Literary Studies, Cultural Translation and Multilingualism
The Institute in Paris' research is always crossing boundaries to investigate subjects including plurilingualism in situations of superdiversity, postcolonial infractions and innovations in the languages of Empire, and language practices and the impact of linguistic and literary creativity on the social and political transformation of our societies.
Catriona MacLeod works on contemporary graphic novels and their varied representations of women, trauma, and displacement; her monograph, Invisible Presence: The Representation of Women in French-Language Comics, was published in 2021 (Intellect). Joanne Brueton focuses on 20th- and 21st-century French and Francophone literature, particularly Jean Genet; her book, Geometry and Jean Genet: Shaping the Subject was published in 2021 (Legenda). Geoffrey Roger's forthcoming critical edition of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles explores this unique document of French usage at the court of Philip III of Burgundy. Anna-Louise Milne and Russell Williams offer a new mapping of French fictional writing since the 1980s in their collective volume Contemporary Fiction in French (CUP, 2020).
The launch of a new seminar series entitled French Research in Culture, Thought, Imagination, or FRICTION in 2022, reflects our interest in the rub between disciplines and practices, inviting critical and creative writers to discuss how they work in and across languages and borders.