Eugene Arva | University of Miami (original) (raw)

EUGENE L. ARVA, PhD
genearva@gmail.com
_________________________________________________________________________

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Eugene L. Arva is an independent scholar living in Germany. He holds a PhD in English Literature and an MFA in Creative Writing, Fiction, from the University of Miami, where he taught courses in American, English, and World Literature for twelve years. Arva’s research focuses on magical realism in literature and film; contemporary theory; Holocaust studies; trauma theory; postcolonial studies; American cinema; and film philosophy. His publications include essays on Caribbean magical realism and narrative theory; Holocaust literature; magical realism and film; the media spectacle of 9/11; and filmic narratives such as Schindler’s List, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Pan’s Labyrinth, etc. Since its publication in 2011, his book, The Traumatic Imagination: Histories of Violence in Magical Realist Fiction (Cambria Press) has garnered international attention (Transnational Literature, Vol. 4. No. 2, May 2012), and was acknowledged for its originality in recent critical works focusing on the nexus between historical violence, trauma, and magical-realist fiction, such as Jenni Adams’s Magic Realism and Holocaust Literature: Troping the Traumatic Real (2011) and Lyn Di Iorio Sandín’s Moments of Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures (2012), thus laying the groundwork for an interdisciplinary dialog centered on trauma theory, postcolonial studies, Holocaust studies, and representation theory.

Arva has chaired panels and presented papers at several prestigious international conferences. He is also a creative writer, the author of two screenplays, All the President’s Children and Liquidators, which have won recognition in several US and international screenwriting competitions. He is a member of the American Screenwriters’ Association (ASA), the Society for the Philosophic Study of Contemporary Visual Arts (SPSCVA), the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Society for Aesthetics (ASA), and the International James Joyce Foundation (IJJF).

EDUCATION
• PhD, English Literature, University of Miami
• MA, English Literature, University of Miami
• MFA, Creative Writing/Fiction, University of Miami
• BA, English and French Literature

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
• Modern and Postmodern World Literature
• Modern and Postmodern American Literature
• Magical Realism
• Trauma Theory
• Holocaust Studies
• Cultural Studies
• Creative Writing, Fiction
• Screenwriting
• Film Philosophy

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
• Modern Language Association
• American Society for Aesthetics
• Society for the Philosophical Study of Contemporary Visual Arts
• International James Joyce Foundation
• American Screenwriters’ Association
Address: Cologne, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

less