In the area of research the Department of French Studies maintains a strategy of encouraging new work in traditional areas of literary, textual and historical perspective across a wide chronological range, and promoting the development of original interdisciplinary work in established and emerging areas of French and francophone culture, society and thought.

Focus Research Area of the Department:

• Medieval literature and culture.
• Renaissance, early modern, and 17^th/ 18^th century studies.
• Literature, culture and society in the long 19^th century (1789–1914).
• Contemporary literary and artistic movement in France, with a focus on 20^th and 21^st centuries.
• Cultural memory (especially postcolonial and transnational).
• Contemporary representations of biological differences, gender and sexuality.
• Modern French philosophy.
• French Film Studies.
• Cultural policy studies, political thought and social history.
• Comparative Didactics with emphasis on study of specific requirement of Hindiphone adult French learners.
• Comparative Literature - study of French texts in the perspective of Sanskrit literary theories and also in comparison to modern Indian literature.
• Translation Studies - theorization and identification of problem areas in French - Hindi translation.
• Francophone Literature with emphasis on African, Indian Oceanic, Caribbean, Canadian, Swiss and Belgian & Diasporic cultural expression related to literature, theater, music, dance, the visual arts & cinema. This includes also women francophone authors writing in French and the world in which they lived.
• French Linguistics and Language - study of French linguistics and language is to enable the students to acquire solid knowledge of French linguistics and to develop their competence and performance both in spoken and written French.

The following research project has been undertaken by the faculty member of the department. This is submitted under Institution of Eminence Scheme, Banaras Hindu University by Dr. Gitanjali Singh

• Translation of the Folktales of Quebec (Canada) into Hindi : Challenges of Cul tural Creation.