MARTA MIQUEL-BALDELLOU

Marta Miquel Baldellou

Dr. Marta Miquel-Baldellou is a postdoctoral researcher, and currently, she also teaches English as a foreign language at a private institution. She is a member of the Research Group Dedal-Lit at the English Department of the University of Lleida, as well as a member of the European Network of Aging Studies (ENAS). As a member of the Dedal-Lit Research Group, she is currently taking part in a three-year research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in relation to the matrix of aging, gender, and creativity. She has recently been granted a postdoctoral scholarship to work on a postdoctoral research project in relation to narratology and comparative literature by the Spanish Association of Anglo-North-American Studies (AEDEAN). As an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Lleida, she has lectured in literary discourses in English and she has taught introductory courses on literary theory. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Philologyand an International Doctorate in English Studies from the University of Lleida, and she also postgraduated in Literary Studies with a specialisation in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the Open University of Catalonia. In order to write her doctoral thesis, she was granted a four-year government scholarship (AGAUR-FI), and also conducted a research stay at the Victorian Studies Centre of the University of Leicester in the UK, which was funded through a government scholarship (AGAUR-BE2) for doctoral research students.Her doctoral dissertation ― entitled Symbolic Transitions as Modalities of Aging: Intertextuality in the Life and Works of Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Edgar Allan Poe, and directed by Professor Brian Worsfold ― is related to the field of comparative literature, as it analyses the literary works of the Victorian writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Edgar Allan Poe from a comparative perspective. Her main research areas are comparative literature, Victorian literature, aging studies, gender, and popular fiction. She has presented papers at different international conferences and her articles have been published in volumes edited by international publishing houses, such as Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Peter Lang, Transcript Verlag, and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE IN AGEING STUDIES:

CONFERENCE PAPERS:

  • Paper presented: “ ‘The stock character of a middle-aged woman?’ Rediscovering The Roman Spring of Mrs Stonethrough Age and Gender Performance.” Conference: Cultural Narratives, Processes and Strategies in Representations of Age and Aging. Joint Conference of ENAS (European Network of Aging Studies) and NANAS (North-American Network of Aging Studies). University of Graz, Austria. 2017.
  • Paper presented: “Intertextuality, Creativity, and Myth as a Metaphor of Aging in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Ganymede’ and Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice.” Conference: 40thConference of the Spanish Association of Anglo-North-American Studies. Universidad de Zaragoza. 2016.
  • Poster presented (with Núria Casado, Núria Mina, Ieva Stoncikaite, et al.): “The Creativity of the Older Woman Writer: Ten Case Studies.” Conference: Envisioning a New World: Social Innovation for Active and Healthy Aging (SIforAGE). Universidad de Barcelona. 2016.
  • Paper presented: “’Picture of a woman looking at a picture’: aging, gender and celebrity in The Twilight Zone’s ‘The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine’.” Conference: Meaning and Culture(s): Exploring the Life Course – ENAS (European Network of Aging Studies). National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. 2014. 
  • Paper presented: “Tracing Miss Havisham in the mirror, or aging through the other.” Conference: Perverse Identities: Identities in Conflict – IRIS (Institute of Research in Identities and Societies). Universidad de Lleida, Spain. 2012.
  • Paper presented: “‘Maybe you’re too young to remember’ Baby Jane and the sin of acting against one’s age. Conference: Conditioned Identities: Wished-for and Unwished-for Identities – IRIS (Institute of Research in Identities and Societies). Universidad de Lleida, Spain. 2013.
  • Paper presented: “‘For art itself is essentially ethical’: Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s spiritual poetics of writing.” Conference: Victorian Spiritualities. Leeds University, England, UK. 2012. 
  • Paper (with Professor Brian Worsfold): “‘Memory, I defy thee!’ Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Guilty Recollections in Late Life.” Conference: Looking Back to Look Forward. Universidad de Barcelona, Spain. 2012.
  • Paper presented: “Prematurely aged, long-lived: the effects of ageing at a different pace in Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.” Conference: Theorising age: challenging the disciplines – ENAS (European Network in Aging Studies). Maastricht University, The Netherlands. 2011.
  • Paper presented: “From pathology to invisibility: the discourse of ageing in vampire fiction.” Conference: New Cultures of Ageing. Brunel University, London, England, UK. 2011.
  • Paper presented: “From pathology to invisibility: the discourse of ageing in vampire fiction.” Conference: New Cultures of Ageing. Brunel University, London, England, UK. 2011.
  • Paper presented: “‘So terribly altered, in so brief a period’: the discourse of ageing in Edgar Allan Poe’s tales.” Conference: Bridging the gaps, minding the context. Universidad de Vigo, Spain. 2011.
  • Paper presented: “‘I loved the old man – I made up my mind to kill the old man’: Poe on the edge of ageing.” Conference: Genius and psychosis in Edgar Allan Poe: new interdisciplinary perspectives. Universidad de Valencia, Spain. 2009.
  • Paper presented: “Re-membering tell-tale letters: reconceptualising crisis and liminality through Edgar Allan Poe’s correspondence.” Conference: Poe presente en el siglo de la ansiedad – Instituto de Investigación en Estudios Norteamericanos Benjamin Franklin. Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Spain. 2009.
  • Paper presented: “Every Lytton’s home is his castle, every little home is a palimpsest: recollecting the past, Knebworth from mnemonic to commodity.” Conference: Past versus Present – North-American Victorian Studies Association and British Association for Victorian Studies. Churchill College, University of Cambridge, England, UK. 2009.
  • Paper presented: “Leaving Darwin behind? Transcending body, mind, and soul through the occult in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s A Strange Story.” Conference: Victorian Feeling: Touch, Bodies, Emotions – British Association for Victorian Studies. University of Leicester, England, UK. 2008.
  • Paper presented: “Female invalids and ladylike cataleptics, mesmerised narrators and male undead: transcending transatlantic engendered and ageing bodies in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s A Strange Storyand Edgar Allan Poe’s tales.” Conference: The Supernatural Diegesis in Popular Fiction – Association for Research in Popular Fiction. Liverpool John Moores University, England, UK. 2008.
  • Paper presented: “From the young student to the old Caxtonian: Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s lifetime reflections on Victorian ageing.” Conference: The 6thSymposium on Cultural Gerontology: Extending Time, Emerging Realities, Imagining Response. Universidad de Lleida, Spain. 2008.
  • Paper presented: “Aged females through the Victorian male gaze: Edgar Allan Poe’s Madame Lalande and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.” Conference: Ageing Femininities: Representation, Identities, Feminism. University of Bristol, England, UK. 2007.
  • Poster presented (with Nela Bureu, Maricel Oró, Elena Pérez, and Brian Worsfold): “Aspects of old age in English literature.” Conference: The Ageing Jigsaw – 35thConference of the British Society of Gerontology. University of Bangor, Wales, UK. 2006.
  • Paper presented: “Transatlantic conceptualisations of old age in nineteenth-century American and English literature.” Conference: The Ageing Jigsaw – 35thConference of the British Society of Gerontology. University of Bangor, Wales, UK. 2006.
  • Paper presented: “Transatlantic conceptualisations of ageing through nineteenth-century narratives: Edgar Allan Poe and Sheridan Le Fanu writing the old age.” Conference: ESSE 8 (English Society for the Study of English). University of London, England, UK. 2006.

 BOOK CHAPTERS:

  • “‘The whole aspect of age is full of possibilities!’ Traces of Memory, Ageing, and Sexuality in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Don’t Look Now’.” Traces of Aging: Old Age and Memory in Contemporary Narrative. Eds. Marta Cerezo and Nieves Pascual. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript, 2016. (ISBN 978-3-8376-3439-6) 
  • “‘The only thing to do is to carry on, and the storm will blow over’: the Ageing Process of Daphne du Maurier’s Writing Persona in Her Late Short Fiction.” Literary Creativity and the Older Woman Writer: A Collection of Critical Essays. Eds. Núria Casado, Emma Domínguez, and Brian Worsfold. Bern, Austria: Peter Lang, 2016. (ISBN 978-3-0343-2199-0)
  • “In the twilight of their lives? Insight into the discourse of ageing in The Twilight Zone.” Serializing Age:  Aging and Old Age in TV Series. Eds. Maricel Oró and Anita Wolhmann. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript, 2016. 109-136.(ISBN 978-3-8376-3276-7)
  • “The Myth of Apollo and Daphne as a Metaphor of Personal Crisis in Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Apple Tree’.” Myths in Crisis: The Crisis of Myth. Eds. Antonella Lipscomb and Jose Manuel Losada. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. (ISBN 978-1-4438-7814-2)
  • “‘Maybe you’re too young to remember’: Baby Jane and the sin of acting against one’s age.” Conditioned Identities: Wished-for and Unwished-for Identities. Ed. Flocel Sabaté. Bern, Austria: Peter Lang, 2015. 271-284. (ISBN 978-3-0343-1618-7)
  • “Tracing Miss Havisham in the mirror, or aging through the other.” Perverse Identities: Identities in Conflict. Ed. Flocel Sabaté. Bern, Austria: Peter Lang, 2015. 171-185. (ISBN 978-3-0343-1556-2)
  • “Past the mirror of Victorian ageing and beyond: recurring transatlantic archetypes of the aged.” The Ages of Life: Living and Aging in Conflict?Eds. Ulla Kriebernegg and Roberta Maierhofer. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript, 2013. 159-175. (ISBN 978-3-8376-2212-6)
  • “‘For art itself is essentially ethical: Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s spiritual poetics of writing.” Victorian Spiritualities. Ed. Jane de Gay. Leeds, England: Leeds Working Papers in Victorian Studies, 2012. 217-225. (ISBN 978-0-9559004-1-9)
  • “Aged females through the Victorian gothic male gaze: Edgar Allan Poe’s Madame Lalande and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla.” Ageing Femininities: Troubling Representations. Eds. Josie Dolan and Estella Tincknell. Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012. 17-25. (ISBN 1-4438-3883-7)
  • “From the young student to the old Caxtonian: Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s lifetime reflections on Victorian ageing.” Acculturating Age: Approaches to Cultural Gerontology. Ed. Brian Worsfold. Lleida: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat de Lleida, 2011. 229-247. (ISBN 978-84-8409-384-8)
  • “Re-membering tell-tale letters: reconceptualising crisis and liminality through Edgar Allan Poe’s correspondence.” Poe Alive in the Century of Anxiety. Ed. Luisa Juárez. Alcalá de Henares: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, 2010. 181-187. (ISBN 978-84-8138-900-5)
  • “Wishing independence, pleading desire: the duality of (fe)male ageing in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day.” Flaming Embers: Ageing and Desire in Contemporary Literature. Ed. Nela Bureu. Bern, Austria: Peter Lang, 2010. 333-349. (ISBN 978-3-0343-0)

ARTICLES:

  • “‘I wanted to be old’: Gender and Aging in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebeccaand Susan Hill’s Mrs de Winter.” Anuario de Literatura Comparada8 (2018). (ISSN:0210-7287) (accepted for publication, in press)
  • “Masculinities in Distress: Aging and Gender Trouble in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Caxtons.” Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies (Special Issue on Age and Gender: Aging in the Nineteenth-century)13.2 (2017): 1-13. (ISSN 1556-7524)
  • “Disrupting Dictates of Gender and Ageing through Creativity: Daphne du Maurier’s Writing Persona in The Breaking Point.” Frame: Journal of Literary Studies (Special Issue on Ageing Lines)30.1 (2017): 49-66. (ISSN 0924-7750)
  • “How old is Miss Havisham? Age and gender performances in Great Expectationsand Sunset Boulevard.” Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal(2016) (ISSN 2373-5481)
  • “From pathology to invisibility: age identity as a cultural construct in vampire fiction.” Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses27 (2014): 125-141. (ISSN 0214-4808)
  • “‘So terribly altered, in so brief a period: the discourse of ageing in Edgar Allan Poe.” ES: Revista de Filología Inglesa33 (2012): 215-234. (ISSN 0210-9689)
  • “Prematurely aged, long lived: the effects of ageing at a different pace in Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.”Op. Cit.: A Journal of Anglo-American StudiesII Series 1 (2012): 79-96. (ISSN 0874-1409)
  • “Transatlantic doubles: intertextual ageing in the early fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.” Odisea12 (2011): 149-164. (ISSN 1578-3820)
  • “Who watches over whom in Poe’s ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’? Ageing and the fictionalisation of a national allegory.”Odisea11 (2010): 123-136. (ISSN 1578-3820)
  • “Mesmerised and undead, ladylike and invalid: engendering ageing bodies in Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Bulwer-Lytton.” The Grove: Working Papers on English Studies17 (2010): 101-118. (ISSN 1137-005X)
  • “Leaving Darwin behind? Transcending the body, mind and soul through the occult in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s A Strange Story.” Estudios Humanísticos: Filología31 (2009): 145-158. (ISSN 0213-1382)
  • “Coming of age inside, outside the big house, and beyond: a poetics of ageing and decay through John Banville’s Birchwood.” Revista de Filología de la Universidad de La Laguna26 (2008): 135-150. (ISSN 0212-4130)
  • “Feasting on memory in fasting times: retrieving personal identity from collective remembrance and vice versa in Nuala O’Faolain’s My Dream of You.”Babel afial: aspectos de filología inglesa y alemana16 (2008): 85-106. (ISSN 1132-7332)
  • “Women in the twilight, identity in the making: the concept of transition in Eavan Boland’s poetry.” Journal of Irish Studies2 (2007): 128-134. (ISSN 1699-311X)

EDITED VOLUMES:

  • Anthology of Cultural Ageing: Testimonies from Catalonia and England. Eds. Maricel Oró-Piqueras and Marta Miquel-Baldellou. Lleida: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat de Lleida, 2007. (ISBN 978-84-8409-245-2)

 COURSES: 

  • Three Wise Men – Are you serious? Ageing and wisdom in the short fiction of Julian Barnes and Edgar Allan Poe. First edition. Academic year 2006/2007. Universidad de Lleida. 3 credits. Teaching staff: Maricel Oró-Piqueras and Marta Miquel-Baldellou.
  • Three Wise Men – Are you serious? Ageing and wisdom in the short fiction of Julian Barnes and Edgar Allan Poe. Second edition. Academic year 2007/2008. Universidad de Lleida. 3 credits. Teaching staff: Maricel Oró-Piqueras and Marta Miquel-Baldellou.

OTHER FIELDS OF RESEARCH:

Victorian literature; nineteenth-century fiction; comparative literature; gothic fiction; popular fiction; Edgar Allan Poe; Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

List of publications that can be accessed through the database of Dialnet Foundation: http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/autor?codigo=2014649