Postgraduate student interviews: Zoe Coyle (MRes)

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025

The MRes project

Zoe’s research project is focusing on the ways in which violent resistance to France has been represented, and repressed, in Martinique and Guadeloupe since they became French départements (rather than colonies) in 1946. She detailed how although these islands are often seen as dependent on France, or even passive, there has been a long history of resistance. Her project will use literature to explore how this resistant relationship with La Métropole [‘mainland’ France] has been represented at key moments of public uprising. This project will challenge the assumption and idea that these islands are simply reliant on France. Zoe will also consider the two islands in a wider context of protest across the postcolonial francophone world, as seen most recently in New Caledonia and Mayotte.

Academic background

Zoe studied French, Spanish and History at A Level, and suggested that it was her interest in history that first sparked her interest into départementalisation [the process by which certain French colonies were made into official departments of France in 1946] and the effects that residual colonialism has left on the outre-mer territories [French overseas territories]. After A Level, Zoe went on to study French and Spanish at QUB at undergraduate level.

Genesis of the project

As Zoe mentioned before, her interest in history and historical events greatly influenced her decision to research this topic. At university level, there were certain modules that also piqued her interest into this chosen pathway. In final year, she first got a taste for independent research after taking the ‘2666 by Roberto Bolaño’ module in Spanish [taught by Professor Sarah Bowskill]. This module gave her the opportunity to explore her own avenues of research and develop her own areas of interest. Similarly, it gave her the tools to navigate independent research – tools which have served her well over her undergraduate degree and into her postgraduate studies.

The module that steered her towards her interest in postcolonial studies was the final year ‘Caribbean Cultures’ module with Professor Maeve McCusker. It was Zoe’s first time studying the topic during this module, and she described how it was fundamental in her decision about her research topic. She discussed how this module demonstrated the importance and relevance of the breadth of francophone cultures, and how there is a much richer tapestry of la francophonie [the global community of French-speaking people and countries] than just France.

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“A Carnivalesque Encyclopedia: Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s Cré na Cille in an International Context”, 29 January 2025 / 29 Eanáir 2025 – Emerging Voices in Modern Languages Lecture write-up / Tuairisc: An Léacht do Ghuthanna Nua sna Nuatheangacha

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Tá an phostáil seo mar chuid dár Scéim Tionscnaimh Taighde do 2024-2025.

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

[ENGLISH TEXT PROVIDED BELOW]

Ar Dé Céadaoin 29 Márta, thug an Dr Radvan Markus caint faoina chuid taighde ar an úrscéal Gaelach is cáiliúla, Cré na Cille, a scríobh Máirtín Ó Cadhain in 1949. Is léachtóir sinsearach sa Ghaeilge é an Dr Markus in Ollscoil Shéarlas i bPrág. Saineolaí i litríocht nua-aoiseach na Gaeilge is ea é agus d’aistrigh sé Cré na Cille ó Gaeilge go Seicis.

Clúdach an leagain Sheicise de *Cré na Cille*.
Dearadh: Jan Augusta

Ag tús an léachta, mhínigh an Dr Markus gur dá phobal féin a bhí an Cadhnach ag scríobh ach gur aistríodh Cré na Cille go trí theanga dhéag. Dar le Markus go bhfaightear téamaí uilíocha sa scéal agus gur sin an fáth go bhfuil an scéal so-aistrithe go teangacha eile agus go cultúir eile. Níor foilsíodh leagan Béarla de Chré na Cille le linn bheatha an Chadhnaigh de bharr na ndeacrachtaí a bhí ag an bhfoilsitheoir teacht ar aistritheoir, ach rinneadh dhá aistriúchán Béarla air i ndiaidh a bháis: The Dirty Dust (2015) le hAlan Titley agus The Graveyard Clay (2016) le Liam Mac Con Iomaire agus Tim Robinson. Dúirt Markus go mbunaítear cuid de na haistriúcháin go teangacha eile ar leaganacha Titley agus Mhic Con Iomaire agus Robinson agus n’fheadar cé chomh cruinn is atá na nathanna cainte sna leaganacha sin.

De réir an Dr Markus is scéal ciclipéideach anordúil é Cré na Cille a léiríonn scéal Chonamara, scéal na hÉireann agus scéal na nÉireannach. Ach is scéal sothuighte do léitheoirí ar fud na hEorpa é freisin. Cuireann an scéal dearcadh na dtuathánach in iúl go soiléir don léitheoir: an chúlchaint, an tsíorsáraíocht, agus an t-éad. D’áitigh sé gur carachtar uilíoch í an príomhcharachtar Caitríona Pháidín ar féidir a macasamhla a aimsiú i gcultúir dhomhanda éagsúla, cuir i gcás cultúr na Seice.

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Postdoctoral researcher interviews: Dr Emma Humphries

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025

I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Dr Emma Humphries to find out more about her academic career and current areas of interest.

Currently a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at QUB, Emma began her academic career in Nottingham, where she studied French and Spanish at undergraduate level. Her love for the French language was piqued during her dissertation project relating to public reaction towards the long-awaited feminisation of professional titles in the 1990s. With support from her mentors, this love of French soon prompted Emma to embark on an MRes project examining prescriptivism on social media.

What is prescriptivism you might ask? Simply put, this is when someone corrects and critiques someone else’s use of language – whether in oral or written format. Emma has found that people can feel very strongly about the ‘correct’ use of language, suggesting that language is an intrinsic part of one’s identity and culture. Prescriptivism thus became the main focus of her academic career, with her PhD exploring language columns in the late 1800s in France in comparison to similar online sources. Interestingly, these publications were formatted much like a column in local newspapers so that members of the public could write to the author with specific language queries (i.e. how to spell/pronounce/use certain language) that would be addressed in the bi-weekly publication.

In a contemporary context, Emma places great emphasis on the influence of social media and how this has impacted the use of language – she stresses that with the advent of comment sections, we now have large bodies of empirical evidence of prescriptivism, data which we did not have access to before. This renders the study of prescriptivism more quantifiable and therefore feasible, allowing researchers such as Emma to truly shine a light on this phenomenon.

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Agallaimh le mic léinn iarchéime: Katie McNamee (PhD, Gaeilge) / Postgraduate student interviews: Katie McNamee (PhD, Irish)

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Tá an phostáil seo mar chuid dár Scéim Tionscnaimh Taighde do 2024-2025.

This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

[ENGLISH TEXT ALTERNATES WITH IRISH TEXT BELOW]

Inis dom faoi d’aistear leis an Ghaeilge go dtí seo, conas a d’fhoghlaim tú í den chéad uair agus cén fáth gur phioc tú an Ghaeilge mar ábhar ollscoile?

D’fhreastail mé ar mo bhunscoil áitiúil, mar sin thosaigh mé ag foghlaim na Gaeilge nuair a bhí mé ceithre bliana d’aois. Is dócha go bhfuil sé níos fusa teanga a fhoghlaim ar an bhealach sin, nuair a bhíonn tú óg bíonn tú in ann teanga a phiocadh suas go gasta agus ní bhíonn ort dua a chaitheamh lena foghlaim. D’fhreastail mé ar shruth na Gaeilge i gColáiste Chaitríona, Ard Mhacha ina dhiaidh sin, bhí mé in ann staidéar a dhéanamh ar ábhair trí mheán na Gaeilge agus chuidigh sin go mór liom mo chuid scileanna scríbhneoireachta a fhorbairt. Bhí mé iontach paiseanta faoin teanga agus d’éirigh go maith liom sa Ghaeilge ar scoil ach nuair a chríochnaigh mé ar an scoil ní raibh mé cinnte cén sórt post a ba mhaith liom.

Tell me about your journey with the Irish language so far. How you first learned the language and why you chose Irish as a university subject?

I attended my local Irish-medium primary school, which meant that I started learning Irish when I was four years old. I was the first in my family to learn Irish and it was seen as a bit of a risk sending me there as the school had just been established a year earlier, in 2003. But my mother is a teacher and she was very aware of the benefits of bilingualism and the effectiveness of immersive education. I think it was a lot easier for us to learn Irish as children as we were able to pick it up very quickly simply by interacting with our teachers.

I then attended an Irish-medium stream in my secondary school and I was able to do most of my subjects in Irish. I think that writing essays in subjects like history in Irish really helped develop my writing skills. I have always loved the Irish language and it was definitely my favourite subject in school, especially when we started to study poetry. When I finished secondary school, I didn’t know what sort of job I wanted but I knew I wanted to do something with Irish.

Cén t-ábhar dochtúireachta atá idir lámha agat agus cén fáth ar roghnaigh tú an t-ábhar sin?

Tá mé ag caitheamh súil ar an dóigh a dtéann scríbhneoirí na Gaeilge i ngleic le ceisteanna a bhfuil stiogma agus náire ag baint leo. Bím ag plé leis na teicnící éagsúla a bhíonn in úsáid ag scríbhneoirí chun dul i ngleic le ceisteanna cigilteacha ar nós na gnéasachta agus an mheabhairghalar, mar shampla. Díríonn mo chuid taighde ar na straitéisí cosanta éagsúla a mbaintear úsáid astu chun dul i ngleic le hábhair a bheadh róchigilteach aghaidh a thabhairt go díreach orthu.

Bhí suim agam i gcónaí san fhilíocht agus scríobh mé mo thráchtas bunchéime ar fhilíocht Greagóir Uí Dhúill agus thaitin an taighde go mór liom. Nuair a scríobh mé mo thráchtas máistreachta ar shaothar Dhairena Ní Chinnéide, d’éirigh mé níos muiníní mar thaighdeoir agus bhí a fhios agam go raibh mé ag iarraidh dochtúireacht a dhéanamh. Le linn na máistreachta, chuir mé suim sa smaoineamh go mbíonn feidhm theiripeach i gceist leis an fhilíocht in amanna, agus bhí mé ag iarraidh an cheist sin a chíoradh.

What PhD topic are you working on and why did you choose this topic?

My research looks at how Irish-language writers approach sensitive issues in their work that involve stigma and shame. I focus on the various strategies these writers employ in their work to deal with issues such as mental illness or sexuality, for example. This involves analysing works that use distancing strategies to tackle issues that would be too sensitive to discuss head on.

I was always interested in poetry and I decided to write my undergraduate dissertation on the poetry of Gréagóir Ó Dúill. I really enjoyed the research and when I wrote my Masters dissertation on the poetry of Dairena Ní Chinnéide, I gained a lot of confidence as a researcher and I knew that I wanted to do a PhD. During that masters, I became interested in the therapeutic aspect of poetry and I wanted to do further research on that topic.

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The Suicide Archive: Reading Resistance in the Wake of French Empire, 28 February 2025 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

I recently enjoyed attending a seminar led by Dr Doyle Calhoun, University Assistant Professor of Francophone Postcolonial Studies at the University of Cambridge. This seminar sought to explore a long-overlooked consequence of the violence of French colonialism: suicide. Often uttered in whispered tones, suicide to this day remains a taboo subject, the elephant in the room that people wish to avoid discussing.

However, through his work Dr Calhoun has shone a light on the historical occurrence of suicide as an act of resistance to colonial violence, with specific reference to the time of slavery in the French-speaking Caribbean. Dr Calhoun discussed colonial records as well as contemporary African and Afro-Caribbean media and Senegalese oral history in order to reconstruct a history of the experiences of suicide among enslaved populations and their ancestors. The genesis of Dr Calhoun’s work lies in his finding that suicide was either obscured or omitted entirely in French colonial documents. Given that suicide had not previously been considered in the context of colonial violence, Dr Calhoun’s work offers a groundbreaking historical analysis, demonstrating the sombre paradoxical idea that accounts of suicide offer a fleeting glimpse into the lives of enslaved people.

Dr Calhoun began by unpacking the notion of a ‘suicide archive’; the function it performs and the questions that arise as a result. The suicide archive reflects a scholarly desire to recover stories lost or untold. However, what authority do modern scholars possess to ‘rewrite’ such a contentious part of history? How can scholars elevate the identities of those enslaved peoples lost to suicide whilst maintaining a respectful and reverent attitude regarding their humanity? Is the very act of analysing and elevating these lost identities disrespectful in itself? What if these people did not want to be remembered? Whilst the intention to bring to light these historic injustices is noble, Dr Calhoun crucially emphasised that this work must be carried out in a respectful and delicate manner.

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Postgraduate student interviews: Erin McCombe (PhD, Spanish and Portuguese)

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025

In the 21st century, postcolonial literature has progressively shifted from the cultural periphery to the mainstream. It offers a path to understanding the ever-present effect of colonialism within contemporary society, in particular by giving a voice to those who were historically silenced. On the 21^stof March 2025, I discussed this topic with Erin McCombe, a Spanish and Portuguese PhD student whose thesis examines the topic of conviviality within literature by women of African descent in Spain and Portugal [1].

When did you first develop an interest in postcolonial literature?

I suppose as an undergraduate, on the Portuguese side [of my degree]. I remember reading [the short story] ‘O embondeiro que sonhava pássaros’ by [Mozambican author] Mia Couto and that still sticks out in my mind as my initial contact with postcolonial literature. I then went on to study Lusophone African cinema and that developed my interest even more. In final year I started looking into postcolonial Africa within a Spanish context and come across some research on authors from Equatorial Guinea.

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Amphion and the Dilemmas of Lyric Theory, 30 October 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

On Wednesday 30th October, the Core Disciplinary Research Group in Modern Languages hosted Leah Middlebrook, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish at the University of Oregon. Professor Middlebrook gave a seminar on the findings of her new book, Amphion: Lyre, Poetry and Politics in Modernity (University of Chicago Press, 2024).

Cover of Professor Middlebrook’s book, created by University of Chicago Press

Professor Middlebrook opened her presentation with the story of the construction of the city-state of Thebes, as told through the myth of Amphion, who with the playing of his lyre made the stones move to build walls to form this great city. The figure of Amphion has continued to be prominent for his role in music and architecture. He was also key to the development of lyric theory and practice, as Professor Middlebrook demonstrated. However, Amphion was pushed to the academic and cultural periphery in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The idea that Amphion represents is that fragments converge to create something abstract and solid, in particular, creating bulwarks of language. This is best encapsulated according to Professor Middlebrook, in the reference to Luis Pérez Ángel, as cited in the 1602 work Discurso en loor de la poesía (by anonymous Peruvian poet “Clarinda”) whose poems were described there in an explicit Amphionic analogy as “build[ing] […] walls” for a city, a concept that Middlebrook revisited later in the seminar. This came in the form of the image depicting Mercury (Hermes) guiding Amphion as he played the Lyre, an instrument of Hermes’ own invention. The image connotes the idea that while Amphion’s lyre is associated with the civic form that is the polity, it is also a figure that represents the power of lyric to deconstruct. This was a poignant suggestion made by Middlebrook as Thebes was reputed to be a political disaster. It was a city that, although capable of keeping its enemies out, could not, however, deter its own social erosion. Middlebrook described this dynamic as ‘The mercurial Poesis’, since the Theban stones represent both construction and destruction. The lyre animates collective action, but that action can result in ruin.

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French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities (Travel Bursary write-up)

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This post, published in 2024-2025, is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

The conference “French Studies and the Medical Humanities: Critical Intersectionalities” took place at the University of London’s Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies on the 3^rd and 4^th of September, 2024. I was fortunate to be able to attend with the support of a Modern Languages MRes Travel Bursary from the Modern Languages Core Disciplinary Research Group.

As part of a strategic effort to de-centre anglophone perspectives and broaden the linguistic horizons of the field, the conference sought to highlight the importance of linguistic and cultural sensitivity in ongoing conversations about medical experiences. Paper topics included critical disability studies, environmental anxiety, bibliotherapy, and narrative medicine.

In her paper titled “L’affaire Anne Bert: Assisted dying between law and literature”, keynote speaker Anna Elsner (University of St Gallen) discussed how individual narratives are co-opted by politicians and governments to shape the lawmaking process. She highlighted the example of Anne Bert, a former court-appointed legal guardian who became a writer later in life. After being diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 2015, she publicly campaigned for changes in France’s legislation surrounding assisted dying, before travelling to Belgium to seek an assisted death in 2017. This decision was subject to widespread debate in the French media and parliament. Elsner’s paper encouraged attendees to de-centre their own perspectives and allow both the medical humanities and French studies to enrich each other through their mutual engagement.

Of particular interest to my own project was a panel titled “Disability and Clinical Environments”. In her paper on disability in the works of Samuel Beckett, Molly Crozier (University of St Andrews) discussed the networks of care that exist outside of traditional medical settings and the intimacy involved in caring relationships, especially in light of the capacity of interpersonal relationships to cause more harm than good. Áine Larkin (Maynooth University) then analysed how the documentary La Permanence by Alice Diop centres the patient and their subjectivity in its depiction of the clinical encounter, and how it positions vulnérabilité (vulnerability) alongside the French values of liberté, égalité, fraternité (freedom, equality, fraternity). These papers helped me think about the caring relationships depicted in my own corpus texts, and pointed to useful sources that helped me shape the conclusion of my MRes dissertation.

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The Power of Play: Comparative Caribbean Carnival Cultures from Leeds to Martinique, 16 October 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025.

On Wednesday 16^th October 2024, for Black History Month, Professor Emily Zobel Marshall gave a talk on her research and involvement in carnival and its role in society. Her talk, ‘The Power of play: Comparative Caribbean Carnival Cultures from Leeds to Martinique’ took us on a journey explaining the beginnings of Caribbean carnival culture through to its worldwide impact today.

Red Devil troupe at Martinique Carnival, March 2024, photographed by Emily Zobel Marshall

Professor Zobel Marshall, being ‘Martinican royalty’ (according to Professor Maeve McCusker who chaired the talk) due to her famous grandfather, spoke briefly about her connection with Martinican author Joseph Zobel, and how this lineage had influenced her interests and research from an early age. Although an esteemed academic, Professor Zobel Marshall explained how her research into carnival culture was an endeavor to ‘blur the lines between academia and art’ through various projects. She spoke of this breaking down of barriers between the academic and artistic worlds and detailed just how important that is for her.

The beginnings of carnival culture across the Caribbean islands, according to Professor Zobel Marshall, started as something of a mélange culturel, or cultural mixing. She spoke of the initial introduction of the masquerade (today known familiarly as ‘mas’) as hybrid cultural form – a fusion of the religious rituals of French Catholic colonisers and the musical and performance traditions of enslaved Africans. As a form of resistance, enslaved peoples further developed their own version of the masquerade where plantation owners could be mocked and ridiculed, giving power to the disempowered.

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José Iglesias de la Casa (1749-1791), a Problematic Pastoral and Satirical Poet, Friday 8 March 2024 – Seminar write-up

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This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2023-2024.

On Friday 8^th March, Noelia López-Souto (Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife) delivered a seminar on her research into Salamancan poet José Iglesias de la Casa, focusing on his life and poetry in 18^th century Spain.

Noelia López-Souto (photo by Modern Languages CDRG)

To begin her presentation, Dr López-Souto presented us with a portrait of José Iglesias de la Casa, and highlighted how elements included in this portrait represented his life as a priest and poet. However, his dual role of priest and poet posed a problem, as there was sometimes a tension between his religious life and the content of his poetry including, for example, his use of satire. Writing in the 18^th century, at a time which fell between the Golden Age and Romantic period of literature, his work is part of the School of Salamanca, an important Spanish literary group with a new poetry influenced not only by the European Rococo movement but also by traditional Spanish poetry and classical models.

Dr López-Souto highlighted how many of his works were subject to posthumous editing, leading to the modification of controversial sections of the original texts, and their division into volumes to facilitate publishing. Despite this, his Poesías Póstumas (1793) were widely successful, and were included in various collections of classical Spanish poetry. However, these works were later silenced and removed from these publications. Dr López-Souto then explained how she has released a new manuscript with poems by Iglesias. Her research aims to recover the poet’s lost works and make them more widely available.

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