Jacob Carlson
Senior Lecturer
Department of Languages and LiteraturesAbout Jacob Carlson
Background
In the 1990s and early 2000s, I studied Practical Philosophy, Swedish, Comparative Literature, French, and Pedagogy at the University of Gothenburg. My French studies also brought me to the University of Perpignan, where I spent one year as an Erasmus student. For some time, I also worked as a Swedish teacher for newly arrived immigrant secondary school students in the Gothenburg district of Bergsjön. In 2004, I obtained the degree of upper secondary school teacher of Swedish and French, and a Master’s degree in French. In the same year, I was accepted as a PhD student in French. In May 2011, I successfully defended my doctoral thesis La Poétique de Houellebecq : réalisme, satire, mythe, thereby obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Teaching
As a PhD student, I worked as a part-time fixed-term lecturer, especially on preparatory university courses in French, but also taught pronunciation, and text and translation at the introductory level (second part), and literary history at the intermediate level.
Having obtained my doctoral degree, I worked for two semesters as a lecturer in French at Dalarna University, where I was responsible for courses in grammar and language didactics.
I currently work as a lecturer in French at the University of Gothenburg. My responsibilities include coordination of French: introductory level (second part, net/distance), supervision of bachelor dissertations, teaching of grammar, translation, phonetics and pronunciation at the introductory level (second part), lecturing on text courses (fictional as well as non-fictional texts) at the introductory and intermediate level, and literary theory on advanced level.
Research
My doctoral thesis is a study of Michel Houellebecq’s poetics of the novel. On a thematic level, the thesis also deals with the metaphysical and religious views expressed in Houellebecq’s novels and the relation of these ideas to a number of central, structuring metaphors. In addition to what is dealt with in my doctoral thesis, I have also studied the autobiographical (or autofictional) elements in Houellebecq’s writings.
My current research projects deals with method in students' literary essays and with connections between previous knowledge of French and study success on our introductory level.