Academic Background

I did my undergraduate degree at Magdalen, where I was one of the first to do the new Joint School of Modern History and Modern Languages, graduating in 1973. A doctorate then followed, on Albert Camus's philosophy teacher and mentor Jean Grenier. After four years teaching in St Andrews, I returned to Magdalen in 1980.

Undergraduate Teaching

I teach French language and literature (19th and 20th centuries, and the Prelims syllabus). Special Subjects taught: French Literature and Modern War; Francophone Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Lecture courses: Versification, Césaire (both for Prelims), Gide, Mauriac and the Catholic Novel, Literature and Commitment.

Research Interests

20th-century literature, including Gide, Mauriac, Camus, Grenier, Patrice de La Tour du Pin, Sylvie Germain, Andrei Makine, Francophone Literature.

Selected Publications

Jean Grenier, un écrivain et un maître (in press)

Editor, with Jane Taylor, The Anatomy of Laughter (Oxford: Legenda, 2005)

Editor, Sylvie Germain: rose des vents et de l'ailleurs, Critiques littéraires (L'Harmattan, 2003)

Editor, Daniel Halévy, Henri Petit, et les Cahiers Verts, Le Romantisme et après en France (Peter Lang, 2003)

François Mauriac, Thérèse Desqueyroux (Grant and Cutler Critical Guides, 2nd ed 1997)

The Work and Thought of Jean Grenier (1898-1971) (Modern Humanities Research Association, 1983)

'‘Situating Camus : The Formative Influences’', in The Cambridge Companion to Camus, ed. Edward Hughes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 26-38

'‘Camus between Malraux and Grenier: Violence, Ethics and Art’', in Violent Histories, ed. David Gascoigne (New York and Bern: Peter Lang, 2007), 79-91

'“Ceci sort du cadre limité de cet essai”: Jean Grenier and the essay as art form', in The Modern Essay in French: Movement, Instability, Performance, ed. Charles Forsdick and Andrew Stafford, Modern French Identities, 41 (New York-Bern etc: Peter Lang, 2005), 166-177

'Patrice de La Tour du Pin', in: Dictionary of Literary Biography vol. 258: Modern French Poets (Gale Group, 2002), 271-284

'‘La Musique d’une vie: le cas de la petite pomme’', in Andreï Makine : Soil and Soul, ed. Margaret Parry and Edward Welch (Paris: Harmattan, 2005), 17-26

'Translating Éluard', in: Double Vision: Studies in Literary Translation (University of Durham Press, 2002), 35-51