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Faculties & Departments
Department of French
Postgraduate research projects in the Department of French
M. A.
AINE GLYNN (2004 -2005 )
Supervisor: Dr Counihan
Area of research: The body in the theatre of Hélène Cixous
Summary of the research project:
In undertaking this thesis I aim to study the work of Helene Cixous, her ‘theoretical’ writings and her plays in the light of these essays. Her fruitful collaboration with Ariane Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil has given us a rich field of research, particularly around the area of the body in theatre, particularly the presentation of the feminine body and femininity. How successful is her portrayal of the body and how has it evolved over the past thirty years? A close, critical reading of her plays will be coupled with critical writings and reflections on the feminine in theatre.
VALERIE TISON (2004 -2005 )
Supervisor: Éamon Ó Ciosáin
Area of research: Regional language and literature
Summary of the research project:
Dissertation title: "J'sui fier d'min patois". Le renouveau socio-linguistique dans le Nord de la France, une réalité ? ». Study of cultural and identity issues in the resurgence of ‘Chti’ over the last decade, looking at the status of the dialect as either a heritage language or a living language, using written, audio and audio-visual texts produced in this cultural context.
SUSAN EADES (2005 -2006 )
Supervisor: Professor R. Whelan
OLIVIER ERNEST (2005 -2006 )
Supervisor: Dr Kathleen Shields
GUILLAUME EZAN (2005 -2006 )
Supervisor: Dr Kathleen Shields
Title of Thesis : La Traduction de L'Oralité
Ph. D.
PATRICIA GIBSON (2000 - )
Supervisor: Dr Kathleen Shields
Area of research: Translation Studies
Summary of the research project:
The English title of my thesis is ‘Translating Northern Irish literature of the Troubles into French: the role and ethics of the translator in the NI conflict situation.’
Drawing on a corpus of ten novels dealing with the NI Troubles (written originally in English) and their translation into French, I analyse the French translators’ strategies used in the translation process, and how they convey the Northern Irish Troubles to the French readers.
I determine the different roles adopted by each translator. Those roles – conscious or/and unconscious – influence the translation process and thus impact the target text; this appears at two levels – on the semantic level (content, message and cultural elements) and on the presentation level (form, editorial input). Yet amongst the various roles, I demonstrate that in each case there is one role, in general, that is predominant and mainly guides the translation work; and is representative of a strategy.
Finally, I hypothesise a translation tendency of the conflict, which may be linked to a historical period, a literary movement, an authorial style or even a literary gender.
KEVIN JAMES BRANIGAN (2001 -2006 )
Supervisor: Dr. Kathleen Shields
Area of research: Musicality in the Radio Plays of Samuel Beckett
Summary of the research project:
Radio drama presents a wholly auditive genre in which reality may be constructed or deconstructed through speech and sound. Samuel Beckett’s radio plays, mostly written for the BBC, identify what can be presented in broadcast which cannot be presented on stage. From the outset, the author utilises music both referentially and structurally. A range of musical and performative frameworks are proposed. In a number of these plays, music even becomes an autonomous character, consciously contributing to the scenario.
In my thesis I argue that Beckett utilises music in these radio plays as a means of escaping the discursive nature of language. Music presents the possibility of developing an expression which is capable of tapping into the intuitive and emotive aspects of reality. Finally, I argue that the centrality of music in these works requires the input of a musical expertise which Beckett lacked. These works therefore are incomplete without a creative dialogue between the author’s text and composers, producers musicians and interpreters.
MAIRTIN MAC AODHA (2002 – )
Supervisors: Dr. Kathleen Shields
Area of research: Bilingual legal lexicography
Summary of the research project:
This project seeks to facilitate the task of the legal lexicographer / translator by establishing a new method of legal lexicography based on conceptual analysis. Divergences between the common law and civil law traditions lead to terminological incongruence. The legal translator, faced with reproducing in the target text not only the meaning but also the legal effects of the source term, requires information concerning the function, scope of application and legal effect of problematic word pairs. This study will provide a means of determining these functional equivalents. Other failings of traditional legal dictionaries, such as the neglect of grammar, will also be addressed. This is one of the first studies to seek to bridge the gap between the two languages and two legal traditions.
ANDRÉ KABORÉ (2003 –2006 )
Supervisors: Margaret Kelleher (English Department) and Eamon O’Ciosain
Area of research: Orature (Irish and Burkinabe literatures)
Summary of the research project:
Orature is a literary genre on the cusp between oral literature and written literature. It refers to literary writings which are meant to be performed, such as plays and some categories of poetry, short stories and novels. The aim of my research project is to define this genre and illustrate it with examples, especially by proving that Carleton’s Traits and Stories of Irish Peasantry and Titinga Fréderic Pacéré’s poetry are pieces of orature.
Exchange students (Erasmus):
M. A.
FANNY VERNAY (2004 - ).
Supervisor: M. Clavaron (Université de Saint-Etienne, France)
Area of research: Comparative literature
Summary of the research project:
In undertaking this thesis, I aim to study the protection of the oppressed people in the middle of the nineteenth century, comparing the figure of the oppressed people in three novels, ie. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harrier-Beecher Stowe (the defence of the black slave in America), Max Havellar, by Multatuli (the defence of the colonised Javanese) and Germinal, by Emile Zola (the defence of the miner in France who has to fight against the Capital god).
I will try to find the similarities and the differences between these three novels concerning the authors’ commitment: completely revolutionary, or not. I will study as well some ambiguities in the novelists’ commitment (antislavery, anti-colonialism and socialism) and try to show how the authors take the defence of the miserable people – by means of rhetorical, poetical, mythical, epical or satirical devises among others…
I will show how these three novels are three weapons in three important fights against unfairness and for the defence of the human rights. My work will explain how the authors, through the novels’ mains characters, invite the reader to go on these fights and, thus, to take the author's place.
AURELIE MATHIEU (2004 - ).
Supervisor: Mme Viennot (Université de Saint-Étienne, France)
Area of research: Sixteenth-century French literature
Summary of the research project:
My research is about the queen Marguerite de Valois, wife of Henri the IV. I study some texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries about her representation (by Brantome, Tallemand Des Reaux, Shakespeare and D’Aubigné). The study of these portraits, compared to her own representation she gives in her Memoirs, will show how her legend, the legend of the queen Margot, has been built.