Helen J. Swift

Researcher

Helen J. Swift Fellow and Tutor, and University Lecturer (CUF) in Medieval French,
Member of the MARGOT Research Group.

Teaching and research interests include Medieval French language and literature, particularly fifteenth-century defence of women literature, responses to the Roman de la rose, transitions from manuscript to print, and text and image; medieval theories of imagination; critical theory; film studies.

Teaching

Courses in French language and medieval literature, critical theory, and film studies, at both undergraduate and graduate level.

Recent courses taught

Courses in French language and medieval literature, critical theory,
and film studies, at both undergraduate and graduate level.

Undergraduate

French Prelims

Paper II: Synthesis
Paper IV: La Chastelaine de Vergi
Paper XI: Introduction to French Film Studies

French FHS

Paper II: Early translation
Paper III: Non-literary translation
Paper VI: Medieval period paper
Paper IX: Early texts

English FHS

Paper B18: Old French Language 1150–1250
Paper B19: Medieval French Literature 1100–1300
Paper B20: Medieval French Literature 1300–1500

Graduate taught courses

Co-convenor of the Medieval French Research seminar
Co-convenor of the Medieval Studies seminar
MSt in Modern Languages: Methods of Criticism and Theory of Literature

Graduate student supervisions

PhD students supervised

Olivia Robinson (ongoing) – cross-disciplinary project investigating the wider implications of the querelle du ‘Roman de la rose’ in Middle English, particularly Chaucer.

Research

Research interests straddle the late medieval and early modern periods, from the mid-fourteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries, examining
the transition from manuscript to print, especially with regard to
text-image relationships; literary defences of women (la querelle des femmes); reception of Le Roman de la rose; poet-patron relations; and theories of imagination.

Research activities also include the electronic publishing of medieval and early modern French texts.

Research program overview

I have three main projects at present, and a number of collaborative ventures.

Understanding Imagination in Late Medieval French Literature (1340-1540)
This monograph harnesses medieval literary, theological and psychological understandings of imagination's status as a key to interpreting a corpus of later medieval verse fictions.
Jacques Milet, La Forest de Tristesse, a critical edition.
Les Femmes et la ‘Rose’, XV^e-XVI^e siècles (anthology and commentary in French).
This presents selected fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century texts representing a vital strand of pro-feminine literature which tackles the alleged misogyny of Le Roman de la rose.

Collaborative activities

Co-principal researcher in the MARGOT Research Group (see under 3, above)
Program committee of SIEFAR-sponsored project: Discours sur l'égalité des femmes et des hommes, de 1750 aux lendemains de la Révolution française
Member, AHRC-funded Research Network on Obscenity in Renaissance France (principal investigator: Hugh Roberts, University of Exeter)