Background

Celia Britton was born on March 20, 1946, in Middlesex, England, United Kingdom. She is the daughter of James Nimmo and Jessie Muriel Britton. Her father was a professor, while her mother was a schoolteacher.

Education

In 1969 Celia Britonn received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New Hall, Cambridge (now Murray Edwards College, Cambridge). In 1970 she had a postgraduate diploma in linguistics there and holds a Master of Arts degree. In 1973 Britton gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Essex.

Career

From 1972 to 1974 Celia Britton was a lecturer in French at King's College, London. From 1974 to 1991 she worked as a lecturer in French at the University of Reading. From 1991 to 2002 Britton served as a professor of French at the University of Aberdeen. From 2003 to 2011 she was a professor of French at University College London.

For about the first twenty years of her career, she specialized in the avant-garde French novel of Nathalie Sarraute, Claude Simon, Michel Butor, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Marguerite Duras; she also published a number of articles on French cinema and literary theory and poststructuralism. Subsequently, she has worked mainly on French Caribbean literature, in particular the novels and essays of Édouard Glissant, but also Maryse Condé and other writers from Martinique and Guadeloupe. She is also interested more generally in postcolonial theory.

She is co-editor of American Creoles (2012) and the author of The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction (2008); Race and the Unconscious: Freudianism in French Caribbean Thought (2002); Edouard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory: Strategies of Language and Resistance (1999). Member of the editorial board, French Studies. She is a contributor to books, including Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Volume 8 (1995).

Achievements

• Celia Britton is best known as the author of Claude Simon: Writing the Visible and The Nouveau Roman: Fiction, Theory, and Politics. Her works received high praise from critics.

Works

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  • Perspectives on Culture and Politics in the French Antilles

    (In these essays, three of which have not previously been ...)

    2018
  • The Nouveau Roman: Fiction, Theory and Politics

    (The Nouveau Roman writers have been actively involved in ...)

    1992
  • Language and Literary Form in French Caribbean Writing

    (This book analyses French Caribbean writing from the poin...)

    2014
  • American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South

    (The Francophone Caribbean and the American South are site...)

    2012
  • The Sense of Community in French Caribbean Fiction

    (This book analyses the theme of community in seven French...)

    2008
  • Race and the Unconscious: Freudianism in French Caribbean Thought

    ("Freud is often accused of eurocentrism - of making unjus...)

    2002
  • Edouard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory: Strategies of Language and Resistance

    (Edouard Glissant has written extensively in French about ...)

    1999
  • Claude Simon: Writing the Visible

    (This is a major study of the Nobel prize-winning French n...)

    1987

Politics

Celia Britton describes herself as a socialist.

Membership

Celia Britton is a fellow of the British Academy. She is also a member of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French.

Interests

• travel, cinema, cooking

Connections

Celia Britton is a companion of Lyle Conquest, a schoolteacher.

Father:

James Nimmo Britton

Mother:

Jessie Muriel Britton

life partner:

Lyle Conquest

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011