Dr James Simpson

  • Reader in French (French)

telephone: 01413306346
email: James.Simpson@glasgow.ac.uk

R310 Level 3, French, Hetherington Building, Glasgow G12 8QQ

Import to contacts

ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-0465-6643

Research interests

Research interests:

I have worked or am working on various areas in medieval literary studies, engaging with a variety of genres mostly from the 12th and 13th centuries. Publications have explored French Arthurian romance, comic and satirical narratives, animal epic (Le Roman de Renart), epic poetry, not to mention the translation and transmission of classical works (notably Ovid). Along with my historian colleague Andrew Roach, I have also recently edited a collection of essays (Heresy and the Making of European Culture) exploring dissent and (un)orthodoxy in the Middle Ages and beyond. In terms of approach, I am very much interested in the sociology and anthropology of court societies: my work on Chrétien de Troyes (Troubling Arthurian Histories) in part presents him as a subversively proto-Machiavellian observer of court cultures. Since early on in my career, I have been (perhaps incorrigibly) fascinated by the possibilities offered by psychoanalytically-based approaches – especially those associated with Jacques Lacan and Slavoj Žižek – to medieval texts and cultures. Other projects have engaged with areas and methods such as gendering, sexuality, the history and sociology of the emotions, subaltern studies, violence and terrorism, tactility, popular religion, humour, transgression, literary reflections of feudalism, not to mention what the sociology of dogging can tell us about Béroul’s version of the story of Tristan and Iseut. However, it’s not all weird science: past and current projects also engage with questions of manuscript context, transmission and presentation.

Among other activities, I am currently editor of French Studies Bulletin. The Bulletin publishes short pieces of scholarly interest (interpretation/ commentary, editions of short items) as well as comment pieces of interest to colleagues in the field. It also carries news and information relating to postgraduate activities, conferences and information from the Society for French Studies. 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2003 | 2000 | 1998 | 1996 | 1995 | 1992
Number of items: 33.

2021

Simpson, J. R. (2021) Between skin(s), between daiths: caesura, animality and comedy in thirteenth-century Christian-Jewish relations. In: Gilbert, J. and Griffin, M. (eds.) The Futures of Medieval French: Essays in Honour of Sarah Kay. Series: Gallica (46). D.S. Brewer: Suffolk, UK, pp. 287-300. ISBN 9781843845959 (doi: 10.1017/9781800101746.023)

2020

Simpson, J. R. (2020) Motion, contact and profanity in Rutebeuf’s tales of ‘Charlot Le Juif’: (not) going there, (not) touching that. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 56(4), 445- 467. (doi: 10.1093/fmls/cqaa001)

2019

Simpson, J. R. (2019) Melly and Merlin: locating little voices in Paris BnF fr. 24432. In: Tudor, A. P. and Burr, K. L. (eds.) Shaping Identity in Medieval French Literature: the Other Within. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL, pp. 106-120. ISBN 9780813056432 (doi: 10.5744/florida/9780813056432.003.0009)

2018

Simpson, J. R. (2018) Hearing and regarding animal pain in Heinrich’s Reinhart Fuchs and Kaulbach’s Reineke Fuchs illustrations. Oxford German Studies, 47(1), pp. 17-34. (doi: 10.1080/00787191.2018.1409507)

2014

Maxwell, K. and Simpson, J. (2014) Page, performance and play in medieval transmission and reinterpretation: presence and absence in the Oxford ‘Roland’ and Guillaume de Machaut’s 'Le Livre Du Voir Dit'. In: Derkert, J. (ed.) XVI Nordic Musicological Congress. Stockholm 2012. Proceedings. Stockholms Universitet, pp. 144-153. ISBN 9789197696166

Simpson, J. R. (2014) Ways we allegorize now: transforming texts and bodies from the Roman De Renart to Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs and Chris Morris’s Four Lions. Exemplaria, 26(2), pp. 178-198. (doi: 10.1179/1041257314Z.00000000049)

2013

Roach, A. and Simpson, J. (2013) Introduction. In: Roach, A. P. and Simpson, J. R. (eds.) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate: Farnham, pp. 1-27. ISBN 9781472411815

Simpson, J. (2013) Dogging Cornwall’s 'secret freaks': Béroul on the limits of European orthodoxy. In: Roach, A. and Simpson, J. (eds.) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate: Farnham, pp. 207-235. ISBN 9781472411815

Roach, A.P. and Simpson, J. (Eds.) (2013) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate. ISBN 9781472411815

Simpson, J. (2013) L'Oeuvre et l'ombre des géants: fantômes et ruines dans le 'Couronnement de Louis'. In: Hüe, D. (ed.) Lectures du 'Couronnement de Louis'. Series: Didact français. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 179-192. ISBN 9782753528185

Simpson, J. R. (2013) Turning verse conversions? Mise en page and metre in Rutebeuf’s 'Le Miracle de Théophile'. Pecia, 16, pp. 17-40. (doi: 10.1484/J.PECIA.5.105410)

2012

Simpson, J. (2012) Aucassin, Gauvain, and (Re)Ordering Paris, BnF, fr. 2168. French Studies, 66(4), pp. 451-466. (doi: 10.1093/fs/kns149)

Simpson, J. (2012) “Uns uers si mals”: H.R. Giger et les animaux de cour dans la Chanson de Roland. In: Alvar, C. and Carta, C. (eds.) In Limine Romaniae: Chanson de Geste et Épopée Européenne. Peter Lang: Bern, Switzerland, pp. 39-60. ISBN 9783034310659

Simpson, J. (2012) Beast epic. In: Greene, R. (ed.) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, pp. 128-129. ISBN 9780691133348

Simpson, J. (2012) Beast fables. In: Hourihane, C. (ed.) The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780195395365

2011

Simpson, J. (2011) Humour and the Obscene. In: Burgwinkle, W., Hammond, N. and Wilson, E. (eds.) The Cambridge History of French Literature. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, USA, pp. 111-120. ISBN 9780521897860

Simpson, J.R. (2011) 'Oem walschedi?' Touching on tongues, teeth and skin in Van den vos Reynaerde. Queeste, 18(1), pp. 32-57.

Simpson, J. (2011) Not that innocent? Singing to Daddy’s little treasure in 'Éric et Énide'. French Studies Bulletin, 32(118), pp. 1-4. (doi: 10.1093/frebul/ktr001)

2010

Simpson, J. R. and MacDonald, E. (Eds.) (2010) Mangling Cultures: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts. Glasgow French and German Publications: Glasgow. ISBN 9780852619179

Peacock, N. (2010) Molière and his manglers: the cultural politics of le patrimoine thèâtral? In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, J. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German: Glasgow, pp. 71-96. ISBN 9780852619179

Simpson, J. (2010) Arthur’s Scots scars: The last legion. In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, A. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German publications: Glasgow, pp. 156-186. ISBN 9780852619179

Simpson, J. and MacDonald, E. (2010) Introduction: culture mangling: conflict and dissonance in modern language studies. In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, J. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German publications: Glasgow, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780852619179

2008

Simpson, J. (2008) Kings and Feudalism. In: Gaunt, S. and Kay, S. (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 197-209. ISBN 9780521861755 (doi: 10.1017/CCOL9780521861755)

2007

Simpson, J. (2007) Lion-heart of darkness? The black book of the court in Le Chevalier au Lion. Nottingham French Studies, 46(3), pp. 49-61.

Simpson, J. (2007) Troubling arthurian histories: court culture, performance and scandal in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide. Series: Medieval and early modern French studies, 5. Peter Lang: Bern. ISBN 9783039113859

2006

Simpson, J. (2006) F**king peasants: presence, status and sexuality in Renart et Bertot. In: Tudor, A., Hindley, A. and Levy, B.J. (eds.) Grant Risee?: The Medieval Comic Presence: Essays in Memory of Brian J. Levy. Series: Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe (11). Brepols: Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 319-335. ISBN 9782503516981

2003

Simpson, J. (2003) The fox and the lion's share: tyranny, textuality and jouissance in the Roman de Renart. In: Horn, J. and Russell-Watts, L. (eds.) Possessions: Essays in French Literature, Cinema, and Theory. Series: Modern French Identities (24). Peter Lang: Oxford, pp. 21-36. ISBN 9783039100057

2000

Simpson, J. (2000) Fantasy, Identity and Misrecognition in Medieval French Narrative. P. Lang. ISBN 3906766160

1998

Simpson, J. (1998) All's fair in love and war: conflicts and continuities in 'Anseis de Carthage'. In: Ailes, M., Bennett, P. E. and Pratt, K. (eds.) Reading Around the Epic: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Wolfgang van Emden. Series: King's College London medieval studies (14). King's College London Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies: London, pp. 129-148. ISBN 9780952211969

1996

Simpson, J.R. (1996) Animal Body, Literary Corpus: The Old French 'Roman de Renart'. Series: Faux Titre, 110. Rodopi: Amsterdam, NL. ISBN 9051839766

Simpson, J. (1996) The gifts of the Roland: the old French Gui de Bourgogne. In: Pratt, K. (ed.) Roland and Charlemagne in Europe: Essays on the Reception and Transformation of a Legend. Series: King's College London medieval studies (12). King's College London Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies: London, pp. 31-65. ISBN 9780952211945

1995

Simpson, J. (1995) Renart's dynasty: generation and structuring in 'Renart empereur'. Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society for the Study of Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau, 8, pp. 77-100. (doi: 10.1075/rein.8.06sim)

1992

Simpson, J. (1992) Sinful narrative in the 'Roman de Renart'. Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society for the Study of Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau, 5, pp. 183-194. (doi: 10.1075/rein.5.15sim)

This list was generated on Fri Apr 19 08:34:09 2024 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Books | Book Sections | Edited Books
Number of items: 33.

Articles

Simpson, J. R. (2020) Motion, contact and profanity in Rutebeuf’s tales of ‘Charlot Le Juif’: (not) going there, (not) touching that. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 56(4), 445- 467. (doi: 10.1093/fmls/cqaa001)

Simpson, J. R. (2018) Hearing and regarding animal pain in Heinrich’s Reinhart Fuchs and Kaulbach’s Reineke Fuchs illustrations. Oxford German Studies, 47(1), pp. 17-34. (doi: 10.1080/00787191.2018.1409507)

Simpson, J. R. (2014) Ways we allegorize now: transforming texts and bodies from the Roman De Renart to Daniel Paul Schreber’s Memoirs and Chris Morris’s Four Lions. Exemplaria, 26(2), pp. 178-198. (doi: 10.1179/1041257314Z.00000000049)

Simpson, J. R. (2013) Turning verse conversions? Mise en page and metre in Rutebeuf’s 'Le Miracle de Théophile'. Pecia, 16, pp. 17-40. (doi: 10.1484/J.PECIA.5.105410)

Simpson, J. (2012) Aucassin, Gauvain, and (Re)Ordering Paris, BnF, fr. 2168. French Studies, 66(4), pp. 451-466. (doi: 10.1093/fs/kns149)

Simpson, J.R. (2011) 'Oem walschedi?' Touching on tongues, teeth and skin in Van den vos Reynaerde. Queeste, 18(1), pp. 32-57.

Simpson, J. (2011) Not that innocent? Singing to Daddy’s little treasure in 'Éric et Énide'. French Studies Bulletin, 32(118), pp. 1-4. (doi: 10.1093/frebul/ktr001)

Simpson, J. (2007) Lion-heart of darkness? The black book of the court in Le Chevalier au Lion. Nottingham French Studies, 46(3), pp. 49-61.

Simpson, J. (1995) Renart's dynasty: generation and structuring in 'Renart empereur'. Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society for the Study of Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau, 8, pp. 77-100. (doi: 10.1075/rein.8.06sim)

Simpson, J. (1992) Sinful narrative in the 'Roman de Renart'. Reinardus: Yearbook of the International Reynard Society for the Study of Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau, 5, pp. 183-194. (doi: 10.1075/rein.5.15sim)

Books

Simpson, J. (2007) Troubling arthurian histories: court culture, performance and scandal in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide. Series: Medieval and early modern French studies, 5. Peter Lang: Bern. ISBN 9783039113859

Simpson, J. (2000) Fantasy, Identity and Misrecognition in Medieval French Narrative. P. Lang. ISBN 3906766160

Simpson, J.R. (1996) Animal Body, Literary Corpus: The Old French 'Roman de Renart'. Series: Faux Titre, 110. Rodopi: Amsterdam, NL. ISBN 9051839766

Book Sections

Simpson, J. R. (2021) Between skin(s), between daiths: caesura, animality and comedy in thirteenth-century Christian-Jewish relations. In: Gilbert, J. and Griffin, M. (eds.) The Futures of Medieval French: Essays in Honour of Sarah Kay. Series: Gallica (46). D.S. Brewer: Suffolk, UK, pp. 287-300. ISBN 9781843845959 (doi: 10.1017/9781800101746.023)

Simpson, J. R. (2019) Melly and Merlin: locating little voices in Paris BnF fr. 24432. In: Tudor, A. P. and Burr, K. L. (eds.) Shaping Identity in Medieval French Literature: the Other Within. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL, pp. 106-120. ISBN 9780813056432 (doi: 10.5744/florida/9780813056432.003.0009)

Maxwell, K. and Simpson, J. (2014) Page, performance and play in medieval transmission and reinterpretation: presence and absence in the Oxford ‘Roland’ and Guillaume de Machaut’s 'Le Livre Du Voir Dit'. In: Derkert, J. (ed.) XVI Nordic Musicological Congress. Stockholm 2012. Proceedings. Stockholms Universitet, pp. 144-153. ISBN 9789197696166

Roach, A. and Simpson, J. (2013) Introduction. In: Roach, A. P. and Simpson, J. R. (eds.) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate: Farnham, pp. 1-27. ISBN 9781472411815

Simpson, J. (2013) Dogging Cornwall’s 'secret freaks': Béroul on the limits of European orthodoxy. In: Roach, A. and Simpson, J. (eds.) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate: Farnham, pp. 207-235. ISBN 9781472411815

Simpson, J. (2013) L'Oeuvre et l'ombre des géants: fantômes et ruines dans le 'Couronnement de Louis'. In: Hüe, D. (ed.) Lectures du 'Couronnement de Louis'. Series: Didact français. Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 179-192. ISBN 9782753528185

Simpson, J. (2012) “Uns uers si mals”: H.R. Giger et les animaux de cour dans la Chanson de Roland. In: Alvar, C. and Carta, C. (eds.) In Limine Romaniae: Chanson de Geste et Épopée Européenne. Peter Lang: Bern, Switzerland, pp. 39-60. ISBN 9783034310659

Simpson, J. (2012) Beast epic. In: Greene, R. (ed.) The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: Fourth Edition. Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ, pp. 128-129. ISBN 9780691133348

Simpson, J. (2012) Beast fables. In: Hourihane, C. (ed.) The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture. Oxford University Press: Oxford. ISBN 9780195395365

Simpson, J. (2011) Humour and the Obscene. In: Burgwinkle, W., Hammond, N. and Wilson, E. (eds.) The Cambridge History of French Literature. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, USA, pp. 111-120. ISBN 9780521897860

Peacock, N. (2010) Molière and his manglers: the cultural politics of le patrimoine thèâtral? In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, J. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German: Glasgow, pp. 71-96. ISBN 9780852619179

Simpson, J. (2010) Arthur’s Scots scars: The last legion. In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, A. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German publications: Glasgow, pp. 156-186. ISBN 9780852619179

Simpson, J. and MacDonald, E. (2010) Introduction: culture mangling: conflict and dissonance in modern language studies. In: MacDonald, E. and Simpson, J. (eds.) The Culture Mangle: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts (4). University of Glasgow French and German publications: Glasgow, pp. 1-21. ISBN 9780852619179

Simpson, J. (2008) Kings and Feudalism. In: Gaunt, S. and Kay, S. (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Medieval French Literature. Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK, pp. 197-209. ISBN 9780521861755 (doi: 10.1017/CCOL9780521861755)

Simpson, J. (2006) F**king peasants: presence, status and sexuality in Renart et Bertot. In: Tudor, A., Hindley, A. and Levy, B.J. (eds.) Grant Risee?: The Medieval Comic Presence: Essays in Memory of Brian J. Levy. Series: Medieval texts and cultures of Northern Europe (11). Brepols: Turnhout, Belgium, pp. 319-335. ISBN 9782503516981

Simpson, J. (2003) The fox and the lion's share: tyranny, textuality and jouissance in the Roman de Renart. In: Horn, J. and Russell-Watts, L. (eds.) Possessions: Essays in French Literature, Cinema, and Theory. Series: Modern French Identities (24). Peter Lang: Oxford, pp. 21-36. ISBN 9783039100057

Simpson, J. (1998) All's fair in love and war: conflicts and continuities in 'Anseis de Carthage'. In: Ailes, M., Bennett, P. E. and Pratt, K. (eds.) Reading Around the Epic: A Festschrift in Honour of Professor Wolfgang van Emden. Series: King's College London medieval studies (14). King's College London Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies: London, pp. 129-148. ISBN 9780952211969

Simpson, J. (1996) The gifts of the Roland: the old French Gui de Bourgogne. In: Pratt, K. (ed.) Roland and Charlemagne in Europe: Essays on the Reception and Transformation of a Legend. Series: King's College London medieval studies (12). King's College London Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies: London, pp. 31-65. ISBN 9780952211945

Edited Books

Roach, A.P. and Simpson, J. (Eds.) (2013) Heresy and the Making of European Culture: Medieval and Modern Perspectives. Ashgate. ISBN 9781472411815

Simpson, J. R. and MacDonald, E. (Eds.) (2010) Mangling Cultures: Conflict, Dissonance and Interpretation in Modern Language Studies. Series: Tous Azimuts. Glasgow French and German Publications: Glasgow. ISBN 9780852619179

This list was generated on Fri Apr 19 08:34:09 2024 BST.

Supervision

Areas of supervision:

I am interested in directing research on a wide range of aspects of medieval literary cultures and questions of theory. Previous doctoral topics include the Anglo-Norman Amis and Amilun, masculinity in grail fiction from the Middle Ages to the present, touch and gendering in medieval French epic as well as on concepts of place in literary works. In addition, I have advised on methodological and theoretical issues for various projects. I have also supervised on a wide range of topics in the context of the M.Litt. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Teaching

Teaching:

  • French Level 1: literature and culture;
  • French Culture 2 (lecturing and convening)
  • Honours options: ‘Court and Conflict in Medieval French Literature’, ‘Satire and Subversion in Medieval French Literature’; ‘Directions in French Cultural Studies’; ‘Vampires and Vampirism’
  • Postgraduate (PGT) teaching: ‘European Studies: Cultures, Societies and Languages in Europe and Beyond; ‘Medieval and Renaissance Studies’
  •  Comparative Literature (various)

Jim photo