This project examines how the subject understands itself (socially) in a narrative process. It studies novels and short stories (including works by Henry James, who has been central to my recent research), but also includes writing such creative work oneself.

The project has a historical component that seeks to explore, through stories, how the Ghent cotton industry relied on plantations in the southern US, which in turn were profitable due to slave labor. The focus will be on the nineteenth century, with issues surrounding the American Civil War and how it was experienced in Ghent.

The contemporary aspect of the project will explore, through stories, how bisexuality can be negotiated when it takes a synchronous form, i.e., relationships that a subject has with (at least) two sexes simultaneously. Additionally, the project questions the role of (power) imbalances and the sexual stimulus that can emanate from them.