The Afterlife of the Aristocracy: Nobility in French LIterature from Balzac to Proust
1073 Kansas St. San Francisco, CA 94107 USA
Joshua Landy
_The Afterlife of the Aristocracy_ examines the discourse of nobility in nineteenth-century French fiction, including not only mondain fiction, but also popular theater, satire, and caricature. Analyzing an array of popular and canonical texts, including works by Scribe, Balzac, Delphine de Girardin, Jules Sandeau and Hugo, as well as popular theater, satires, caricature and aristocratic memoirs, it argues that literature was an ideal medium for sorting through the elements of this fantasy, and that nobility outlived the aristocracy in France because it was a utopian discourse of perfectibility, rather than a reactionary project.
Stanford University FRENLIT 148: Outsiders, Conspirators, and the Masses: Nineteenth-Century French Fiction. Looks at the emergence of new social types in nineteenth-century fiction: social climbers, dandies, amateur philosophers, impoverished students, master criminals, aspiring actresses, and political radicals. How do groups differentiate themselves in and by way of literature? Who belongs and who doesn’t? Which groups are heroized and which are villainized? Authors include Balzac, Stendhal, Sue, Nerval, Vigny, Flaubert, Zola. Taught in French. Spring 2010. Stanford University Philosophy and Literature. TA for Professors Lanier Anderson and Joshua Landy. Responsibilities included teaching a section, co-creating assignments, and reviewing undergraduate papers. Winter 2010. Stanford University French 1-3, 22, 5C: French language first and second year courses, including accelerated, taught in French. Responsibilities included helping intermediate novice speakers advance to the intermediate-mid level in French; use of the textbook Mais oui; use of multimedia, including films, online videos, computerized oral and written exams. Concentration on oral proficiency. 2007-2009. École Normale Supérieure-LSH, Lyon, 2005-2006. Lectrice d’anglais. Courses included academic writing in English and advanced oral English at the graduate level. Université de Paris VII, Institut Charles V, Paris, 2002-2003. Lectrice d’anglais. Instructor for courses including advanced oral English at graduate level; French to English translation (first year, thème 1 & 2); teacher preparation for English "Agrégation Interne." University at Buffalo, NY, 2001-2005. Instructor of English. Taught first-year composition (101 and 210, four semesters). Designed and taught: COL 160: Culture of Rebellion, on the pan-American Bildungsroman (Roy, Kerouac, Puig, etc.).
“Is Socialism the Opiate of the Masses?: Politics as Religion,” Modern Language Association, Philadelphia, December, 2009. “The Cult of the Nobility: Nineteenth-Century Heraldry and Arms,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, October, 2009. “Balzac and the Stock Market,” Nineteenth-Century French Studies Conference, Utah, October, 2009. “Noble Signs, Bourgeois Readers,” French Culture Workshop, Stanford University, May, 2009. “Adolphe: The Necessary Destruction of Tradition, Spontaneity and Unreason,” University of Chicago, Romance Languages Graduate Conference, May, 2009. “Anti-Romantic War Heroes: T.E. Lawrence and René Char,” Avatars: Personae, Heteronyms, Pseudonyms, Comparative Literature Graduate Conference, Stanford University, April, 2009. “Stendhal: Audience Construction and Romantic Irony,” Aesthetics Workshop, Stanford University, 2008. “Hegel and Death Culture,” History of Ideas Conference, SUNY at Buffalo, April, 2002. “The Conception of La fille maudite: Luce Irigaray and France Théoret,” Representing Women: Francophone Literature Conference, French Department: SUNY Buffalo, March, 2002.
M.A. in Comparative Literature (SUNY Buffalo); M.A. in French Literature from Paris 8