Mr. David Parris

posts held 1967-8 English Language Assistant, École Normale d'Instituteurs de la Sarthe 1969 Tutoring Trinity College (Oxon) and St Catherine's College 1972 - 86 Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin 1986 - Senior Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin secondary I studied French, English Language, English Literature, German, History, Mathematics and Latin to 'O' level GCE (taking French and English Language in 4th year) and French, German and English to 'A' level and French and German to 'S' (for 'Special') level. I remained in the 6th form for a 3rd year to take Oxford entrance. I was Head Boy of my school and obtained an L.C.C. travelling scholarship in French (1963) and German (1965) enabling me to spend 3 months in each of the countries. undergraduate course To the preliminary examination, French and German; thereafter French including Late Latin and Gallo-Roman texts, Old French, Old French Literature, Old French Texts, Renaissance and Classical Texts, Montaigne, Molière, Voltaire, Flaubert, Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Grammatical Theory in France, Translation from and into French, Essay-writing. I obtained an entrance scholarship (in Oxford, an honorary distinction awarded after a competitive examination) to Trinity College Oxford - my first choice on application - and subsequently obtained a Heath Harrison travelling scholarship (also after competitive examination). thesis 'Person, tense, voice and some other grammatical features in some of Ramuz's prose works'. After a very traditional undergraduate course which gave me grounding in the classics I am grateful for, I was anxious to do research in the twentieth century. I also wanted, if possible, to link literature and linguistics in a single study. I was supervised by the late Professor Stephen Ullman whose work on stylistics is well known. My initial interest was to see if it was possible to assess the impact of an author's linguistic background on his writing. This research lead me into a number of areas that have remained important for me. Firstly, I have retained a passionate interest in C. F. Ramuz. I have never ceased to have an equal interest for both language and literary study. I retain an interest in stylistics as a critical tool - though my commitment has wavered over the years. My findings lead me increasingly towards narratology, and this remains an interest. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this research gave me an interest in 'francophone' literatures (the word was new enough to be unknown to me then) which I have since developed, both in the field of French-speaking Switzerland and also of Quebec. The Oxford B.Litt is an object of curiosity: in those days Oxford's doctorate, the D.Phil - an excessive 400-page work - was largely reserved for people from outside the university, and the B.Litt - at 200 - 250 pages was still the usual research vehicle for Oxford graduates.

  19th and 20th century writing   Canadian and Swiss literature   French Canadian literature   Linguistics   Narrative theory   Translation