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Dr Laura Chuhan Campbell
Contact Dr Laura Chuhan Campbell (email at l.j.campbell@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
My research interests cover medieval French and Italian literature, particularly the area of cultural adaptations of literary texts.
My first book examines vernacular translations of the story of Merlin in French and Italian medieval literature, following the transmission of Merlin texts from Britain, to France, to Italy over a period of 300 years. Incorporating perspectives from modern semiotic theory and language philosophy, this study seeks to understand medieval ideas about translation through the figure of Merlin, an omniscient prophet who consistently "translates" his vision of the narrative into obscure prophecies.
Most recently, I have started work on a new project that focuses on the relationship between humans and the natural environment in medieval vernacular adaptations of Genesis. Adopting an ecocritical perspective, which intersects particularly with philosophies of ecofeminism and ecomaterialism, this project analyses stories of ecological creation and destruction that manifest medieval perceptions of the interface between the human, the natural, the technological, and the divine.
Research Groups
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Selected Publications
Authored book
- (2017). The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio. Boydell and Brewer.
Book review
- (2016). The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims: a Medieval Woman between Demons and Saints, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. Women's History Review 25: 1022-1023.
- (2013). Christine Ferlampin-Acher: 'Perceforest’ et ‘Zéphir’ propositions autour d’un récit arthurien bourguignon. French Studies 67: 86-87.
- (2011). Rosalind Brown-Grant: French Romance of the Later Middle Ages: Gender, Morality and Desire. French Studies 65: 86-87.
- (2008). Jacques Dalarun: Robert of Arbrissel: Sex, Sin, and Salvation in the Middle Ages, trans. Bruce L. Venarde. Medium Aevum 77(1).
- (2008). Raffa, Guy P: Danteworlds: A Reader's Guide to the Inferno. Medium Aevum 77(2).
- (2008). Robin Kirkpatrick: Dante: The Divine Comedy 2: Purgatorio. Medium Aevum 77(2).
Chapter in book
- Campbell, Laura Chuhan (Forthcoming). French Literary Identity in Translation: The Roman de la Rose and its Tuscan Adaptations. In Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France: Studies in the Moving Word. Morato, N. & Schoenaers, D. Brepols.
- (2017). 'Chretien de Troyes' Erec et Enide: Women in Arthurian Romance'. In Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur's Court in Medieval European Literature. DeGrutyer. 451-466.
Conference Paper
- (2016), 'Traslatare a parte a parte: Questioning the Politics of Translatio in the Italian Vernacular Translations of the Story of Merlin', Medieval and Early Modern Franco-Italian Interfaces. Durham.
- (2016), Masculine Motherhood: The Lady of the Lake's Rejection of Passive Femininity in the Old French Merlin Romances, International Medieval Congress. Leeds.
- (2015), Prophetic Discourse and the Boundaries of the Text: Translating the Medieval Merlin Romances in Old French and Franco-Italian, French Studies. Cardiff.
- (2014), ‘Evil in Medieval French Arthurian Literature: a Preliminary Typology’, Conference of the International Arthurian Society. University of Bucharest, University of Bucharest.
- (2013), ‘Francophone Culture in Medieval Italy and its Influence upon Italian Vernacular Translation’, Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France Conference. University College London., University College London.
- (2012), ‘Paulino Pieri: a Medieval Tuscan Mediator of French Literary Culture’, III International Conference Translating Voices, Translating Regions, Durham University, III International Conference Translating Voices, Translating Regions. Durham University [March 2012], Durham University.
- (2010), 'The Translatio of Transvestism: Translating Problems of Signification Miniatures Depicting the Story of Gristandole'; paper given at the Symposium on Translatio, International Medieval Society, Paris [June, 2010], Symposium on Translatio. Paris, France, Paris.
Edited Journal
- (Forthcoming). Human Interactions with the Medieval and Early Modern Natural World. Neophilologus, Springer.
Journal Article
- (2013). 'The Devil’s in the Detail: Translating Merlin’s Father from the Merlin en Prose in Paulino Pieri’s Storia di Merlino'. Arthuriana 23(2): 35-51.
- (2009). Reinterpretation and Resignification: A Study of the English Translation of Le Roman de la Rose. Neophilologus 93(2): 325-338.
Translated Chapter in Book
- Bowen, Alan & Wildberg, Christian (trans.) (2009). Pierre Pellegrin, 'The Argument for the Sphericity of the Universe in Aristotle's De Caelo '. In New Perspectives on Aristotle's De Caelo. (ed.). Leiden: Brill.