Staff Profile

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 T901 Modern Languages.

Areas of expertise

• Contemporary French women's writing
• Trauma
• Sexual violence
• Empathy
• Happiness

Qualifications

1997: BA (Hons) Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish), St Catharine's College, Cambridge - First Class with Distinction

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.

Office hours 2024-5 semester 1: Tuesday 2-3 (online - call me on Teams or email to arrange a Zoom).); Thursday 11-12 and 2-3 (OLB 5.10 or online).

Research Interests

Contemporary French women's writing, trauma (particularly rape and sexual abuse), loss, eating disorders, empathy, happiness.

Other Expertise

Fiction and testimonies on the Occupation and on the Holocaust.

Current Work

Following my first monograph, Writing Wounds: The Inscription of Trauma in post-1968 French Women's Life-Writing (2004) I worked on sexual violence and eating disorders, before moving on to look at empathy, leading up to a second monograph, I Suffer Therefore I am: The Inscription of Empathy in Contemporary French Women's Writing. I am now working on representations of happiness in contemporary French women's writing and film and in French culture.

Research Roles

Conference Officer for the Society for French Studies Executive Committee (July 2006- July 2008)
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, on eating disorders, empathy and happiness.

Esteem Indicators

Peer reviewer of articles for Modern Language Review and French Studies

Reviewer for grant application to the Israeli Science Fund

External reviewer for revised Modern Languages (T900/T901) programmes at Liverpool University

Reviewer for grant applications for the Austrian Science Fund

Invited reviewer for a Prize awarded by the the Journal of Modern Languages in St Andrews

Reviewer for Junior Research Fellowship application, St John’s College, Cambridge

Undergraduate Teaching

Module leader for SML1018, first year literature.
Module leader and sole teacher of FRE4003 Occupation et resistance (module leader)
Module leader of FRE2009 Paris: histoire et culture

I also teach SML1022 Introduction to Cultural Studies.

• Articles

  • Robson K. Cruel Optimism and Obsessive Appetites in Leïla Slimani’s Novels. Quaderns de filologia. Estudis literaris 2022, 27, 27-42.
  • Robson KA. After the End: The Death of a Child in Marie Darrieussecq's Tom est mort and Hèléne Cixous's Le Jour où je n' étais pas là . Irish Journal of French Studies 2019, 19, 70-86.
  • Robson K. Voicing Abjection: Narratives of Anorexia in Contemporary French Women's (Life-)Writing. l'Esprit créateur 2016, 56(2), 108-120.
  • Robson K. The subject of rape: Feminist discourses on rape and violability in contemporary France. French Cultural Studies 2015, 26(1), 45-55.
  • Robson K. The Limits of Empathy and Compassion in Delphine de Vigan’s No et moi and Les Heures souterraines. Modern Language Review 2015, 110(3), 677-693.
  • Robson K. Psychic Plagiarism: The Death of a Child in Marie Darrieussecq’s Tom est mort and Camille Laurens’s Philippe. French Studies 2015, 69(1), 46-59.
  • Robson K. Rape, Silence and Disembodiment in Anne Hébert's Les Fous de Bassan. Australian Journal of French Studies 2012, 49(3), 267-279.
  • Robson K. Speaking as a Hysteric: Rape in Nancy Huston's Histoire d'Omaya. Modern Language Review 2011, 106(1), 99-114.
  • Robson K. Spaces of Violation: Refiguring Rape in Contemporary French Women's Fiction. Romance Studies 2007, 25(1), 57-67.
  • Robson K. 'L'ecriture de peau': The body as witness in Lorette Nobecourt's La 'Demangeaison'. Nottingham French Studies 2006, 45(3), 66-77.
  • 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.
  • Best V, Robson K (guest eds.). Memory and Innovation in the post Holocaust generation in France. French Studies, special issue 2005, LIX(1).
  • 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.
  • 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. 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. Bodily detours: Sarah Kofman's narratives of childhood trauma. Modern Language Review 2004, 99(3), 608-621.
  • 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.

• Authored Books

  • Robson KA. Beyond the Happy Ending: Imagining Happiness in Contemporary French Women's Writing and Film. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2025. In Press.
  • Robson K. I Suffer, Therefore I Am: Engaging with Empathy in Contemporary French Women's Writing. Cambridge: Legenda, 2019.
  • Robson K, Yee J. France and 'Indochina': Cultural Representations. Lanham: Lexington University Press, 2005.
  • Robson K. Writing Wounds: The Inscription of Trauma in post-1968 French Women's Life-writing. Amsetrdam/New York: Rodopi, 2004.

• Book Chapters

  • Robson K. Reading the Anorexic Body: Eating Disorders in Contemporary French Women’s Fiction. In: Bagley, PM; Calamita, F; Robson, K, ed. Starvation, Food Obsession and Identity: Eating Disorders in Contemporary Women’s Writing. Peter Lang Pub Inc, 2017.
  • Robson K. "Truth", memory and narrative in memoirs of child sexual abuse. In: Haaken, J; Reavey, P, ed. Memory Matters: Contexts for Understanding Sexual Abuse Recollections. London, New York: Routledge, 2009, pp.142-156.
  • 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. 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. "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. 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. 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.

• Edited Book

  • Bagley P, Calamita F, Robson K, ed. Starvation, Food Obsession and Identity: Eating Disorders in Contemporary Women’s Writing. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang, 2018.

• Reviews

  • Robson K. Review of: Testimony and fiction: Narrations of the survivors in the literature of French language (1945-2000). Modern Language Review 2006, 101, 257-257.
  • Robson K. Review of: Holocaust monuments and national memory-cultures in France and Germany since 1989: The origins and political function of the Vel d'Hiv in Paris and the Holocaust Monument in Berlin. French Studies 2006, 60(4), 556-557.
  • Robson K. Robert Antelme: Humanity, community, testimony. Modern Language Review 2005, 100, 220-221.
  • Robson K. [book review] Jews and gender in liberation France. French Studies 2005, 59(1), 124-125.
  • Robson K. [book review] Cultural memory: Essays on European literature and history. French Studies 2005, 59(4), 584-585.