Victoria Osei-Bonsu

photo: Oumou Traoré

photo: Oumou Traoré

Victoria Osei-Bonsu

Victoria Osei-Bonsu

I am an Assistant Lecturer at the Department of English of the University of Ghana, Legon, where I teach courses in English Literature. My areas of research interest include Comparative Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Cultural Studies, and Gender Studies. I first arrived in Basel in October 2013 on an ESKAS Scholarship to begin studies and research towards a PhD in Postcolonial Literature. When my ESKAS funding run out at the end of 2016, I benefitted from a FAG funding scheme which supported me until July 2017.

For the completion stage of my dissertation write-up, I have been funded by the Fondation Oumou Dilly, whose kind support has so far enabled me to focus on writing without becoming distracted by the financial demands of daily maintenance. Thanks to the timely financial support from the Fondation, I have been able to reach the very end of my research as I finalise my dissertation towards the completion of my PhD programme.

My doctoral research focuses on Otherness/ alterity from a postcolonial theoretical perspective and demonstrates ways in which such Otherness is depicted in the writings of Joseph Conrad. Consequently, my doctoral dissertation is titled “Representations of the Other in Selected Works of Joseph Conrad”. An additional highlight of the period during which I benefitted from the Fondation Oumou Dilly is that I also managed to finalise and publish an article that explores the concept of Otherness in Jamaica Kincaid’s novel The Autobiography of my Mother.