Réka Balog holds a PhD in English literature. Her dissertation was written under the supervision of Professor Claire Joubert from Paris 8 University.

Her dissertation is entitled “Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys and the Poetics of Colonial Time”. Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield and Jean Rhys — three women writers from the first half of the twentieth century that have usually been read and analyzed as Modernists, are treated here under a new angle : that of coloniality. Modernism and colonialism are thus the two pillars on which her analysis stands. Modernism, as a literary movement, has always been preoccupied by time, hence the topic around which her dissertation revolves, which is colonial time. On the one hand, colonial time is embodied in the past colonial context and heritage of the writers. On the other hand, the influence that London, the city from which the authors write, has on their writings, as steeped in a colonial environment. The coloniality of the three writers also consists in the feminist issues that they treat : the women’s condition inside a patriarchal society is what emerges out of the poetics of these writers. The poetics of their fictional writings are analyzed in conjunction with their private writings to see how Modernism transforms the colonial. Thus, a variety of literary genres written during an extended period of time constitutes the corpus of this study.

The main issue of her dissertation is the way Modernism as an art form is transformed by this new reading, the colonial angle that she proposes.

Her research inquiries and ideas on different topics have been discussed in several events.

On the one hand, the doctoral days organized by Paris 8 University :

“Return to the Main Guideline of the Dissertation : the Plan”, June 26th, 2021

“When Modernism and the War Meet in Virginia Woolf’s The Years”, July 6th, 2020

“The Colonial Situation of Katherine Mansfield, Jean Rhys and Virginia Woolf : Traces of Life and Writing”, December 19th, 2018

“Colonial Temporality and the Figure of the Outsider in Virginia Woolf’s The Years”, June 24th, 2017

“Time in the Mansfieldian Short Story : ‘Prelude’ and ‘At the Bay’”, July 2nd, 2016 

“Colonial Time in Woolf, Mansfield and Rhys”, July 2nd, 2015

On the other, international conferences :

Borders of Modernism, Perugia, Italy, December 14-16, 2016 — “Modernism and Colonialism Through Rhysian Time”

Katherine Mansfield and the Art of the Short Story, Bandol, France, June 10-12, 2016 — “Colonial Time in Mansfield’s ‘Prelude’ and ‘At the Bay’”

She is also an active member of the Katherine Mansfield Society, in both writing of articles and organizing events.

Apart from the research field in which she is engaged, she is also a teacher of English. She has already taught for several years at Paris-Sorbonne University, Paris Descartes, and different private universities in Paris, such as IPI (School of Computer Science) or IPSSI (School of Computer Science and Digital Engineering).