Elise Simone Marie Hugueny-Leger

I grew up and was schooled in France in non-selective state schools, the first generation in my family to attend University. After completing a joint Maîtrise d’anglais and Licence de Lettres Modernes in France, I moved to England in 2002 to work as a French language assistant. I did my PhD at Durham University (2004-2007) on the works of Annie Ernaux and joined the French Department at St Andrews in 2008.

My research expertise falls broadly in two overlapping categories:

-Creative writing

My current research focuses on creative writing processes and workshops, and their impact on literary forms and contemporary representations of authorship. In Translingual Writing in, and Beyond, Modern Languages, I make the case for the inclusion of creative writing in Language curricula to develop cross-lingual and cultural dialogues. In 2022-2023, I was the recipient of a Leverhulme International Fellowship at Cergy-Paris Université for a project entitled ‘Beyond the writing impulse: crafting creative writing research in French’. I have broad experience and formal training devising and running writing workshops for academic and non-academic audiences. My first book of creative writing non-fiction, Twenty twenty: petites traversées franco-britanniques came out with Editions Créaphis in 2024.

-Life-writing

I am more specifically interested in life-writing forms and processes (autobiography, autofiction, memoirs, diaries). I have published extensively on the works of the 2022 Nobel-prize literature laureate, Annie Ernaux. My monograph Annie Ernaux, une poétique de la transgression (Peter lang, 2009) provides a detailed exploration of narrative strategies in her works, and emphasizes the interplay between self and others. I developed and run the bilingual website www.annie-ernaux.org, have discussed Ernaux in various media and co-organised the first English-speaking conference on her works. My second monograph, Projections de soi: identités et images en mouvement dans l’autofiction (Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 2022), opens up new avenues in life-writing criticism by examining dialogues between literature and the moving image in processes of self-representation, and media strategies at play in autofiction.

Other, broader interests encompass: the place of intellectuals in modern France; the rise of consumerism and its representation in artistic forms; women and their writings in contemporary French society; feminisms; transclass trajectories and social mobility. I co-edited the journal special issue Untimely Mourning. Representing Child Death and Parental Mourning in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature and Culture (2019) and the volume Solitaires, Solidaires: Conflict and Confluence in Women's Writings in French (2015).

I have supervised doctoral theses in French and in Comparative Literature on autofiction and gender; mourning in Serge Doubrovsky; time in contemporary fiction; female multilingual autofiction; abortion narratives. I welcome PhD applications on topics related to my research expertise.

Life-writing: autobiography; autofiction; diaries; memoirs

Creative writing processes and pedagogies

Creative writing, multilingualism, translingual writing

Women's writings and feminisms

Modern French literature and culture

I teach French language, literature and culture at all levels. I offer the modules ‘Writing the Self in 20th and 21st-century French Literature’ (FR3078), ‘Intellectuals in Modern France’ (FR3080), 'Creative Writing in French' (FR4150) and ‘Good and Ads: Consumerism in Modern France’ (FR4182).

The team-taught module ‘Creative Writing in French’ offers an innovative approach to French language and literary creation for learners of French. This module was awarded a University Teaching Excellence Award and was shortlisted for a Times Higher Education award in the 'Excellence and Innovation in the Arts' category. It has led to the creation of a Creative Writing Dissertation option where students can develop a longer, original writing project under the guidance of a supervisor.

I also coordinate the Comparative Literature module ‘Autobiography and the Visual Arts’ (CO4021) and contribute actively to the School’s Comparative Literature programme.

University Certificate: Running Writing Workshops, Cergy-Paris Université (2023); Doctoral fellow, Durham University: PhD on the works of Annie Ernaux (2004-2007), PhD award 2008; Maîtrise d'anglais (comparative literature), Université de Franche-Comté, France (2002); Licence de Lettres Modernes, Université de Franche-Comté (2002); Licence d'anglais, Université de Franche-Comté (2002); Admissible, Ecole Normale Superieure (2000); Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles, Besançon (1998-2000).

Life-writing; autobiography and autofiction; French contemporary literature and culture; creative writing; translingual writing; women's writings and feminisms.