Harry McCarthy, awarded runner-up prize for the 2015 R.Gapper Undergraduate Essay Competition in French Studies.

Humanities graduate announced runner-up for Undergraduate Essay Competition

Harry McCarthy has been awarded the runner-up prize for the 2015 R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Competition, run by The Society for French Studies. 

Harry, who graduated with a BA in English and French earlier this year, was selected for the prize following his submitted essay: ‘Discuss how Proust’s syntax and imagery interact with the thematic preoccupations of the novel [A la recherche du temps perdu].’

The R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Competition is organised by The Society for French Studies. The Society represents the interests of students and scholars of French Studies across the Higher Education sector in the UK and Ireland.

Harry’s submitted essay was written as an assignment for the Level 3 French studies module Proust's A La recherche du temps perdu, delivered by Professor Adam Watt.

Professor Watt said of Harry’s achievement: “The Society for French Studies R. Gapper Undergraduate Prize awards the very best work by UG students in the UK, so it is terrifically gratifying to have a prize-winner from Exeter. Working on Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu with the finalists at Exeter is a great privilege. Harry’s essay was outstanding and we’re thrilled he has been rewarded for his hard work.”

Professor Watt is a specialist on the work of Marcel Proust, author of Reading in Proust’s A la recherche: ‘le délire de la lecture’ (Oxford, 2009); The Cambridge Introduction to Marcel Proust (Cambridge, 2011); an illustrated critical biography, Marcel Proust (2013; Chinese edition 2014); and, as editor, Marcel Proust in Context (Cambridge, 2013); and, this year, Swann at 100/Swann à 100 ans, a special number of the journal Marcel Proust Aujourd'hui, which consists of papers delivered at the centenary conference held in Exeter in 2013.

Speaking about his assignment, Harry added: “The intricacy of Proust's prose and its effects on the reader is something that fascinated me from the beginning, so I was delighted to have the opportunity to write on this aspect of the novel under Professor Adam Watt's expert guidance.

I'm very grateful to the Society for recognising what became such an important piece of work to me personally in this way.”

For more information about the R. Gapper Undergraduate Essay Competition, please visit The Society for French Studies website.

Date: 23 November 2015

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