Pennsylvania State University

Faculty Member, French and Francophone Studies

College of Liberal Arts

About

My principal area of research is the epistemology of literary studies, more specifically the transnational turn and the formation of postcolonial criticism. I have recently completed a book manuscript that examines challenges that the notion of francophone difference poses to the tradition of philology and literary history, by looking at the intersections between discourse of the cultural difference and literary objects in a series of narratives ranging from the Jean de Léry’s ethnography, to Patrick Chamoiseau’s archaeological fantasies in the French Caribbean. My new research project addresses the changing status of  literary studies within the American Research University and in relation to politics of life and the rise of bioethics.

RECENT RESEARCH PAPERS

“Forme du roman et sens de la communauté dans La saga des Béothuks de Bernard Assiniwi”, Colloque Mémoire, diasporas et formes du roman francophone contemporain, University of Waterloo (April-May 2011)

“Of Belugas, Moose and Men: Sense of Community and Sense of Animality in Pierre Perrault’s Cinema”, Conference “Humain-Animal / Human-Animal’. 20th/21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, San Francisco (March 30-April 2, 2011).

“The Missionary’s Two Bodies: Father Labat in the Caribbean Zone of Biocontact”, Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society, Paris, France (June 17-19/06/2010).

'Les deux corps du missionnaire : J.B. Labat et ses hôtes'. IVe congrès de La Société Internationale d'Étude des Littératures de l'Ère Coloniale, « Les nouveaux mondes : un mythe fondateur des littératures de l'ère coloniale ». (10-12/05/2010)

“‘Cannibal at the Gates’ Thresholds of Visibility from Early Modern Travelogues to Exploitation Movies of the 80s” Algoma Interdisciplinary Colloquia Series, Algoma University (05/02/2010.)


BOOK MANUSCRIPT

Francophone Studies and the Philology of Difference. [Book manuscript in preparation]


ARTICLES AND CHAPTER IN BOOKS

“Le martyre de Sainte Sebastienne: Retour sur une vision de Victor Burgin”, Intermedialites, 17 (2011)

“Postcolonial Display/Early Modern Disguise”, in Display and Disguise (Bern: Peter Lang, 2011].

“Mudimbe cartographe. Atlas et anatomie des corps glorieux de la transculture”, in Du Bambara au Négropolitain, dir. Désiré Wa Kabwe-Segatti et Pierre Halen (Metz : Presses Universitaires de Metz, 2009), pp. 31-44.

“L’Invention du sauvage en perspective. Relecture de la scène au pertuis dans Histoire d’un voyage de Jean de Léry”, Arena Romanistica, University of Bergen, 2 (2008) : 8-29.

“Ossa Loquuntur! Sur une impression caribéenne”, L’Esprit Créateur 47.3 (2007) : 155-167.

VARIA

"Jean de Lery," The Literay Encyclopedia

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