Fiona Cox was brought up in Worcestershire and educated at the Alice Ottley School. She read French and Latin at the University of Bristol where she went on to write a PhD entitled Virgil’s Presence in Twentieth Century French Literature. She has worked at Université Michel de Montaigne III – Bordeaux, University College, Cork [for fifteen years] and came to Exeter in 2010. She was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2015, Associate Professor in 2018 and Professor in 2023. She has written three monographs – Aeneas Takes the Metro – Virgil’s Presence in Twentieth Century French Literature (Legenda, 1999); Sibylline Sisters – Virgil’s Presence in Contemporary Women’s Writing (Oxford University Press, 2011); Ovid’s Presence in Contemporary Women’s Writing – Strange Monsters (Oxford University Press, 2018) and has also co-edited Homer’s Daughters – Women’s Responses to Homer in the twentieth century and beyond [with Elena Theodorakopoulos] (Oxford University Press, 2019) and [with Helena Taylor] Ovid in French – Reception by Women from the Renaissance to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2023). She is currently co-writing a volume contracted to Oxford University Press entitled Modern Irish Poets and Classical Antiquity. She has published many articles and book chapters on classical reception, translation, women’s writing and Victor Hugo and is also preparing a monograph on Hugo’s epic vision in Les Misérables.
Abstract
Starlight is fundamental to Les Misérables. This lecture will explore the ways in which Hugo’s epic novel borrows its light from star imagery in Dante, Milton and Ovid, and thus inscribes itself into the epic tradition. We shall also consider the role of starlight in illuminating questions of social justice and individual anguish. Hugo’s focus upon the dispossessed and outcasts is a transformation of the epic form. His political and literary agenda show us the depths of squalour and wretchedness, while also demanding that we strive for utopia; we descend into the filthiest reaches of hell from which, with him as our guide, we follow the light.
Details
Location: University of Exeter, Streatham Campus, Streatham Court, Lecture Theatre C, or over MS Teams (online)
Time: 16:00-17:00
Hybrid event
From 17:00-18:00, we invite you to join us to raise a glass with Fiona and share in a range of delicious food, including gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options.
