Professor Sophie Marnette, Professor of Medieval French Studies, Dervorguilla Fellow and Tutor in French at Balliol College, has been awarded a grant of £800K by the Fonds national suisse de la recherché scientifique (Swiss National Science Foundation): Medieval Metalepses project. Professor Marnette is one of three partners of the project, which was initiated by Professor Marion Uhlig of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).

Professor Marnette’s research takes a linguistic and philological approach to literary issues including the origins and evolution of medieval literary genres, the expression of narrative voice and point of view, the relationship between history and fiction, medieval intertextuality and intratextuality, and gendered discourse strategies in medieval narratives. She is currently co-leading a joint interdisciplinary research project on the 13th-century narrative poem La Chastelaine de Vergy.

The four-year Medieval Metalepses project will explore the extensive theorisation of metalepses during the Middle Ages and how they are manifested in medieval literature, both discursively within the stories themselves and through interactions between text and images in the manuscripts. As international project partner, Professor Marnette will be involved in the writing of a monograph, the co-supervision of doctoral dissertations and the organisation of several international workshops, including in Oxford, as well as an online exhibit.