Background
Diana Holmes was born on January 28, 1949 in Preston, Lancashire, England. She is the daughter of Maurice Frederick and Marie Walburge Holmes.
(Prosecuted for obscenity in her novel Monsieur Venus, Mar...)
Prosecuted for obscenity in her novel Monsieur Venus, Marguerite Eymery (pen name Rachilde), an apparently genteel young woman from a provincial bourgeois family, burst onto the French literary scene in 1884 amid scandal. This story of a sadistic transvestite and her pretty male lover was the first in a long series of novels, plays and stories dealing often in the most macabre and sensationalistic terms with sadism, gender inversion, and sexual desire. At the heart of the French literary world, Rachilde's life and writing defied patriarchal rules, particularly in relation to female sexuality, but she consistently and vehemently rejected feminism. Her extraordinary life and work, including a vast output as a literary reviewer, offer a prism through which to view the vibrant social and cultural history of France from the belle époque to the Second World War. This book is the first serious critical study of Rachilde's work. Exploring the interwoven themes of French naturalism, modernism, decadence and feminism, it will be essential reading for anyone interested in French culture, literature and sexuality at the turn of the twentieth century.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/185973555X/?tag=2022091-20
Diana Holmes was born on January 28, 1949 in Preston, Lancashire, England. She is the daughter of Maurice Frederick and Marie Walburge Holmes.
Diana Holmes studied at the University of Sussex and finished it with Bachelor of Arts degree and with honors in 1971, as well as with Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1977. Also she attended la Nouvelle Sorbonne, Universite de Paris III and finished it in 1972.
Diana Holmes was a senior lecturer in French Wolverhampton Polytechnic during period of time 1975—1992. She held the position of professor in French University Keele from 1992 to 1999. She held the same post at the University Leeds, since 1999.
Holmes was a co-editor of the series “French Film Directors,” Manchester University Press (Manchester, England) and a contributor to periodicals, including Cross-Currents. She worked as an editor in Modern and Contemporary France since 1996.
Holmes served on the executive committees of the major French Studies scholarly and professional associations. She was one of the organizers of the 'Women In French.
Diana supervised 5 PhDs to successful completion, and 3 MAs by Research. Diana was an external examiner for 26 theses since 1991, 20 from UK universities; 1 UBC, Canada (2002); 1 Monash University, Australia (2007); 1 Stavanger, Denmark (2010); 3 France (1 Limoges 2007, 2 Bordeaux 2012).
(After making a strong impact with his first film "Les 400...)
1998(Prosecuted for obscenity in her novel Monsieur Venus, Mar...)
Quotations:
“I developed an interest in women’s writing when I was completing a doctoral thesis on images of women in France in the inter-war period. While most of the thesis dealt with the socio-political context of the period and the work of male authors, the final chapter was on the work of Colette, and Colette’s writing (particularly the way she wrote about gender) was a revelation."
“After some years, preoccupied mainly with juggling the beginning of a university teaching career with having babies, I wrote a feminist critical study of Colette’s work. Teaching at Wolverhampton Polytechnic, I worked with women colleagues to set up both undergraduate and postgraduate interdisciplinary courses in women’s studies and to establish the Centre for Women’s Studies. Within my own discipline of French studies, I have taught a variety of courses in nineteenth and twentieth century French culture. I developed an interest in film and wrote a series of articles and chapters on French women writers. After moving to Keele University, I published a study of French women writers from 1848 to 1996, with an emphasis on the socio-political contexts of women’s lives. The authors studied range from the well-known to those who have been lost from, or have not yet entered, literary history."
“My next book is a study of the films of Francois Truffaut, based on work that rose out of teaching film to undergraduates. After that, I will return to one of the little-known authors from French Women Writers: Rachilde, the only woman writer of the fin-de-siecle Decadent movement.”
Diana married Nicolas William Cheesewright on June 12, 1982. The couple had 2 children: Thomas Frederick Cheesewright and Martha Helen Cheesewright.
