Mathieu Duplay
Professor of American Literature
Research | Bio | Medias | Publications | Articles
Research
Research themes
- American literature
- Anglophone Canadian literature
- Drama and Opera Studies
- Aesthetics
- Musicology
Current Project
My research projects focus on the complex relationship between literature, music, and drama in the United States and in English Canada. I am currently completing a book-length study of the stage works of contemporary American composer John Adams, which include four operas, two staged oratorios, and a musical; my interdisciplinary approach combines literary studies, drama studies, and musicology. In addition, I study a number of artists/writers whose output straddles the boundary, and/or stages an ongoing dialogue, between music and literature (John Cage, Steve Reich, Steven Sondheim, Tony Kushner), as well as the writers with whom they collaborate on a regular basis (Alice Goodman). I also focus on the role played by music references in North American poetry and fiction (Malcolm Lowry, Willa Cather, Alice Munro, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams). These various projects are related to a more general inquiry concerning the boundaries of literature, a question which, to my mind, takes on a particular urgency int eh works of Transcendentalist writers, notably Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Research Supervision:
- American Literature, 19th-21st centuries
- American opera and musical theater
- Aesthetics, history of ideas
- LGBTQ+ studies
Bio
Education and Academic Positions:
- 1984, École Normale Supérieure, Paris.
- 1988, agrégation d’anglais.
- 1996, PhD, Université Strasbourg 2. Dissertation title: Gender Identity and Sexual Difference in the Novels of Malcolm Lowry. Supervisor : M. André Bleikasten. Mention Très Honorable et félicitations du jury à l’unanimité.
- 2001, Habilitation à diriger des recherches, Université Paris 4-Sorbonne. Title : Writing and its Dangers: Boundary Issues in Twentieth-Century North American Literature. Supervisor: Mme Françoise Sammarcelli.
- 1989-1990, Deputy Cultural Attaché, French Cultural Services, Houston (USA).
- 1991-1994, Doctoral Fellow (Allocataire Moniteur Normalien), Université Paris 3.
- 1994-1996, Assistant Lecturer (ATER), Université Strasbourg 2.
- 1996-2003, Lecturer, Université Lille 3.
- 2003-2011, Professor, Université Lille 3.
- 2011-present, Professor, Université Paris Diderot.
Administrative Responsibilities:
- Co-chair of the annual Doctoral Student Seminar organized by the French Association of American Studies (AFEA)
- Board member, ED 131 doctoral school, Université Paris Diderot
- Board member, LARCA research center
- Member of the National Council of Universities (CNU)
Media
Publications
Articles
- « ‘I Speak According to the Book’ : écriture et logos dans Nixon in China de John Adams et Alice Goodman », Transatlantica 1/2013, http://transatlantica.revues.org/6395
- « ‘He Was the Apple of my Father’s Eye’ : Poétique de l’élégie dans On the Transmigration of Souls de John Adams », L’Imaginaire du 11 septembre 2001. Motifs, figures et fictions, Bertrand Gervais, Alice van der Klei et Annie Dulong (dirs.), Montréal, Nota Bene, 2014, pp. 289-305.
- « Emerson/Marx, l’actualité du spectre », RFEA 140 (2014/3), pp. 78-93.
- « ‘The Other Country Where She Lives’ : Opera and its Doubles in Alice Munro’s ‘Dance of the Happy Shades’ », The Inside of a Shell. Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades, Vanessa Guignery (dir.), Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars, 2015, pp. 200-217.
- “Pathologies of Knowledge : David Markson, Under the Volcano, and the Experience of Thought”, Malcolm Lowry’s Poetics of Space, Richard J. Lane et Miguel Mota (dirs.), Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press, 2016, pp. 61-70.