Mr Julien Clin
Contact
- Email: julien.clin@kingston.ac.uk
- Location: Kingston School of Art, Knights Park
- Faculty: Kingston School of Art
- Department: Department of Humanities
Research project: Visions of Home: The Poetics of Heimat in the Cosmopolitan City
Abstract
This interdisciplinary project investigates the poetics of Home in contemporary London writing. What visions of home are imagined at a time of neoliberal crisis and cruel gentrification in the city? The project engages with the pressing issues of which social actors have the "right to the city" and the right to a Home in the city.
Using creative non-fiction to weave together elements of personal biography, storytelling and theory – from literary geography, to topology, architecture and urban design – I examine how stories and poetics re-enchant the places, people and histories. This re-enchantment reveals an attachment to place, which, understood as Heidegger's "fourfold" (Earth, Sky, Mortals, Gods), provides an essential anchor for notion of home and belonging.
Contributing the notion of 'Heimat' as a process of home-making, rather than home-coming, the thesis offers new perspectives on identity and belonging in the globalised, dynamic, post-Brexit city of London.
- Research degree: PhD
- Title of project: Visions of Home: The Poetics of Heimat in the Cosmopolitan City
- Research supervisor: Professor Sara Upstone
- Other research supervisors:
Biography
My first degree was a Magister Artium in American and Romance Philology from the University of Tübingen (Germany), where I produced a thesis on "The Art of Montage in John Dos Passos's Manhattan Transfer." My focus then was on the subtle, implicit political message conveyed by the technique and how it contributed to the representation of the city.
After several years in broadcast journalism, during which I worked as a producer and foreign correspondent, I obtained a Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford (Somerville College). I continue to be interested in long-form and radio journalism as well as travel writing.
Alongside my doctoral research, I also engage with Place and Urbanism as part of the PlaceLabs Collect (www.placelabs.co.uk) and through my own creative writing. A project called Verbacity, to map new place writing in London, is in the pipes.
Areas of research interest
- Creative Writing
- Contemporary London Writing
- Narrative, Place & Imagination
- Urbanism
- Heimat & Home
- English Literature
Qualifications
- Magister Artium, American & Romance Philology, University of Tübingen (Germany)
- Master's in Creative Writing, Somerville College, University of Oxford
Funding or awards received
- AHRC/Techne