Dr Maxime Goergen
BA, DPhil
School of Languages and Cultures
Lecturer
+44 114 222 2157
Full contact details
School of Languages and Cultures
3.40
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I graduated in French, English and sociology at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). I then became a teaching and research assistant in 19th and 20th-century French literature, working under the supervision of Prof. Daniel Sangsue, at Neuchâtel. I developed an interest for the broad field of literature and politics, with a specific focus on the influence of French utopian socialism on romantic poetry.
I went on to study for a PhD on the political and narrative function of youth in the works of Balzac, under the supervision of Dr. Tim Farrant at Oxford. Before joining the French section at Sheffield, I was Assistant Professor in 19th-century French literature and culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 2009 to 2012.
While firmly rooted within the close readings and analysis of literary texts, my research consistently tries to capture the relevance of 19th century literature and thought to 21st century debates, particularly those concerned with the representation of power and the political imagination.
Recent research interests have led me to reassess the importance of the figure of Victor Hugo for late 20th-century French socialism, or to work on the relevance of historian Jules Michelet to Agent Network Theory.
- Qualifications
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- Licence ès lettres (Neuchâtel)
- DPhil (Oxford)
- Research interests
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- The works of Honoré de Balzac
- The construction of youth as a social category in 19th-century fiction
- The works and ideology of humanitarian writers Victor Hugo and Jules Michelet
- The influence of 19th century culture in contemporary French fiction
- French intellectual history after May-68 (especially the “liberal turn” of the late seventies)
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Jonathan Beecher, Writers and Revolution: Intellectuals and the French Revolution of 1848.. H-France.
- Michelet hors frontières. Sous la direction d’Aurélien Aramini et Paule Petitier. French Studies, 76(1), 124-125.
- Génération Hugo : Victor Hugo et la France des années 1980. French Studies, 73(4), 525-543. View this article in WRRO
- Vernon Subutex et le roman « balzacien ». Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, 72(1), 165-182. View this article in WRRO
- Fonctions de la lutte des classes dans Les Misérables. Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 45(1-2), 33-48.
- Paris-moissons, Paris-moteur : métamorphoses de l’espace urbain dans Paris de Zola. Bulletin du Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem, 26. View this article in WRRO
- Fonctions de la lutte des classes dans Les Misérables. Nineteenth-Century French Studies, 45(1-2), 33-48.
- Les noms du Colonel Chabert: Langage et pouvoir après Napoleon. Romance Notes, 54(3), 353-368. View this article in WRRO
- The names in the Colonel Chabert: Language and power after Napoleon. Romance Notes, 54(3), 353-368.
- Pour une délecture de la Comédie humaine. La Lecture littéraire, 11, 59-69. View this article in WRRO
- Romantic manifestos and socialist propaganda: Emile Barrault's artists and the discourse on Pierre Leroux's artists. Revue des Sciences Humaines(295), 99-113.
- Manifestes romantiques et propagande socialiste : Aux Artistes d’Emile Barrault et le Discours aux Artistes de Pierre Leroux. Revue des sciences humaines, 295, 99-113. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- Michelet's Nonmodernity In Arnould-Bloomfield E & Chi-ah Lyu C (Ed.), Nonmodern Practices: Latour and Literary Studies Bloomsbury View this article in WRRO
- A Marginal Centrist: Tzvetan Todorov and the French Intellectual Field In de Berg H & Zbinden K (Ed.), Tzvetan Todorov - Thinker and Humanist Rochester, NY: Camden House. View this article in WRRO
Book reviews
- Fictions de la Révolution: 1789–1912. Sous la direction de Jean-Marie Roulin et Corinne Saminadayar-Perrin. French Studies, 73(3), 474-475.
- . The Modern Language Review, 113(2), 406-406. View this article in WRRO
- Michelet hors frontières. Sous la direction d'Aurélien Aramini et Paule Petitier. (Cahier Textuel.) Paris: Hermann, 2021. 168 pp.. French Studies.
Conference proceedings papers
- Juin 1848, « une révolte du peuple contre lui-même »: un portrait du peuple en crise. Portraits de l'Histoire au XIXe siècle
- Jonathan Beecher, Writers and Revolution: Intellectuals and the French Revolution of 1848.. H-France.
- Research group
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I'm happy to supervise MA and PhD dissertations dealing with all aspects of the French 19th century novel, 19th-century French social thought, French intellectual history (19th-20th century) and aspects of the contemporary novel.
I'm happy to supervise undergraduate dissertations on a broad range of topics in 19th, 20th and 21st-century literature. In recent years, I have supervised dissertations on Rimbaud and Tristan Corbière.
Current PhD students:
- Harsh Trivedi (2017-): ‘Les chefs-d’œuvre inconnus: une étude des œuvres fictives dans La Comédie humaine’ (first supervisor)
- Rebecca Herd (2016-): ‘“Staging” Criticism: Seventeenth-Century French Women Playwrights and the Subversion of Classicism’ (second supervisor)
I supervised or co-supervised a number of MA theses, including Crossways MUNDUS dissertations, such as:
- Mike Henderson, Crossing to a Different World: an Examination of the Concept of Thresholds in the Mouret Novels, 2018
- Mykhailo Babaryka, Géopoétique paysagère du récit de voyage de Nicolas Bouvier (L’Usage du monde) et de l’écriture romanesque de Julien Gracq (Le rivage des Syrtes) (2018)
- Ivan Bulj, Challenging the Sea Monster: Mythical Re-enactment of the Struggle between Nature and Technology in the 19th and 20th Century Novel (2016)
- Teaching activities
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Undergraduate
FRE291/292 Textes classiques, textes inclassables: XVIIe-XXIe siècles
This course covers different themes and authors every year. In recent years, they included:
- 2017-2018 Ecrire la France aujourd'hui: Annie Ernaux (Les Années), Edouard Louis (En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule), Michel Houellebecq (Soumission), Virginie Despentes (Vernon Subutex)
- 2016-2017 Représentations de l'amour au XIXe siècle: Stendhal (Lamiel), Benjamin Constant (Adolphe), Huysmans (En Rade), Zola (Nana)
- 2014-2015 La tragédie classique: Racine (Phèdre/Andromaque), Corneille (Le Cid/Cinna)
- 2013-2014 Flaubert: Un Cœur simple /Madame Bovary
FRE3001/3002 Littérature et démocratie
Under the heading "littérature et démocratie", books studied in this module question the way literature integrates, represents and challenges the new democratic contract that emerges from the Enlightenment. Books studies change each year; in recent years they have included:
- Stendhal, Le Rouge et le noir
- Balzac, Le Père Goriot, Illusions perdues
- Zola, La Curée
- Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique
- Michelet, Le Peuple
- Baudelaire, Petits poèmes en prose /Les Fleurs du Mal
- Hugo, Les Misérables
FRE117/118, Understanding Modern France
I am module leader for the first semester of this module, which covers French cultural history from the Ancien Régime to WW1. I usually teach sessions and workshops on 19th-century literary and political history.
FRE109/110 French Language and Communication Skills
I also taught on MDL201, Cold War Culture, and RUS 6710, Critical Theory (sessions on postmodernism and "French theory).
Postgraduate
MA in French Cultural Studies. Topics taught:
- La pensée anti-68 (2017-2018)
- Littérature et consommation(2016-2017).
- Constructions of the city(2015-2016)
- Professional activities and memberships
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- Member of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes
- Member of the Société des Etudes Romantiques et dix-neuviémistes
- Member of the Société des Amis de Balzac
I am currently the academic coordinator of the school's year abroad programme, as well as the local coordinator for French.
Until recently I represented the university in the Erasmus MUNDUS consortium.