Professor Simon Gaunt FBA

Medieval French Literature

Elected 2018

Fellow type: UK Fellow
Year of birth: 1959
Year of death: 2021
Year elected: 2018
Sections: Medieval Studies

Simon Gaunt was a Professor of French Language and Literature at King’s College London, where he had been Head of French and Head of the School of Arts and Humanities. He was President of the Society for French Studies from 2006-2008, became a Fellow of King’s College London in 2015, and an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 2016. His books have ranged widely over medieval Occitan and Old French literature. As a literary critic, his work has been informed at various stages by feminist and queer theory, by psychoanalysis by postcolonial approaches, and most recently by Romance philology and linguistics. Much of his recent work had been concerned with French as a transnational language in the Middle Ages and he had directed two major collaborative projects concerned with this topic: Medieval Francophone Literature Culture outside France, funded by the AHRC, and The Values of French, funded by the ERC.

Last post

King’s College London Professor of French Language and Literature

Past appointments

St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University Lecturer and Official Fellow

1988 - 1998

Downing College, Cambridge Research Fellow

1986 - 1988

Publications

The Song of Roland and Other Poems of Charlemagne

Simon Gaunt and Karen Pratt - Published in 2016 by Oxford University Press

Marco Polo’s Le Devisement du Monde: Narrative Voice, Language and Diversity

Simon Gaunt - Published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press; D.S. Brewer

Second edition 2018

The Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature

Edited by Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay - Published in 2008 by Cambridge University Press

Martyrs to Love: Love and Death in Medieval French and Occitan Courtly Literature

Simon Gaunt - Published in 2006 by Oxford University Press

Retelling the Tale: An Introduction to Medieval French Literature

Simon Gaunt - Published in 2001 by Bristol Classical Press

Second edition 2010

Marcabru: a Critical Edition

Edited by Simon Gaunt, Ruth Harvey and Linda Paterson - Published in 2000 by Cambridge University Press; D.S. Brewer

The Troubadours: An Introduction

Simon Gaunt, Sarah Kay - Published in 1999 by Cambridge University Press

Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature

Simon Gaunt - Published in 1995 by Cambridge University Press

Second edition 2005

Troubadours and Irony

Simon Gaunt - Published in 1989 by Cambridge University Press

Second edition 2009

Other Fellows of the British Academy

Professor Dr Willem Blockmans FBA

Political History Medieval Constitutionalism Medieval History - Medieval Studies

Professor Dauvit Broun FBA

Medieval Scottish history

Professor Sarah Kay FBA

Western Europe France Southern Europe Italy Medieval History - Medieval Studies French Language and Literature