Elana Gomel
I live across cultures, languages and borders. Born in a country that no longer exists (USSR), I have studied and taught in London, Princeton, Hong Kong, Venice, Standford and Tel-Aviv. My wanderings have taught me that what matters is not the place we inhabit but the stories we tell ourselves about it. All the books I have written are voyages exploring the infinite space of narrative and imagination.
Subjects: History, Literature, Media and Cultural Studies, Philosophy
Biography
I am an Associate Professor at the Department of English and American Studies at Tel-Aviv University, and the author of six non-fiction books and numerous articles on subjects such as narrative theory, science fiction, cultural translation, Dickens, and Victorian culture. My latest books are Narrative Space and Time: Representing Impossible Topologies in Literature (Routledge 2014) and Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism: Beyond the Golden Rule (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2014). My fantasy stories appeared in New Horizons, Aoife’s Kiss, Bewildering Stories, Timeless Tales and anthologies People of the Book, Jews Vs. Aliens, and Dogstar and Other Science Fiction Stories. I am also the author of a fantasy novel A Tale of Three Cities (Dark Quest Books, 2013). I have been a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University, University of Hong Kong, and Stanford University. I am currently a Visiting Professor at Venice International University (VIU) in Venice, Italy. My current project is a book about fantastic cities.Education
-
PhD from Tel-Aviv University
Post-doc at Princeton University
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
-
Narrative theory, science fiction, posthumanism, science and literature, popular culture, urban studies, Victorian culture, Charles Dickens
Personal Interests
-
Science fiction and fantasy (writing about and writing of); cities (living in and writing about); traveling
Books
Articles
“History of the End: Viktor Pelevin and Literary Postmodernism
Published: Oct 01, 2013 by Narrative
Authors: Elana Gomel
Subjects:
Literature
Postmodernism rose to prominence on the ruins of utopia, the utopia in question being the Soviet one.
Invasion of the Dead (Languages): Zombie Apocalypse and the End of Narrative
Published: May 01, 2013 by Frame – Journal of Literary Studies
Authors: Elana Gomel
The essay analyzes the narrative and semantic features of the zombie apocalypse in popular culture. It argues that the zombie is a figure for the decoupling of the connection between language and meaning and the loss of what Lyotard called “master narratives”. Rather than yet another apocalyptic narrative, the zombie invasion is an apocalypse of narrative.
"Posthuman Voices: Alien Infestation and the Poetics of Subjectivity".
Published: Mar 07, 2012 by Science Fiction Studies 117
Authors: Elana Gomrl
Subjects:
Media and Cultural Studies
This article analyzes narrative representations of posthuman subjectivity in a range of sf texts that deal with a takeover of human beings by aliens, from Golden Age classics such as John Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” (1938) and Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters (1951) to the contemporary blockbusters Infected (2006) and Contagious (2008) by Scott Sigler.
Photos
News
