Indiana University Bloomington
Department of French and Italian

Oana Panaïté

Oana Panaïté

Associate Professor of French
Director of Graduate Studies, French Literature

Office: Ballantine Hall 627
Office phone: 855-1134
opanaiteatindiana.edu

Research Areas

Literary history, theory and esthetics; French and francophone fiction; contemporary studies; writing and politics; comparative and transnational approaches to literature

Education

  • PhD, Romance Literatures and Languages, The Johns Hopkins University, 2005
  • Docteur ès Lettres, U.F.R. de Littérature française et comparée, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), 2004

Background

In my first book, Des littératures-mondes en français. Écritures singulières, poétiques transfrontalières dans la prose contemporaine (Rodopi Press, Amsterdam/New York, 2012), I analyze contemporary fiction produced by twenty writers from metropolitan France, the French Overseas Departments (e.g. Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Mauritius) and countries formerly under French colonial rule (e.g. Haiti, Algeria, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) from both a historical and theoretical perspective. My current book project, La fortune coloniale de la littérature française de Gustave Flaubert à Claude Simon, examines the development and institutionalization of literature in France and its colonies from the late 19th century until the present day. Seeking to bridge the gap between metropolitan and non-metropolitan literatures written in French, my research contributes to a more accurate and complete understanding not only of contemporary French-language writing, but also of the fundamental concepts and methods used in the academic evaluation and classification of French literature in general. This ultimately leads to a reappraisal of the ways in which we define and teach what we consider to be "French literature," as well as of the ways in which we establish connections between literature, on the one hand, and national and international history, society and culture, on the other.

Selected Publications

Books

Articles

  • "'La race des fils'. Atavisme fictif et autorité littéraire". L'autorité en littérature. Exercice, partage, contestation. Edited by Emmanuel Bouju. Presses Universitaires de Rennes. 2010. P. 211-221
  • "Poétiques de récupération, poétiques de créolisation". *Littérature nº 151 (3/2008). P. 52-74
  • "La discipline du refus. Sur le formalisme des écrivains". *L'Esprit créateur. Vol. 48. No. 2. 2008. P. 60-73
  • "Gustave Lanson et Marcel Schwob. Anachronies contemporaines". *Dix-Neuf. Journal of the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes. No 10. April 2008. P. 35-46
  • "Poétiques du personnage contemporain". *La Fabrique du personnage. Textes réunis par Françoise Lavocat, Claude Murcia et Régis Salado. Paris: Éditions Honoré Champion. 2007. P. 499-510
  • "Les fins de l'écriture. Réflexion et pratique du style dans les œuvres de Pierre Michon et Jean Echenoz". *French Forum. Spring 2006. Vol. 31. No. 2. P. 95-110
  • "Fiction au conditionnel. L'essai romanesque de Jean Echenoz". *Études littéraires. Vol. 37. No.2. 2006. P. 171-182

Courses

  • Êtres de papier. Le personnage littéraire au XXe siècle
  • The Trouble with Literature. Issues in Literary Theory
  • The Politics of Writing from Franz Fanon to Édouard Glissant
  • Les Femmes dans la littérature française
  • Voyages et aventures
  • La littérature et les arts dans l'œuvre de Patrick Chamoiseau

Honors, Fellowships, and Awards

  • "Memory and Civic Contention" Fellowship. Center for the Study of History and Memory. Indiana University. 2012-2013
  • College Arts and Humanities Institute Travel Research Grant. Indiana University. 2012
  • Prix de la Francophonie des Amériques (Best Presentation Award). Conseil International des Études Francophones et Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques. New Orleans. June 2009
  • College Arts and Humanities Institute Faculty Fellowship. Indiana University
  • Arts & Humanities New Perspectives Grant. Indiana University
  • Research Fellowship at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Paris). Johns Hopkins University
  • Pensionnaire roumaine de l'École Normale Supérieure (rue d'Ulm)