Margaret Atack

Born in Leicester, England, Atack moved frequently with her family before settling in Liverpool in the late 1960s. She attended St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, a Catholic boarding school, before earning a first-class degree in French at University College London (UCL) in 1971.{{cite news |last1=Holmes |first1=Diana |title=Margaret Atack obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/09/margaret-atack-obituary |access-date=20 January 2025 |work=The Guardian |date=9 February 2024}} Her grandfather fought in France during World War I.{{Citation |last=Atack |first=Margaret K. |title=In the Forests of the Night: England, France and the Writing of War |date=2018 |work=Ego-histories of France and the Second World War: Writing Vichy |pages=107–125 |editor-last=Bragança |editor-first=Manuel |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_7 |access-date=2025-02-17 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-70860-7_7 |isbn=978-3-319-70860-7 |editor2-last=Louwagie |editor2-first=Fransiska|url-access=subscription }}

Atack completed her PhD and began teaching at UCL, later holding posts at Southampton and Cardiff universities. She joined the University of Leeds in 1979, where she served in various leadership roles, including professor, head of French, dean of arts, and pro-vice-chancellor for research. She also led humanities and social studies at Sunderland Polytechnic from 1989 to 1993, before returning to Leeds. She was awarded the University of Leeds award for inspirational teaching in 2015.{{Cite web |last=Holmes |first=Diana |last2=Silverman |first2=Max |title=Professor Margaret Atack |url=https://www.sfs.ac.uk/about-us/news/2023/margaret-atack |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=The Society for French Studies |language=en}}

She was an authority on French literature about the Resistance and the Occupation and was an early member of Women in French UK. Her 1989 book Literature and the French Resistance remains influential. She also co-edited three books and wrote a number of articles on feminism in post-war France. In 2019, she edited 'Making Waves: French Feminisms and Their Legacies'.{{Cite web |title=Prof. Margaret Atack |url=https://massolit.io/lecturers/527 |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=MASSOLIT}} Her 2020 monograph, Jean-François Vilar: Theatres of Crime, examined the French political crime writer {{ill|Jean-François Vilar|fr}}.{{cite journal |last1=Holmes |first1=Diana |last2=Silverman |first2=Max |title=Margaret Atack (1948–2023) |journal=French Studies |date=11 July 2024 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=561–562 |doi=10.1093/fs/knae052}}

Atack partially retired in 2016. She fully retired in 2022 due to ill health. She died of cancer on 13 December 2023, aged 75.{{Cite web |title=Emerita Professor Margaret Atack |url=https://secretariat.leeds.ac.uk/home/obituaries/margaret-atack/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=Secretariat}}

Margaret met her partner, the translator and historian David Macey (d. 2011), when she was a student. They adopted three children. Margaret was survived by her children, six grandchildren and her brother.

In 2024, the "Occupation and Resistance, Crime Fiction and Memory. A day symposium in honour of Margaret Atack" was held at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London in her memory, supported by the University of London’s Cassal Fund and the Society for French Studies.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-18 |title=Occupation and Resistance, Crime Fiction and Memory A day symposium in honour of Margaret Atack {{!}} Institute of Languages, Cultures & Societies |url=https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/events/occupation-and-resistance-crime-fiction-and-memory-a-day-symposium-honour-margaret-atack |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=ilcs.sas.ac.uk |language=en}}

• Literature and the French Resistance: Cultural Politics and Narrative Forms 1940–1950. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989.Review of Literature and the French Resistance
• {{Cite journal |last=Houlding |first=Elizabeth A. |date=1993 |title=Review of Literature and the French Resistance: Cultural Politics and Narrative Forms, 1940-1950 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26286608 |journal=L'Esprit Créateur |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=122 |jstor=26286608 |issn=0014-0767}}
• {{cite book |title=Contemporary French fiction by women: feminist perspectives |date=1990 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-3084-0 |publication-place=Manchester |ref={{sfnref|Manchester University Press|1990}}}}Review of Contemporary French fiction by women
• {{Cite journal |last=Becker |first=Lucille |date=1992 |title=Review of Contemporary French Fiction by Women |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40147882 |journal=World Literature Today |volume=66 |issue=1 |pages=91–92 |doi=10.2307/40147882 |jstor=40147882 |issn=0196-3570|url-access=subscription }}
• May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Representation, Rethinking Society (1991)Reviews of May 68 in French Fiction and Film
• {{Cite journal |last=Higgins |first=Lynn A. |date=2001 |title=Review of May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Society, Rethinking Representation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40552183 |journal=French Forum |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=116–118 |jstor=40552183 |issn=0098-9355}}
• {{Cite journal |last=West |first=Joan M. |date=2002 |title=Review of May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Society, Rethinking Representation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3132882 |journal=The French Review |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=622–623 |jstor=3132882 |issn=0016-111X}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Orr |first=Mary |date=2001 |title=Review of May 68 in French Fiction and Film: Rethinking Society, Rethinking Representation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3735786 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=96 |issue=1 |pages=211 |doi=10.2307/3735786 |jstor=3735786 |issn=0026-7937|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last1=Collier |first1=Peter |title=French Feminisms 1975 and After |last2=Atack |first2=Margaret |last3=Fell |first3=Alison S. |last4=Holmes |first4=Diana |last5=Long |first5=Imogen |date=2017-11-30 |publisher=Peter Lang Limited, International Academic Publishers |isbn=978-3-0343-2209-6 |publication-place=Oxford ; New York}}Review of French Feminisms 1975 and After
• {{Cite journal |last=Angelo |first=Adrienne |date=2018 |title=Review of French Feminisms 1975 and After: New Readings, New Texts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26665047 |journal=French Forum |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=173–176 |jstor=26665047 |issn=0098-9355}}
• {{cite book |last1=Atack |first1=Margaret |title=Making Waves |last2=Fell |first2=Alison S. |last3=Holmes |first3=Diana |last4=Long |first4=Imogen |date=2019-12-11 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78962-455-7 |publication-place=Liverpool}}Review of Making Waves
• {{Cite journal |last=Versini |first=Dominique Carlini |date=2020 |title=Review of Making Waves: French Feminisms and their Legacies 1975–2015 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.115.4.0926 |journal=The Modern Language Review |volume=115 |issue=4 |pages=926–927 |doi=10.1353/mlr.2020.0117 |jstor=10.5699/modelangrevi.115.4.0926 |issn=0026-7937|url-access=subscription }}
• Jean-François Vilar: Theatres of Crime. Cambridge: Legenda, 2020.

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Category:Year of birth missing

Category:2023 deaths

Category:British women historians

Category:British historians of World War II

Category:Academics from Leicester

Category:Academics from Liverpool

Category:People educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury

Category:Alumni of University College London

Category:Academics of the University of Leeds

Category:Historians of French literature

Category:English women historians