Christopher Goring

Chris is a PhD student in French at the University of Cambridge whose project - supervised by Professor Nicholas White - focuses on the allegorical functioning of Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart novels. His broader research interests include the development of the novel in French, English, and Japanese; naturalism and realism; as well as theories of reader response and narrative. Chris has a background in comparative literary studies, having completed an MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation at the University of Oxford, as well as an MPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Japanese Studies) at the University of Cambridge. Between 2022 and 2024, he was a Daiwa Scholar, studying Japanese language at Waseda University in Tokyo.

Conference Papers

‘Comment Zola plante son décor : l’architecture comme spectacle dans Au Bonheur des Dames et L’Argent’, paper delivered at the conference Naturalisme et la civilisation du spectacle, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier (20th-22nd October 2026). 

'The Allegorical Architectures of Pleasure and Joy in Émile Zola’s Pot-Bouille and Au Bonheur des Dames', paper delivered at the annual conference of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes (SDN), University of Cardiff (8th-10th April 2026). Winner of the SDN Postgraduate Prize.