Current Postgraduate Students
Miss Amanda Thomas
Contact Miss Amanda Thomas (email at a.a.thomas@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
I am a MA by Research student in the French department with Dr. Barnet as my primary supervisor and Professor Cairns as my secondary. I am researching a successful contemporary Belgian author, Amélie Nothomb and have chosen to look into how she manipulates and retells the fairytale and myth in selected 'autofictions'. The first chapter will analyze Nothomb's definition of 'autofiction' and how her interpretation differs from the autobiographical literary pact. Then I will look into fairytale and myth, principally by examining two of her texts - Le Sabotage amoureux (1993) and Métaphysique des tubes (2000), which deal with life during childhood as daughter of a diplomat, moving from culture to culture. The effect that this has is telling on her range of literary influences - for example the choice of including Middle Eastern fairytales as well as European, as well as her choice of fairytale or myth that she retells in her work.
I belong to both the Literary, History, Theory research group and Culture and Difference.