Martin Hurcombe

I am principally interested in the relationship between representations of conflict and politics in early twentieth-century France. I am the author of 'Novelists in Conflict: Ideology and the Absurd in the French Combat Novel of the Great War and France' and 'The Spanish Civil War: Cultural Representations of the War next Door, 1936-1945'. With Martyn Cornick and Angela Kershaw, I co-wrote 'French Political Travel Writing in the Inter-War Years: Radical Departures', the first study of the impact of travel to authoritarian regimes upon a generation of French intellectuals. My work is informed by an interest in the relationship between political commitment, radical politics and utopianism. In addition to this, I also have an interest in French crime fiction. My current project investigates the history of French cycling via its textual representation, particularly in sports journalism, biography and auto-biography. My teaching interests are French literature, culture, and history of the early twentieth century. I also teach general history and literature courses in Year 1 and final-year language.I am a keen runner, cyclist, swimmer, and (of course) triathlete.