Akane Kawakami
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Professor Akane Kawakami arrived at Birkbeck in 2006, having held lectureships previously at the Universities of Cambridge and Warwick. She teaches and researches in the field of twentieth–century and contemporary French and Francophone literature. Her interests include travel narratives and exoticism, photography and the photographic, contemporary fiction, and interactions between literary and visual culture.
Qualifications
- BA Hons Philosophy and Modern Languages (French), University of Oxford, 1991
- MPhil English and French, University of Oxford, 1993
- DPhil French Literature, University of Oxford, 1996
- Senior Fellow, Advance HE (formerly HEA), 2017
Professional activities
Prof Kawakami is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of University Professors and Heads of French (AUPHF+).
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Contemporary French fiction
- Travel Narratives and Exoticism
- Photography and the photographic
- Transnational narratives
Research overview
Professor Kawakami has published extensively in the field of modern and contemporary culture, with numerous articles in refereed journals on a wide range of 20th-century writers (see list of publications) and three monographs: A Self-Conscious Art: Patrick Modiano's Postmodern Fictions (Liverpool University Press, 2000), Travellers' Visions: French Literary Encounters with Japan, 1881-2004 (Liverpool University Press, 2005), and Photobiography: Photographic Self-Writing in Proust, Guibert, Ernaux and Macé, which discusses the interactions between autobiography and photography (Oxford: Legenda, 2013). A revised edition of her Modiano book was published in 2015, an unusual honour for a monograph in the humanities. This edition contains a new introduction considering the novelist's work in the light of his recent Nobel Prize win and two new chapters discussing his most recent novels: Patrick Modiano (LUP, Dec. 2015: http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/60675).
Professor Kawakami is currently working on a monograph on the contemporary French novelist Michael Ferrier.
Research Centres and Institutes
- member of steering group, Centre for Research in Aesthetics of Kinship and Community
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who wish to undertake research in any of my specialist areas: contemporary French fiction, travel narratives and exoticism, transnational narratives, and the relationship between literature and photography.
Current doctoral researchers
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MICHAEL THOMPSON
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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DALILA VILLELLA
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TISH DASTAGIR
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Kawakami, Akane (2023) Interworlds and inter-identities in Mémoires d’outre-mer and Scrabble. Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 27 (5), pp. 662-670. ISSN 1740-9292.
- Kawakami, Akane (2022) Scatter and resist: Ferrier writing Fukushima. Journal of Romance Studies 22 (1), pp. 49-71. ISSN 1473-3536.
- Kawakami, Akane (2020) Calligraphy or photography? Representations of the city in Michaël Ferrier’s Tokyo, petits portraits de l’aube. Australian Journal of French Studies 57 (2), pp. 190-203. ISSN 0004-9468.
- Kawakami, Akane (2019) Time travelling in Ernaux's Memoire de Fille. French Studies 73 (2), ISSN 0016-1128.
- Kawakami, Akane (2016) Walking underground: two francophone flaneurs in 21st-century Tokyo. L'Esprit Createur 56 (3), pp. 120-133. ISSN 0014-0767.
- Kawakami, Akane Yacavone, K., ed. (2014) Annie Ernaux, 1989: diaries, photographic writing and self-vivisection. Nottingham French Studies. Nottingham French Studies 53 (2), pp. 232-246. ISSN 0029-4586. ISBN 9780748693665.
- Kawakami, Akane (2011) Illegible Writing: Michaux, Masson and Dotremont. Modern Language Review 106 (2), pp. 388-406. ISSN 0026-7937.
- Kawakami, Akane (2011) Interview with Gérard Macé. Romance Studies 29 (2), pp. 81-92. ISSN 0263-9904.
- Kawakami, Akane (2010) Annie Ernaux's 'Proof of Life': l'usage de la photo. French Studies 64 (4), pp. 451-462. ISSN 0016-1128.
- Kawakami, Akane (2008) Kyoukai no yokubou: Michel Butor, nihon no mawarini. Waseda Bungaku 2, pp. 328-345. ISSN 0388-1970.
- Kawakami, Akane (2007) Un coup de foudre photographique: autobiography and photography in Hervé Guibert. Romance Studies 25 (3), pp. 211-225. ISSN 0263-9904.
- Kawakami, Akane (2004) Nathalie Sarraute's accent: the poetry of tropismes. French Studies 58 (4), pp. 499-512. ISSN 0016-1128.
- Kawakami, Akane (2002) Stereotype formation and sleeping women: the misreading of Madame Chrysanthème. Forum for Modern Language Studies 38 (3), pp. 278-290. ISSN 0015-8518.
- Kawakami, Akane (2000) Barbarian travels: textual positions in Michaux's 'Un Barbare en Asie'. Modern Language Review 95 (4), pp. 978-991. ISSN 0026-7937.
- Kawakami, Akane (1999) Claudel's fragments of Japan: 'co-nnaissance de l'autre’'in cent phrases pour éventails. French Studies 53 (2), pp. 176-188. ISSN 0016-1128.
- Kawakami, Akane (1999) Claudel's mémoires improvisés, or the unimportance of autobiography. Romance Studies 17, pp. 151-161. ISSN 0263-9904.
Book
- Kawakami, Akane (2023) Michaël Ferrier, transnational novelist: French without borders. Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781802074857.
- Kawakami, Akane (2015) Patrick Modiano. Modern French Writers. 6, Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781781382745.
- Kawakami, Akane (2013) Photobiography: photographic self-writing in Proust, Guibert, Ernaux, Macé. Oxford, UK: Legenda. ISBN 9781907975868.
- Kawakami, Akane (2006) Travellers' visions: French encounters with Japan, 1887-2004. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780853237301.
- Kawakami, Akane (2000) A self-conscious art: Patrick Modiano's postmodern fictions. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9780853235262.
Book Section
- Kawakami, Akane (2021) Le kanji et la photographie: représenter la ville dans « la chambre du fond ». In: Essais sur Michael Ferrier. Paris, France: Honore Champion. ISBN 9782745356130.
- Kawakami, Akane (2021) Trends in the novel in French after 2000. In: Watt, A. (ed.) The Cambridge History of the Novel in French. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108683920. (In Press)
- Kawakami, Akane (2016) Gerard Mace et Horie Toshiyuki, flaneurs cosmopolites: ecrire/voyager entre Paris et Tokyo. In: Arribert-Narce, F. and Kuwada, K. and O'Meara, L. (eds.) Détours par le Japon. Réceptions de la culture japonaise en France depuis 1945. Poétiques et esthétiques XXe-XXIe siècle. Paris, France: Honore Champion. pp. 157-178. ISBN 9782745330390.
- Kawakami, Akane (2015) Being eternal: the endless recurrence of time and writing. In: Patrick Modiano. Modern French Writers. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781781384336.
- Kawakami, Akane (2013) Proust and handwriting. In: Aubert, N. (ed.) Proust and the Visual. Studies in Visual Culture. Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press. pp. 95-114. ISBN 9780708325483.
- Kawakami, Akane (2011) Michel Butor autour du Japon. In: Ammour-Mayeur, O. and Ogawa, M. (eds.) Michel Butor : à la frontière, ou l’art des passages. Ecritures. Dijon, France: Éditions universitaires de Dijon. pp. 133-147. ISBN 9782915611847.
- Kawakami, Akane (2011) Désir liminal : Michel Butor autour du Japon. In: Ammour-Mayeur, O. and Ogawa, M. (eds.) Michel Butor: à la frontière, ou l’art des passages. University of Dijon Editions: Dijon, France. ISBN 9782915611847.
- Kawakami, Akane (2011) When the unfamiliar becomes familiar...? Proust, planes and modernity. In: Segal, Naomi and Rye, G. (eds.) 'When familiar meanings dissolve...' Essays in French Studies in Memory of Malcolm Bowie. Romanticism and after in France / Le Romantisme et après en France. Oxford, UK: Peter Lang. pp. 163-178. ISBN 9783034301084.
- Kawakami, Akane (2007) Flowers of evil, flowers of ruin: walking in Paris with Baudelaire and Modiano. In: Flower, J.E. (ed.) Patrick Modiano. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi. pp. 257-269. ISBN 9789042023161.
- Kawakami, Akane (2004) In Claudel's footsteps. In: Topping, M. (ed.) Eastern Voyages, Western Visions: French Writing and Painting of the Orient. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. pp. 289-310. ISBN 9783039101832.
- Kawakami, Akane (2000) Patrick Modiano's unreliable detectives. In: Mullen, A. and O’Beirne, E. (eds.) Crime Scenes: Detective Narratives in European Culture since 1945. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi. pp. 195-204. ISBN 9789042012332.
Conference Item
- Kawakami, Akane (2019) Modiano’s Encre sympathique. Modern Languages Department Seminar Series, 2019, Lund University, Sweden
- Kawakami, Akane (2019) Un écrivain mouvementé ; Ferrier’s dynamic style and identity. Michaël Ferrier conference: Mémoires d’outre-mer/Over Seas of Memory, 2019, London, UK
- Kawakami, Akane (2019) Lost Voices: Modiano’s female protagonists. Modern Literary Association (MLA) Annual Conference, 2019, Lisbon, Portugal
- Kawakami, Akane (2017) Le kanji et la photographie : représenter la ville dans « La chambre du fond »’. Colloque international "Michaël Ferrier : un écrivain du corail", 2017, Edinburgh, UK
- Kawakami, Akane (2015) La mère et l’amante : l’évolution de la femme dans les œuvres de Modiano depuis l’an 2000. French Studies Seminar Series, University of Tokyo, 2015, Tokyo, Japan
- Kawakami, Akane (2015) Toujours Paris: L’éternel retour du temps et de l’écriture dans les récentes œuvres de Patrick Modiano. French Studies Seminar Series, University of Tokyo, 2015, Tokyo, Japan
- Kawakami, Akane (2015) ‘Modiano’s Lacombe Lucien and his novels’, discussion with Horié Toshiyuki (Akutagawa Prize-winning novelist) at the Maison franco-japonaise, Tokyo. Maison Franco-Japonaise Conference, 2015, Tokyo, Japan
- Kawakami, Akane (2013) Flâneurs cosmopolites: écrire/voyager entre Paris et Tokyo. Paris-Tokyo-Paris: Responses to Japan in French Art, Culture and Theory since 1945, 2013, Maison Franco-Japonaise, Tokyo, Japan
- Kawakami, Akane (2013) Keynote speech. Intimate Archives: Photography and Life-Writing, 2013, Wolfson College, University of Oxford
- Kawakami, Akane (2004) Flowers of evil, flowers of ruin: walking in Paris with Baudelaire and Modiano. Colloque Patrick Modiano, 2004, University of Kent
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- Patrick Modiano
- contemporary French fiction
- Franco-Japanese cultural relations