Queer Theory in France

France has long been an avid exporter of revolutionary ideas, but what happens when a particular kind of ‘French Theory’ – queer theory – returns home to challenge the way people in France think about sex and sexuality? The dual purpose of this AHRC-funded three-year project is to analyse the appropriation of French thought by queer theorists working in Britain and the United States, and investigate why the body of work they developed met with such resistance when they tried to return it ‘home’ to France.

French Revolutionary Prints as Spectacle

This collaborative research project (2008-2012) between the University of Warwick and the historic house Waddesdon Manor was led by Dr Katherine Astbury. The project aimed to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the notion of spectacle in French Revolutionary prints, and their role in the cultural production of the 1790s. In particular, the research examined the interrelationship of theatre, politics and visual images during the Revolution.

Image credit: Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection (The National Trust), Photo: Imaging Services Bodleian Library © The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor.

Translation and the Untranslatable in Medieval Francophone Texts and Manuscripts

Dr Emma Campbell's project draws on scholarship in postcolonial and translation studies to consider a range of twelfth- and thirteenth-century material, including works attributed to Marie de France, romances by Continental authors (e.g. Chrétien de Troyes, Philippe de Rémi), thirteenth-century jargon texts, and Anglo-Norman bestiary manuscripts, as well as saints' lives and devotional literature.

Unlike many studies of medieval translation, the project is not primarily about the practice or theory of vernacular translation. Instead, it considers two issues: how translation is not necessarily about transfer of meaning between texts; and how redefining translation in this way enables a more expansive exploration of uses of translation that fall outside the more studied model of Latin to French translation.