
Mieke Bal is a Dutch literary theorist, cultural and art historian. Areas of interest range from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture. Her many publications include A Mieke Bal Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology (4th edition 2017). Her view of interdisciplinary analysis in the Humanities and Social Sciences is expressed in the profile of what she has termed “cultural analysis”, the basis of ASCA. See the video clip on the right side of this page, where I explain the approach. Mieke is also a video artist, her internationally exhibited documentaries on migration include Separations, State of Suspension, Becoming Vera and the installation Nothing is Missing and are part of the Cinema Suitcase collective. With Michelle Williams Gamaker she made the feature film A Long History of Madness, a theoretical fiction about madness, and related exhibitions (2012). Her following project Madame B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, also with Michelle, is exhibited worldwide. She just finished a feature film and 5-screen installation on René Descartes and his infelicitously ending friendship with Queen Kristina of Sweden. Occasionally she acts as an independent curator. Her co-curated exhibition 2MOVE travelled to four countries. She is currently preparing an exhibition for the Munch museum in Oslo.
Series
Books

Frida Kahlo
2001

Quoting Caravaggio
Contemporary Art, Preposterous History
1999

Over Literatuur
1987

Looking In
The Art of Viewing
2000

Travelling Concepts in the Humanities
A Rough Guide
2002

Death and Dissymmetry
The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges
1988

The Artemisia Files
Artemisia Gentileschi for Feminists and Other Thinking People
2005

On Story-Telling
Essays in Narratology (Foundations and Facets)
1991

Narratology
Introduction to the Theory of Narrative
1978

The Mottled Screen
Reading Proust Visually
1997

Louise Bourgeois' Spider
The Architecture of Art-Writing
2001