Dr Renate Günther

Renate Gunther

Title: Senior Lecturer

Telephone: (0114) 2222861

Qualifications

BA, Bradford; PhD, Lancaster

Biography

I came to Britain from my native Germany in 1974. After working in industry for a number of years I went to the University of Bradford to study French and Spanish and graduated in 1982 with First Class Honours. I was subsequently appointed lectrice d´anglais at the University of Toulouse where I taught for a year. On my return to Britain I went to the University of Lancaster where I wrote my PhD thesis on the work of Marguerite Duras. I taught at Bradford for one year and then joined the French Department at Sheffield in 1989.

Research Interests

My research interests are in the work of Marguerite Duras, Monique Wittig, feminist theory, studies in gender and sexuality, twentieth-century French literature and psychoanalysis. I have published two books on Duras, the first on two of her novels and the second on her cinema. I have also published articles on Duras and on feminist studies (Wittig, Irigaray and Beauvoir)

Professional activities

Member of the Editorial Board of Modern and Contemporary France
External examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate programme at the University of Bradford 2000-2004
Founder member of the Société Marguerite Duras; member of the executive Committee 1997-2003

Current and Recent Research Projects

A psychoanalytical study of the cinema of Marguerite Duras
A study of Marguerite Duras’s 'Cahiers de la guerre'

Publications since 2001

Renate Günther and Wendy Michallat (eds), 'Lesbian Inscriptions in Francophone Society and Culture', Durham Modern Languages Series (2007)
‘Une femme qui boît, c’est scandaleux: Marguerite Duras and Female Alcoholism in France’, in M. Allison and Y. Rocheron (eds), The Resilient Female Body: Health and Malaise in Twentieth-Century France, Peter Lang (2007), pp. 87-100.
Renate Günther and Owen Heathcote (eds), Special Issue: Gays and Lesbians in Contemporary France – Politics, Media, Sexualities, Modern and Contemporary France (August 2006)
Article on Marguerite Duras, On-line Literary Encyclopedia and Dictionary (August 2006)
‘Archetypal Figures in Marguerite Duras’s India Song, Studies in French Cinema, Vol. 3, no. 3 (2003), 83-93
‘Fluid Boundaries: The Violence of Non-Identity in Marguerite Duras’.
Representations of Female Relationships’, South Central Review, University of Austin/Texas, Vol. 19, no. 1 (2002-2003), 85-103.
Marguerite Duras, French Film Directors Series, MUP, 2002

Full list of Publications

Teaching

Postgraduate Supervision

Thesis topics I have supervised

Contemporary Definitions of Patriarchy
A Critique of Power in the Work of Luce Irigaray
Representations of Gender in French Advertising
An Irigarayan Reading of Korean Women’s Writing

Undergraduate Teaching

I currently teach the following specialist modules:

FRE106: French Film Classics
FRE223/224: Twentieth-Century French Literature
FRE329/330: Feminism in Contemporary French Culture
FRE305: Film Studies

Postgraduate Teaching

I teach the following modules on the MA in French Studies:

Constructions of the Body
Psychoanalyical Approaches to Cultural Studies
Gender Studies/Feminist Theory

Departmental Responsabilities

Language Programme Manager
Director of the Year Abroad (Semester 2)