cultural Theory Summer School: Bull Island – The Non-Human Turn in Irish Studies, July 1-5, 2019.
     
  • "Introducing The Dead," Einführung Spezial auf Englisch, Zürich Schauspielhaus, May 26, 2019
     
  • "Music and Irish Modernism," Guest Lecture, Annual Vienna Irish Studies and Cultural Theory Summer School: Stage Irish, July 2-6, 2018.
     
  • "Michelle Witen in conversation with Fritz Senn about James Joyce and Absolute Music," Zurich James Joyce Foundation, April 24, 2018.
     
  •  "A Ulyssean Odyssey," Guest Lecture, University of Basel, April 12, 2018.
     
  •  "Periodicals and Serial Publication in Victorian Britain," Guest Lecture, University of Basel, Nov 16, 2017.
     
  •  Lecture Series and Masterclasses on the subject of "Representing Migrant Experience: Modern Migration in Literature and Film," at Exeter College, University of Oxford, July 5 – August 4, 2017.
     
  •  "The Art of Fugue: Joyce and Musical Structure," Domus Evening, Exeter College, University of Oxford, May 9, 2016.
     
  •  "James Joyce and J. M. Coetzee: Traces of Ulysses in Elizabeth Costello," Guest Lecture, University of Basel, May 13, 2014.
     
  •  "The Pound Era: Pound, Imagism, Vorticism," Guest Lecture, University of Basel, Oct 4, 2012. 
     
  •  "A Musical Odyssey through the Works of James Joyce," Plenary Lecture at Symposium in Honour of Fritz Senn, University of Zürich, Nov 6, 2009.
     
  •  "Identifying Canada," Lecture Supper, St John’s College, University of Oxford, April 29, 2009
     
  •  "Was Joyce’s ‘Sirens’ Episode a Fugue?" Lecture Supper, St John’s College; University of Oxford, June 4, 2007.

Round Tables

  • "Irish-German Studies today – Challenges and Chances," Roundtable at Intersectional Irelands: International Association for the Study of Irish literatures (IASIL) Annual Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland, 25-29 July 2022.
     
  • "Irish Border Narratives and Irish Studies in Germany," Final Round Table Panel. Irish Border Narratives. EFACIS Centre for Irish Studies and the Centre for Narrative Research, University of Wuppertal, 16-17 June 2022.
     
  • "Round Table Journal Launch: Stage Irish," Round Table to launch Irish Studies in Europe (Vol 10 (2021): Eds. Paul Fagan, Dieter Fuchs, and Tamara Radak), hosted online by EFACIS, 30 Sept 2021.


Conference Papers

  • "The Irish Vampire: Dracula and Punch," In-between Islands: Intra-relations between Britain and Ireland, Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of British Cultures, Kiel, DE, 23-25 November 2023

  • "From ‘Flat’ to ‘Piercing’: The Alterity and Solidarity of Accents in Dubliners," Unions and Partitions in Ireland, EFACIS International Conference, Belfast, GB-NIR, 24-27 August 2023.

  • "‘Cheap, Healthful Literature’: Political Bias and Irish Home Rule in the Strand," British Association of Victorian Studies, Annual Conference, Birmingham, UK, 1-3 Sept 2022.

  • "From Epiphany to Degradation: Intersections of Inner Experience in Joyce and Musil," Musil, Modernism and Europe, Flensburg DE, 6-9 July 2022.

  • "‘No music for him like poor old Balfe’: Joyce and Irish Popular Music," Ulysses 100: International James Joyce Symposium, Dublin, Ireland, 12-18 June 2022. 

  • "‘Sirens’ and the Madness of Knowledge" panel respondent, Ulysses 100: 2023 International James Joyce Symposium, Dublin, Ireland, 12-18 June 2022. 

  • "The Soundscape of Absolute Music in Du Maurier’s Trilby," Seminar 22: "Sounds Victorian: Acoustic Experience in Nineteenth-Century Britain," European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) 2020, Lyon, France, August 31-Sept 4, 2020. (cancelled due to Covid-19; rescheduled for 2021)
     
  • "‘Raddled sheep bleating with fear’: Sheepish Developments in Ulysses," Omniscientific Joyce: 2020 International James Joyce Foundation Conference, Trieste, Italy, June 15-19, 2020. (cancelled due to Covid-19; rescheduled for 2021)
     
  • "Alice in Brexitland and Other Tales: The Story of Brexit in Children's Literature," SAUTE Annual Conference: Brexit and Beyond — Nation and Identity, Basel, Switzerland, May 3-4, 2019. 
     
  • "‘A bite from a sheep’: Sheepish Musings," Zürich James Joyce Foundation Annual Workshop: Joycean Animals, Zürich, Switzerland, Aug 5-11, 2018.
     
  • "Print Culture in the Sherlock Holmes Stories," RSVP and VSAWC Annual Conference: The Body and the Page in Victorian Culture, University of Victoria, Canada, July 26-28, 2018.
     
  •  "James Joyce and the Musical Archive," Historicizing Modernism: Conference in Honour of the Series, University of York, UK, May 17-19, 2018. (invited)
     
  •  "Canine Citizens and Homecoming in ‘Cyclops’ and ‘Circe,’" Diasporic Joyce: 2017 North American James Joyce Conference, Victoria College, University of Toronto, Canada, June 21–25, 2017.
     
  •  "Musical Gaps and Joyce’s Modernist Fugue," Irish Modernisms: Gaps, Conjectures, Possibilities, University of Vienna, Austria, Sept 29 – Oct 1, 2016.
     
  •  "Circulation and Ironic Serialization in Sherlock Holmes," Forcefields of Serial Narration: Serial Holmes, Anglistentag 2016, Universität Hamburg, Germany, Sept 21–24, 2016.
     
  •  "The Tyranny of the Prima Donna": Critical Consumption and Consuming Performances in Trilby," Music and Theatre Strand (1): Women Performers, Annual Conference of the British Association for Victorian Studies: Consuming (the) Victorians, Cardiff University, Wales, UK, Aug 31 – Sept 2, 2016.
     
  •  "‘Nausicaa’: Metatextual References in and on Elizabeth Costello," Joycean Legacies: J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello, XXV International James Joyce Symposium: Anniversary Joyce, London, UK, June 13–18, 2016
     
  •  "Yeats’ Insurrectionary Wonderland," Modernism and Wonderland, Modernist Studies Association: Modernism & Revolution, Boston, USA, Nov 19–22, 2015 
     
  •  "Time Makes the Tune," Zürich James Joyce Foundation Annual Workshop: Timeagen, Zürich, Switzerland, Aug 2–8, 2015
     
  •  "James Joyce’s Eight-part Fuga Per Canonem," Joyce: Image, Music, (Con)text, South Atlantic Modern Languages Association, Atlanta, US, Nov 8–10, 2013.
     
  •  "Music for the Eye: The Modernist Treatment of Musical Listening in E. M. Forster and Aldous Huxley’s Works," Intertextual and Intermedial Exchanges, Modernist Studies Association: Everydayness and the Event, University of Sussex, Brighton, Aug 29 – Sept 1, 2013. 
     
  • "A Slip of Blancovide: The Oral Tradition and the Ballad of Persse O’Reilly," Zürich James Joyce Foundation Annual Workshop: Newspapers and Joyce, Zürich, Switzerland, Aug 4–10, 2013.
     
  • "To Fugue or not to Fugue – Is that a Question?" Sounds and Music, 2012 International James Joyce Symposium, Trinity College Dublin & University College Dublin, Ireland, June 10–16, 2012.
     
  • "T. S. Eliot’s Conditioning of Music in Four Quartets," T. S. Eliot and the Other Arts, The Louisville Conference on Literature and the Arts since 1900, Louisville, Kentucky, Feb 23–25, 2012.
     
  • "Burst Tympanum and Silent Roars – Un-Handel that Woman!" Time Makes the Tune: Musical Perspectives, XXII International James Joyce Symposium, Charles University, Prague, June 13–18, 2010.
     
  • "A Musical Odyssey through the Works of James Joyce," Plenary Lecture at Symposium in Honour of Fritz Senn, University of Zürich, Nov 6, 2009. (invited)
     
  •  "Fuguall Finnegans Wake," Zürich James Joyce Foundation Annual Workshop: Musicillogical Joyce, Zürich, Switzerland, Aug 2–8, 2009.
     
  •  "Music without Words": The Musical Metamorphosis of "Sirens" in "Circe," Music Hath Charms to Soothe a Savage Joycean, XXI International James Joyce Symposium: Re-Nascent Joyce, Université François-Rabelais, Tours, France, June 15–20, 2008.
     
  •  "Kafka, Blanchot, and Joyce: The Silence of Sirens as a Philosophy of Rapture," Parallel Session 2: James Joyce, English Graduate Conference, University of Oxford, UK, June 8, 2007.
     
  •  "The Aesthetic of the Obscene in Faulkner’s Sanctuary," Prophylactic Foreplay: Tough Guys, Foreign Dolls & Body Props, Graduate Conference: Pornography’s Not About, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada, April 7–9, 2005.
     
  •  "Childe Roland to His Albatross Came: Browning and Coleridge’s Quest of Doomed Repetition," Georges Bataille and Queer Literature, CCLA at CONGRESS, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, May 30 – June 1, 2004.
     
  •  "The Art of Experience: The Creation of the Storyteller in Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story," UCCB’s 4th Annual Storytelling Symposium, University College of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 20–21, 2004.