Dr Martin Hurcombe

Summary

I am principally interested in the relationship between representations of conflict and politics in early twentieth-century France. I am the author of Novelists in Conflict: Ideology and the Absurd in the French Combat Novel of the Great War and France and the Spanish Civil War: Cultural Representations of the War next Door, 1936-1945. I am also interested in the relationship between political commitment and utopianism and the memory of the First World War in twentieth-century French culture. I am a member of the executive committee of the Group for War and Culture Studies (GWACS), based at the Universities of Bristol, Swansea and Westminster, and am one of the editors of the Journal of War and Culture Studies. In addition to this, I also have an interest in French crime fiction, particularly the novels of Sébastien Japrisot.

My teaching interests are French literature, culture, and history of the early twentieth century. I also teach general history and literature courses in Year 1 and final-year language. I am unit convenor for two final-year units: Representations of War, which studies the depiction of war in the twentieth-century French novel and cinema, and Challenging the Republic, which examines a variety of political movements that have contested the form of the French Republic since the 1920s. In the 2nd year I convene The Third Republic, which studies the social and political history of France from 1870 to 1940, and co-teach Modern French Narrative, a unit examining French fiction from the 1920s to the present. I also teach courses on war and culture at postgraduate level and am co-supervising two M.Litt/PhD theses: James McFarthing, ‘Utopian Theory and the Science Fiction of Jules Verne’ and Claire Thomas, ‘Ungaretti, giornalista’. I am also currently Deputy Head of School Teaching and Learning.

I would particularly welcome research students working on 20^th-century cultural representations of conflict and/or political engagement and cultural politics in France.

My students can consult me in my office at the following time during term times: Wednesday 11.00am -11.50am and Thursday 11-11.50am.

Keywords

• conflict
• war
• culture
• early twentieth-century history and politics
• fascism
• communism

Memberships

Organisations

Department of French

Organisational groups

• Department of French

Research clusters

• Identity-Formation in Political, Historical, Cultural and Linguistic Contexts

Links

• France and the Spanish Civil War: Cultural Representations of the War next Door, 1936-45
•   Group for War and Culture Studies

Recent publications

• Hurcombe, M 2012, ‘The Soldier’s Return: The Spectre of Veterans’ Political Activism in Dorgelès’s Le Réveil des morts and Drieu la Rochelle’s ‘La comédie de Charleroi’’. Romance Studies, vol 30:1., pp. 61 - 73
• Hurcombe, M 2011, ‘France and the Spanish Civil War: Cultural Representations of the War Next Door, 1936–1945’. Ashgate
• Hurcombe, M 2011, ‘Heroes of the Republic, heroes of the revolution: French communist reportage of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1938’. Journal of European Studies, vol 41., pp. 45 - 62
• Hurcombe, M & Kemp, S 2009, ‘Sébastien Japrisot: The Art of Crime’. Rodopi
• Hurcombe, M & Kemp, S 2009, ‘Introduction (Sébastien Japrisot: The Art of Crime)’. in: Hurcombe , Mart , Kemp , Simon (eds) Sébastien Japrisot: The Art of Crime. Rodopi, pp. 13 - 25
• Hurcombe, M 2009, ‘Back to Spain: Commitment in Crisis in Four French Novels of the Spanish Civil War (1958-1962)’. in: Helen Vassallo, Paul Cooke (eds) Alienation and Alterity. Otherness in Modern and Contemporary Francophone Contexts. Peter Lang, pp. 117 - 136
• Hurcombe, M 2009, ‘The Joy of Specs: The Power of the Gaze in the Novels of Sébastien Japrisot’. in: Susan Harrow, Timothy Unwin (eds) Joie de Vivre in French Literature and Culture. Essays in Honour of Michael Freeman. Rodopi, pp. 269 - 282
• Hurcombe, M 2009, ‘Conflicting Testimonies: Dialogic Oppositions in Japrisot's Suspense Novels’. in: MJ Hurcombe, S Kemp (eds) Sébastien Japrisot: The Art of Crime. Rodopi, pp. 27 - 45
• Hurcombe, M 2008, ‘Raising the dead: visual representations of the combatant’s body in interwar France’. Journal of War and Culture Studies, vol 1:2., pp. 159 - 174
• Hurcombe, M 2008, ‘Raising the Dead: Visual Representations of the Combatant's Body in Interwar France’. Journal of War and Culture Studies, vol 1:2., pp. 159 - 174

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system