Marilyn Mallia was awarded the George Sand Association Memorial Prize for best PhD thesis on this French female author.

In her research, conducted at the University of Southampton, Mallia tackled the novels of 19th century writer George Sand from a novel perspective, analysing the ways in which the author reappropriates the English gothic novel in her early works to represent the condition of women in her times.

This international prize, awarded every two years, was presented to Mallia at the 20th international conference on Sand, held at the University of Verona.

On her research Mallia said: “George Sand is unfortunately best known for her tumultuous life and her famous lovers. In collective memory, she is pictured either as the masculine woman dressed in trousers and smoking cigars or as the mistress of Chopin and Musset. My thesis shows a very different side of her, namely that of a highly perceptive reader and author who was able to tap into the latent potential of a cross-channel genre in order to express her ideological concerns in her novels.”

Mallia conducted her research under the supervision of Mary Orr, with Emma Clery as her adviser. Through a web project, she also explored how digital humanities are transforming the way we visualise the links between texts. Her research interests include 19th-century Anglo-French literary exchanges and sexual politics, as well as film adaptations.

Her Master’s dissertation at the University of Malta dealt with the cinematic representation of female madness in two French biopics, namely Truffaut’s L’Histoire d’Adèle H and Nuytten’s Camille Claudel.

Mallia will be teaching French language and culture at the Petite Auberge de France at the University of Malta and also offers a BA French ‘Literature and cinema’ module.