Dr Luke Thurston

Lecturer
BA (Oxon) MA PhD (Kent) Photograph of Dr Luke Thurston.

Contact

Email: lut@aber.ac.uk
Office: D57
Phone: +44 (0)1970 622389

Teaching Areas

Lecturer in Modern Literature

Luke teaches Victorian, modern and contemporary literature, specializing in the period 1880-1940; and also literary theory, specializing in psychoanalysis and literary ghosts.  He welcomes PhD proposals in the following areas: Modernism (especially Joyce, Beckett, Woolf, David Jones, May Sinclair); literature and ghosts; literature and war; literature and psychoanalysis.

Research

Main research interests are in modernism, literary ghosts and wartime literature, with additional interests in contemporary philosophy and translation. Luke is currently working on a study of modernism, war and testimony in Wyndham Lewis, May Sinclair, David Jones and Elizabeth Bowen.

Other research interests include the theory and practice of psychoanalysis and Luke has translated works by Jean Laplanche, André Green and Roberto Harari.  He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Lacanian Studies.

In 2010 Luke took part in a film about Joyce, psychoanalysis and Trieste, made by an Italian television company. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl4zk3UmV54

Staff Publications

Literary Ghosts Literary Ghosts from the Victorians to Modernism: the Haunting Interval, New York: Routledge, 2012

‘A terrific book, tightly-argued, highly-disciplined, constantly making interconnections of a convincing kind between the examples; never obscure or wandering from the point, often witty and sharp in observation and deduction – a brilliant account of what goes on and what’s at stake when the ghost gets into the machine of narrative.’ (Peter Barry)

 For more information, or to purchase the book, see Routledge

    James Joyce and the Problem of PsychoanalysisJames Joyce and the Problem of Psychoanalysis, Cambridge University Press, 2004

‘Thurston’s ingenious arguments take us deep into the labyrinth of signs and the psyche.’ (Times Literary Supplement)

‘This is a brilliant book. It shows how a sophisticated theory-savvy approach unlocks a few more Joycean riddles.’ (Jean-Michel Rabaté)

‘Thurston’s carefully worked out ideas about Joyce, his extensive and sophisticated knowledge of Lacan, his deep imagination and ability to connect ideas on many levels, and his gift for making complex concepts clear and even entertaining … make this decidedly the best of the many Lacanian books on Joyce.’ (Sheldon Brivic)

For more information, or to purchase the book, see Cambridge University Press

 
Re-inventing the Symptom Re-inventing the Symptom: Essays on the Final Lacan , Other Press, 2002, Edited by Luke Thurston

‘This is criticism of the highest order that takes Lacan’s work as a starting-point for new creation.’ (Maud Ellmann)

For more information, or to purchase the book, see Other Press

 
How James Joyce Made his NameHow James Joyce Made His Name: A Reading of the Final Lacan, By Roberto Harari, translated by Luke Thurston (Other Press, 2002)

'This new translation makes the intricacies of Lacan's seminar available to the English-speaking world for the first time. The author's accessible, vigorous prose explains the nuances of Lacanian theory with perfect clarity.'

For more information, or to purchase the book, see Other Press:

 
Essays on OthernessEssays on Otherness, By Jean Laplanche, translated by Luke Thurston (Routledge, 1999)

‘Exegetically scrupulous and rigorously argued, these essays go straight to the heart of the psychoanalytical enterprise.’ (Peter Osborne)