Newcastle University

Background

After graduating with a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, in 1997, I continued to do an MPhil and then a PhD, 'Writing Wounds: The Inscription of Trauma in Post-1968 French Women's Life-writing'. I was awarded the PhD from Cambridge in January 2002, when I came to Newcastle as a lecturer in French.

Roles and Responsibilities

I am Degree Programme Director for T900 Modern Languages, stages 1, 3 and 4, and am Chair of the School Teaching and Learning Committee.

Qualifications

1997: BA (Hons) Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish), St Catharine's College, Cambridge
1998: MPhil (Cambridge University)
2002: PhD (Cambridge University): title, 'Writing Wounds: The Inscription of Trauma in Post-1968 French Women's Life-writing'.

Memberships

Society for French Studies, UK

Seminar for contemporary women's writing in France.

Research Interests

Contemporary French women's writing, trauma (particularly rape and sexual abuse).

Other Expertise

Fiction and testimonies on the Occupation and on the Holocaust.

Current Work

Since completing my book, 'Writing Wounds: Inscriptions of Trauma in post-1968 French women's life-writing', I have been working on a project exploring how rape and child (sexual and physical) abuse are described in recent French writing. I have given conference papers in the last year on Louise Lambrichs, Nancy Huston and Lorette Nobécourt, and am working these into articles/book chapters.

Research Roles

Conference Officer for the Society for French Studies Executive Committee (since July 2006)
Member of network on contemporary French women's writing (UK-wide).

Postgraduate Supervision

Willing to supervise work on post-war French literature, particularly women's writing and trauma.

Esteem Indicators

Peer reviewer of articles for Modern Language Review
Invited speaker at Sheffield University French seminar (2004) and King's College London French seminar (2003) and at Cambridge French Graduate Conference (2003)

Undergraduate Teaching

Module leader for SML118, first year literature.
Final year teaching:
FRE403 Occupation et resistance (module leader)
FRE405 Recit du sujet
FRE402 Paris: histoire et culture

• Robson K. "An Encounter with Death"? Life after Rape in Contemporary French Women’s Writing. In: Georgio, A; Waters, J, ed. Women's Writing in Western Europe: Gender, Generation and Legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007, pp. 431-444.
• Robson K. Family histories: reproduction, cloning and incest in Louise Lambrichs. In: Barnet, M-C; Welch, E, ed. Affaires de famille: The Family in Contemporary French Culture and Theory. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007, pp. 251-265.
• Robson K. From Beneath the Skin: Rape and Testimony in Nancy Huston’s Histoire d’Omaya. In: McNeill, I; Stephens, B, ed. Transmission: Essays in French Literature, Thought, and Culture. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007.
• Robson K. Spaces of Violation: Refiguring Rape in Contemporary French Women's Fiction. Romance Studies 2007, 25(1), 57-67.
• Robson K. L’écriture de peau: The Body as Witness in Lorette Nobécourt’s La Démangeaison. Nottingham French Studies (special issue on Focalizing the Body, eds. Gill Rye and Carrie Tarr) 2006,45 3 66-77.
• Robson K. Rewriting the Hysterical Body in (Marie Cardinal’s) La Souricière and Les Mots pour le dire. In:Webb, E., ed. Marie Cardinal: New Perspectives.Oxford:Peter Lang,2006, pp. 93-106.
• Robson K, Yee J. France and 'Indochina': Cultural Representations. Lanham:Lexington University Press,2005.
• Best V, Robson K (guest eds.). Introduction to special issue,'Memory and Innovation in Post-Holocaust France'. French Studies, special issue: Memory and Innovation in the post Holocaust generation in France (co guest-edited by Victoria Best and Kathryn Robson). 2005,LIX 1 1-8.
• Best V, Robson K (guest eds.). Memory and Innovation in the post Holocaust generation in France. French Studies, special issue 2005,LIX 1 .
• Robson K. Bodily detours: Sarah Kofman's narratives of childhood trauma. Modern Language Review 2004,99 3 608-621.
• Robson K. Falling into an abyss: remembering and writing sexual abuse in Béatrice de Jurquet's 'La Traversée des lignes'. Journal of Romance Studies 2004, 2(1), 79-90.
• Robson K. Virtual reality: The subject of loss in Marie Darrieussecq's 'Naissance des fantomes' and Regine Detambel's La 'Chambre d'echo'. Australian Journal of French Studies 2004,41 1 3-15.
• Robson K. Writing Wounds: The Inscription of Trauma in post-1968 French Women's Life-writing. Amsetrdam/New York:Rodopi,2004.
• Robson K. The Female Vampire: Chantal Chawaf’s Melancholic Autofiction. In: Rye, G., Worton, M, ed. Women's Writing in Contemporary France: New Writers, New Literatures in the 1990s. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002, pp.53-64.
• Kathryn Robson. Curative Fictions: The 'Narrative Cure' in Judith Herman’s Trauma and Recovery and Chantal Chawaf’s Le Manteau noir. Cultural Values 2001, 5(1), 115-130.