My research interests include twentieth- and twenty-first century French literature, with a focus on the intersection between literature and music. I received my B.A., M.A. and Graduate Teachers Degree in Romance Languages from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and studied at Paris VII-Diderot and Paris IV-La Sorbonne, concentrating on French realism and Italian verismo. Before coming to U of C, I taught French and Italian language at Northwestern University.
Dissertation project:
Notes Taking Sides: Social and Aesthetic Meanings of Music in the Novel
There is a tension in the twentieth-century French novel between music as a model of (social or aesthetic) harmony and the idea of notes taking sides. For instance, novels take sides in debates about music, or use music to take sides in broader aesthetic debates, or show how musical notes take on social meanings and thus take sides in social/political debates. In my dissertation, I examine three main ways in which the novel explores and exploits music: through the figure of the listener, the character of the composer, and through music as a formal model.