Anaïs Guittonny

I teach topics ranging from literature and society in Ancien Régime France to the French Revolution, as well as more contemporary authors such as Christiane Rochefort and Albert Camus. I currently teach French grammar and French for tourism.

More recently, I have begun to incorporate theatre-based approaches into my language teaching, following training in Germany with Thealingua. I am particularly interested in creating an inclusive classroom environment in which all students, regardless of their level, feel confident speaking and developing their oral French skills.

My research interests are closely linked to my teaching practice. I explore the use of theatre in the classroom not only as a more engaging and playful approach to language learning, but also as a way of rethinking the nature of knowledge. Drawing on ideas first developed by Francisco Varela, I try to approach knowledge not as something fixed and external to students, but as something co-constructed through the learning process. In this context, I investigate how theatre can foster a more dynamic, participatory relationship to knowledge in language learning.

Alongside this work, I continue to develop the research I began during my PhD. My doctoral research examined the rewriting of the myth of the Amazons in eighteenth-century France, particularly in utopian literature. This project explored how transformations in systems of knowledge intersected with shifting gender norms, the boundaries between public and private spheres, and the ways in which male thinkers and writers reimagined women’s roles in society.

Forthcoming publications

· Under review : Journal article ‘À la croisée de la langue et du jeu : le théâtre comme dispositif d’apprentissage du français langue étrangère’, The Irish Journal of French Studies

· Under review: Book chapter ‘Reconfigurer le mythe des Amazones : un instrument au service de la polémique sur la différence des sexes au XVIIIe siècle’, in On the Use and Abuse of Antiquity... De la référence classique et de son instrumentalisation à l’Âge des Lumières, ed. by Glenn Roe and Dario Nicolosi, Liverpool University Press.

· Under review: Book chapter ‘Defeating the Amazons in 18^th-century French Literature: Restoring Women to their “Natural” Role’, in Why Women Work, ed. by Siofra Pierse and Lucille Raynal, Bloomsbury Publishing.

PUBLICATIONS

· Book Review : Michel Brix, Libertinage des Lumières et guerre des sexes (Paris : Kimé, 2018). Review in French, published on the website ‘Lectures Liens.socio’, (2018).

· Bibliography for the French revue Épistolaire n°43 and n°44, (2017 & 2018).

· Conference Report for the Bulletin of the SFEDS about ‘Negative Representations of Women in Power’, 2017.