Wabiy Salawu, PhD student from the Department of French, will be presenting at the 13th annual conference of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes [19th-centuryists], or SDN, to be held at the University of Glasgow over 13-15 April.

The SDN provides a forum for the promotion and dissemination of research in 19th-century French and Francophone studies in the UK and Ireland. Wabiy’s paper is entitled ‘Ugliest Features of Society as Factors of Exposure in the Nineteenth Century French Novel: La Curée by Emile Zola’.

The 19th-century French novel presents a study of society through the individual, often presenting, analysing and criticising the ugliest features of society in a direct and honest manner. Wabiy’s paper will explore how moral degradation contributes to the collapse in society whose pillars are deeply corrupted, as represented in Zola’s La Curée (1871). His paper will closely examine the evident and contradictory nature of ideas expressed in the text, through an expression or a group of words, in order to present clearly the complexities of this social phenomenon.

To attend and present at the conference, Wabiy has received funding from the School of European Culture and Languages (SECL).

For more information on the conference, please see the SDN website.